One place we always go to when we visit Japan is Kappa Sushi. Japan is full of fun sushi place that delivers sushi plates on conveyor belts, called Kaiten Sushi. I have seen a few places like that in NYC come and go, but never had a chance to try one anywhere in the US. When I heard that one of the biggest Kaiten Sushi chain in Japan, Kura Sushi has opened a location right across the George Washington Bridge in NJ, called Kura Revolving Sushi Bar. We just had to go and try! It is located in a mall with a nice size parking lot, so we didn’t have much issue finding a parking spot.
They have both table seating and counter seating, and we opted for table seating. They have been quite popular among the locals and alike since they opened at the beginning of September, just a few weeks ago. They seems to always have people waiting for a seat. They have a virtual line, so make sure you get the app for that! The tables have numbers attached with large font, easy to see and identify which seat you are assigned to by the staff.
Kura Sushi is popular for many good reasons. They are strict with the quality of their food, service, and hygiene. Each of the sushi plate on the conveyor belt is covered with a clear plastic dome, with just a little opening where you can grab the edge of the plate to retrieve it. This is not something they started with the pandemic, but this is how they have been doing their operation for a while. Signage is clear with nice photo and large font, followed by the dishes holding that particular sushi like its precious babies.
With its popularity, they have over 400 locations (gasp!) worldwide, including locations in 10 different states in the US. One of which happened to be close enough for us to go visit easily, yes! We got on the virtual wait list, and although it took much longer than the assumed wait time, we were so excited about this place that we waited patiently with a smile. Once our number was called, we were taken to our table, and we looked at all the sushi and other items coming around on the conveyor belt. They have more just sushi here; watermelon, desserts, noodle dishes, and other side dishes.
If you tell the server that it is your first time visiting, they will show you how to retrieve the plate off the conveyor belt. This is helpful, because it is just a bit trickier than you might think. You have to grab the edge of the plate, and push it away from the bottom base (brown plate). You will feel the little snap, that will release the plate from the base, and the clear dome top will open.
It sure is fun to get these plates holding tasty jewels under its shiny dome. But, there will be some unfortunate plates that happens to be not-so-popular among some customers, and just going around and around on the conveyor belt…meaning, not as fresh as it uses be when it first got out on the catwalk, all nice and shiny. So, make sure to check (with your eyes) the best you can on its freshness before you pick one up.
The best and easiest way to get the freshest sushi items is to order on their touch screen monitor. It is a very easy system, with photos, description, and price (if you are ordering something other than sushi). On the main screen, you can also see the “Arrival Time” which is the current average wait time for your order. The busier it is, the longer it is for your order to arrive at your table. You can also see the “Plate Count” which tells you how many sushi plates you have had so far.
Once you put in an order, the kitchen staffs will make them right there and then, and it comes through the top shelf, like a train, above the conveyor belt. It stops right at your table, so you can retrieve it easily, without mistakenly taking someone else’s order. The touch panel also shows that your order is arriving soon, so you can be prepared.
We ordered Hot Green Tea ($3.05) which came with free refill. They also offer alcoholic beverage, including Japanese beer and sake. That makes sense, since the word “bar” is included in their name, Kura Revolving Sushi Bar.
The first sushi we tried off the conveyor belt was Salmon Golden Crunchy Roll, made with sesame, cucumber, and spicy salmon, topped with spicy sauce, eel sauce, and panko. All the sushi plates are $2.95 each. So you don’t need to worry about which dish is more expensive. It is pricier if you compared to most Kaiten Sushi places in Japan, including Kura Sushi in Japan. But this is not Japan, and they have to set the price accordingly…which I understand. The sushi was pretty good, nice portion, well made, and tasty. It was not too spicy, but had a slight kick to it, and I enjoyed the crunchy texture from the panko.
And that was just the beginning, we started to put in some orders on the touch screen, while looking at what other options are available immediately on the carousel. My hubby and I love all sorts of sushi, but we love salmon most of all…so many of the dishes we tried were some kind of salmon sushi. This one was Seared Salmon Japanese Mayo. It was really nice, nicely seared salmon, although not very thick, but quite tasty. I love Japanese mayo, and it added that mild, eggy, creamy flavor and texture, which I really enjoyed.
Then we had more salmon dishes, Aburi Salmon with Miso Cream Cheese, and just plain Salmon as well. The Aburi Salmon is made with salmon that was basically seared the very similar way, topped with miso sauce and a little dab of cream cheese. It was really flavorful, tangy and sweet, went great with the salmon. The regular, simple salmon was good too, fresh and had nice natural oily-ness to it. Not fishy at all, good quality.
We tried another salmon dish, Umami Oil Salmon, topped with umami oil, green onions, and sesame. This one was really good too, packed with flavor. The glistening umami oil was delightful, had some sweetness to it, maybe some soy and/or mirin in the sauce… Whatever it is, nicely done!
Then, we tried some dishes that are not salmon. We got Yuzu Jalapeno Tuna, topped with yuzu jalapeno sauce. The tuna was fresh, and actually a pretty good slice. And as you can see, most of them have a good portion ratio of rice vs fish. It had a nice little kick to it, refreshing and tasty. We also tried Yellowtail, simple yet satisfying with its freshness. Sometimes, they don’t need anything extra, you don’t need to dress up all sushi. But that is not the case if the fish is not fresh. Here at Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, the quality and freshness was pretty good.
Another item we tried was Garlic Ponzu Red Snapper. It had red snapper topped with garlic ponzu, green onion, and sesame. Their sauce is certainly tasty. Not too overwhelming, so that it still keeps the flavor of the fish alive, but at the same time, it enhances the flavor overall.
Unlike most other Kaiten Sushi (in Japan) that I have been to, you don’t leave the empty dish on the table for the staffs to count them at the time of checkout. Here, it is a bit more high-tech, unique, and kind of fun. There is a “Plate Slot” on the table by the carousel, where you drop in the empty dishes. This is how they calculate how many sushi plates you had, which you can see on the touch screen.
The plate slot and touch screen offer more than just the plate count. It provides kind of interactive, extra fun entertainment. Once you get to a certain number of plates, characters from Sonic and Kura Sushi mascot, Muten-Maru appear on the screen, asking you to “help” Sonic win his battle by inserting more plates… This Kura Revolving Sushi Bar has partnered with Sonic, and therefore, they offer some Sonic-related toys and such, which you can also order from the touch screen.
So, in order to support Sonic and Muten-Maru in their battle, we ordered more sushi dishes. We got Seared Scallop Japanese Mayo. It had a good portion of scallop, but I think the mayo was a bit too overwhelming for simple scallop, the flavor of scallop was lost under the seared mayo.
Then we tried some shrimp dishes. The first one was Spicy Popcorn Shrimp Roll, made with masago, avocado, green onion, popcorn shrimp, spicy mayo sauce, and sesame. It was quite good, plump and not greasy, we liked it! The second one was Dashi Olive Sweet Shrimp, made with sweet shrimp, dashi olive oil, topped with lemon. This one was ok. It was plump and fresh, but I thought it would have more distinctive flavor. Still good though. Maybe having this dish right after the strongly flavored one.
One of the last dish we ordered was Negitoro. It had a nice amount of toro on there, fresh and good quality. I really enjoyed it. I say Kura Revolving Sushi Bar does a pretty good job with their sushi dishes!
We were somewhat full at this point, but the plate count said 13, and we were trying to get to 15, so we ordered a couple of dishes to get there. Why? Well, they have this fun gadget called “Bikkura-Pon!” Once you drop 15 plates into the Plate Slot, you get one prize from the toy dispenser, placed above the touch screen panel. We got our prize after sliding in our 15th plate! It was a Sonic washi tape. It is fun to get a little reward for eating sushi here! Speaking of reward, they do have reward point system, which you can download on your phone as well. Make sure to let your server know when you are checking out, so you get the points!
Before ending our lunch, we decided to get a couple of desserts. We got a donut dish, and taiyaki dish.
Japanese Style Soy Milk Donuts ($4.35) comes with vanilla ice cream, soy milk donuts, and brown sugar syrup. The funny thing was, I thought it had some kind of soy sauce element to it, which I thought was really strange… But, luckily in this case, I was wrong! There is no soy sauce anywhere on this dessert! LOL! The donut was fluffy, airy, and moist. Lightly fried so that they were not greasy. The syrup was pretty good too.
Taiyaki Ice Cream ($4.35) come with taiyaki, vanilla ice cream, and red bean paste. The taiyaki was freshly made, so it was still hot, which was great! But don’t wait too long, as it will get the ice cream to melt… It had a good amount of sweet red bean filling in there, so it had some weight to it. It also had a dab of sweet red bean paste on ice cream as well. I really liked this one!
Their bathrooms are located all the way back, around the corner. They have two uni-sex bathrooms, very roomy, well-lit, and clean.
We had a really nice lunch here, we were very full, satisfied, and we even got a little Sonic washi tape! The experience was fun, it made me miss Japan, but I am happy to know where I can get a kaiten sushi! The food was of a good quality, and the portion was nice too. The only thing was their Ikura sushi looked really sad… I always get Ikura sushi at kaiten sushi, but after seeing what they look like (they had such small portion of ikura on the sushi), I decided not to get it… Other than that, we did enjoy our lunch!
During our lunch, one of the managers, Tatiana came to check on us a few times with a warm, welcoming smile, on top of our friendly server checking on us as well. We were also greeted by one of the top managers, a Japanese gentleman, who came over just to say he appreciate our business and that he hopes we will have a great lunch. Needless to say, we felt very welcomed here at Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, and we were very well taken care of. Thank you for your hard work, especially during these difficult times!
Kura Revolving Sushi Bar (くら寿司) – 2151 Lemoine Ave, Fort Lee, New Jersey 07024
Very nice description, as usual. Sounds like a fun place!
Thank you for reading!
Maybe we can go together one day! 🙂