Houston’s newest Japanese hand roll restaurant Kira has opened in Upper Kirby

The owners of the popular but somewhat hard-to-find omakase experience Neo have opened Houston’s newest handroll experience, complete with its own soundtrack.

Restaurant group Comma Hospitality opened Kira in the Shops at Arrive River Oaks in Upper Kirby on Tuesday, August 6. Inspired by Japanese listening bars that emerged circa the 1950s, the new restaurant welcomes Houstonians with hand rolls, crudo, maki and music. As you enter the cozy and atmospheric 15-seat counter bar, you’ll immediately notice a vinyl collection and a record player that blasts what the owners call an “audio omakase” of American hip hop, rock, Japanese city pop and funk songs through the bar’s McIntosh stereo. While the staff selects the music for the evening, guests can help shape their dining experience, choosing from an a la carte menu and then watch the action at the bar as the chefs slice, grate and roll sushi ingredients into hand rolls.

Jeremy Truong, managing partner of Comma, says that like its sister restaurant, Kira is still quite methodical in its approach to hospitality. Kira’s guests must complete their order at the start of the meal so the staff can optimally flow the courses, but it is the more “approachable” and fun restaurant of the two, with dim lighting and louder music, he says.

Chef Mark Wong leads the experience with a menu that includes A5 Wagyu donburi with egg yolk and bar-shaved truffle, a short list of crudo including a refreshing scallop version with cucumber and yuzu zest, and sashimi sets featuring seasonal fish or bluefin tuna. Highlights of the nine prominently presented handrolls include a compelling ode to the lox bagel with applewood-smoked sea trout, chives and freeze-dried sour cream. A warm lobster handroll, a crowd favorite carried over from Neo, features Norwegian blue lobster doused with an umami-rich seaweed hollandaise sauce, and this fish-focused eatery’s surprise hit: the vegetarian maitake handroll. Made from heated may mushrooms, spread with a brown butter emulsion and wrapped in crispy seaweed, this roll is a perfect dish that can easily be devoured in three bites.

Brittany Britto Garley

Experienced bartenders, including Kira’s beverage director Aaron Laura and Marc Rodriquez, formerly of Korean fine-dining restaurant Atomix in New York, have teamed up to create a drink menu that focuses on Japanese highballs served from a traditional Suntory highball tower, rare sakes and refreshing cocktails. Highlights include the 15 Step, a cocktail made with applewood and bacon-washed tequila, yuzu, cucumber and yondu, and the All I Need, a blend of Japanese whiskey, Yuzu Curaçao, Campari, Vermouth and Purple Shiso. Guests can also enjoy beer, vintage champagne and a bold pandan coconut mocktail reminiscent of an earthy cream soda.

To finish off a meal, diners can opt for kakigori, Japanese ice cream made with a hand-operated kakigori machine, an exciting rarity among the city’s Japanese restaurants, Truong said. Flavors include a sweet and tart raspberry variety with condensed milk and the pandan variety, which includes coconut jelly, lychee pieces and a sticky marshmallow topping with toasted shredded coconut.

Brittany Britto Garley

Although Kira is a different concept than Neo, Truong says the team is just as purposeful in their approach to service and design. “For us, everything is important in a restaurant. Every corner counts. No detail is too small,” Truong says. The restaurant’s calming natural wood is complemented by walls clad in dark gray plaster to create a “cave-like” experience that blocks out the outside world. Guests order from intricately hand-embroidered burlap menus and eat and drink from custom-made glassware and vintage sake cups from Japan.

The restaurant, which has been in the works since November, is a second chapter for Comma, but it won’t be the last. Truong says Neo, Comma’s reservation-only omakase restaurant that opened as a pop-up during the pandemic, continues to do well, open five days a week at sister company Glass Cypress’s Montrose location. And the restaurant group is slated to open two more restaurants, including another Japanese restaurant in the Heights and one that uses Japanese ingredients and cooking techniques but is heavily inspired by the Mexico City culinary scene.

Comma Hospitality

Things to know before your trip:

• Except for dessert, all menu items are ordered at once, so take your time when deciding on your meal. (It doesn’t hurt to look at the menu before you arrive at the restaurant.)
• Kira chefs give their hand rolls directly to guests. If you plan to share a roll with a table neighbor, designate one person to receive the hand rolls from one of the chefs who is assembling them. Take a bite, then pass it to your table neighbor.
• Just like in Japan, it is frowned upon and considered bad luck for guests to pour their own sake. If you are dining with others, be sure to pour your friends and vice versa. If you are dining alone, have a Kira waiter pour you.
• Kira is already fully booked and only occasionally allows walk-ins, so don’t be surprised if a Kira staff member politely informs you that the next reservation is here. One guest has 75 minutes to dine, two guests have about 90 minutes, and three or more guests have 105 minutes.

Kira’s is open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. 2800 Kirby Drive, Suite 128B. Upper Kirby Area, 77098. View the full menu below.