‘A different kind of sushi experience’ at this newly opened Kansas City restaurant

David Hudnall
·3 min read

Picture sushi, and most likely you’re thinking of maki: rice, fish and vegetables wrapped in seaweed, laid out on a rectangular plate, sliced into bite-sized pieces, eaten with chopsticks.

Kata Nori, which softly opened last week in the Crossroads at 404 E. 18th St., ain’t that. Here, they specialize in temaki, also known as hand rolls. The sushi chef takes a long sheet of seaweed, crams it full of raw or cooked fish, vegetables and rice, rolls it up, and passes it over the counter to the customer. You pick it up with your hands and bite into it like a little burrito.

“The seaweed is crispy, the rice is warm, and the fish is cool,” said Nam Phan, co-owner of Kata Nori. “And that combination makes for a different kind of sushi experience.”

Anh Pham, head chef, shows a piece of A5 Japanese Wagyu before storing it away in a cooler at Kata Nori. The beef is imported directly from Japan.
Anh Pham, head chef, shows a piece of A5 Japanese Wagyu before storing it away in a cooler at Kata Nori. The beef is imported directly from Japan.

Phan and the other co-owner, Kyung Kim, are old friends from Kansas City. Kim has worked as a wealth adviser, Phan as a professional poker player and, before that, a local DJ at clubs like Aura. Another friend, Anh Pham, has worked as a sushi chef all over the country — Denver, Oregon, Dallas — including as lead chef at Uchi, the esteemed Texas sushi restaurant.

On a visit to Houston, where Kim moved nine years ago, Phan and Kim ate at a hand roll bar, loved it and talked about bringing a similar concept to Kansas City. They reached out to Pham, who was working for Uchi in Denver, to see if he was available to be their chef. He was interested.

Kata Nori co-owner Kyung Kim, left, head chef Anh Pham, and co-owner Nam Phan.
Kata Nori co-owner Kyung Kim, left, head chef Anh Pham, and co-owner Nam Phan.

Kata Nori took over a space previously inhabited by the Puerto Rican restaurant Ron Rico. But it has taken a few years to get off the ground.

“Permits, landlord stuff, all the usual things just took longer than we thought,” Kim said. “It worked out OK because of kids: I had a kid, (Pham) had a kid, Nam has two 2-year-olds.”

Locally themed murals by artist Cammie Rae M. Rider adorn the walls at Kata Nori.
Locally themed murals by artist Cammie Rae M. Rider adorn the walls at Kata Nori.

The space features a 24-seat, U-shaped sushi counter, plus a lounge with black leather seating near the front where guests can wait for their spots to open up. It is not an omakase restaurant. Guests order from a menu, rather than handing all decisions over to the chef.

But it is, Kim said, “an individualized experience.”

“It’s chef-led, and he makes the orders one by one, talking and explaining the food, interacting with customers,” Kim said. “It’s not a situation where if you’re in a party of five, everybody gets their food all at the same time.”

“(Hand rolls are) meant to be rolled quickly and eaten quickly,” said Pham. “It’s all about the seaweed — you want it to stay crunchy. So there’s a finite amount of time to eat it.”

Hand rolls are priced anywhere from $5 for the Avocado to $8 for the Kani (real crab) to $15 for the Wagyu, made with Japanese A5 beef.

The Hamachi crudo at Kata Nori: yellowtail cured and cold smoked with Japanese apple wood, topped with blood orange, fresh serrano and pickled shallots.
The Hamachi crudo at Kata Nori: yellowtail cured and cold smoked with Japanese apple wood, topped with blood orange, fresh serrano and pickled shallots.

In addition to hand rolls, the menu includes crudos (the $16 Maguro has tuna, seasonal watermelon, candied serrano, basil, cilantro, mint and prik nam pla sauce), sashimi and some small plates, like the Kinoko (trumpet mushrooms, crispy shallots, chives and yuzu vinaigrette; $9).

Hours for now are 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday. They’re closed Mondays, but said once they’re better staffed they’d like to introduce lunch service on certain days.

Avalon Cortez scrapes salmon with a spoon behind the counter at Kata Nori.
Avalon Cortez scrapes salmon with a spoon behind the counter at Kata Nori.

“The response so far has been phenomenal,” Nam said. Reservations are steady for the next few weeks, he said, but they leave about 10% open for walk-ins.

“It’s the nice thing about all of us being from Kansas City,” Kim said. “We have a lot of friends who have come out to support us and give us their honest impressions. We all dreamed about owning something as kids, and now we get to do it together. There’s that saying about not going into business with your friends. Well, I think: If you think that, maybe you need new friends.”