Omakase by Kai — Restaurant in Raleigh

Omakase by Kai is the new sushi kid on the block ... in the Triangle area ...

Tucked away on the corner under the Hyatt at Seaboard is Omakase by Kai ..

Took the chance went on opening week ... to be exact 2nd day of it being open and something I don't do generally with new restaurants since I know 1st few weeks are filled with things to tweak and work out ... but let's just say ... they nailed it!

No issues what's so ever and service was onpoint !

The space is nice and open with warm touches so exactly vibes ..

Think of maybe Oku but warmer...

So now onto the menu .. don't be intimidated... its not as scary as you think.. it's laid out pretty nicely and you won't be overwhelmed.

You have your apps , your drinks, your different sushi entrees, your special house rolls, and of course your different choices of Omakases...

Lets face it we are all drawn into the place due to its namesake, so if you are hungry .. very hungry than dive straight to the Omakase, think of this as your 4-6 course sushi oriented meal ... yup that's right folks .. come prepared with your stretchy pants and come hungry !

Cause by the time your 4th-5th course comes out... you want to throw in the towel... lol so if you can't handle it all .. share one Omakase with your favorite person or fellow foodie..

We had ordered the Classic and the sashimi Omakase and man oh man ... each dish that came out with either set was amazing and fresh .

Think of the Omakase as chefs choice of tasting for a sushi place and you will get an idea of what is to come ..

Everything was freaking amazing .....

Definitely gonna come back and try other dishes and split the Omakase with friends and foodies .. so I...

Was pretty disappointed by the Omakase Premium.

For $149 a person, I expected a lot. Unfortunately it did not live up to expectations.

Course 1: a sampling of foods, including monkfish liver, edamame, blue crab claws, and other items. The monkfish was tasty, but the other items left a bit to be desired.

Course 2: Sashimi of Lean tuna, fatty tuna, snapper, salmon.

Course 3: Nigiri but it was the same exact fish as the Sashimi and nothing different about it. There were 4 other types of nigiri fish as well, but was really disappointed that 5 of the prieces were exactly what we had in the prior course. The rice tasted a bit stale and the fish was a bit dry as if it had been sitting out for some time.

Course 4: Wagyu cooked in broth with vegetables. This dish was very ok. It was a nice presentation, but the amount of actual Wagyu included was lacking.

Course 5: Dessert. At this point, I was already disappointed in the meal, but was holding out hope for dessert. Unfortunately the dessert was 1 spoon of vanilla ice cream on a tiny wafer with an unripened sliced strawberry.

I would have been less disappointed if the price was lower. For $15 less, you get a much better Omakase experience at M Sushi. We had been looking very much forward to Kai Omakase when it was being built. Unfortunately it didn’t live up...

We had reservations at 8:30pm. When we first walked in, there were only a couple of tables occupied. We ordered the omakase classic. It took a while to receive each item from the omakase. The sashimi, nigiri, and the mini bara chirashi had the exact same fishes which made the meal feel repetitive. The service was underwhelming due to the fact that our server didn't explain the types of fishes for each course and how to eat certain courses (for example, the sauce and sides of the bara chirashi bowl was just given to us without any explanation as to how to incorporate it).

We also ordered two pieces of toro nigiri, blue crab salad roll, and spicy salmon roll. The two pieces of toro nigiri were visually different as one piece was clearly fattier than the other. The blue crab salad roll was quite odd; the pieces were very large with too much rice, the taste was slightly offputting, and visually looked uneven. The spicy salmon roll was disappointing due to the fact that it wasn't even spicy and that cucumbers were added which overpowered the taste.

Our whole experience took over two hours. Overall, I would not recommend the omakase classic which is funny because the name of the restaurant is...