Dining
BY JESSICA SHORTEN
The kanpachi crudo ($28) is made from yellowtail sh.
Kokoro also oers traditional nigiri such as tuna ($7) .
Head Chef Jesus Orellana leads the team behind the sushi bar at Kokoro.
PHOTOS BY JESSICA SHORTENCOMMUNITY IMPACT
Kokoro Handroll Bar oers fresh approach to sushi
What’s on the menu The key to Kokoro’s menu is imported sh from Japan, alongside other key ingredients such as nori, or seaweed, and rice, Orellana said. On an average day, Orellana said the restaurant can go through up to eight quarts of rice, and on opening weekend it made 2,185 handrolls. “There’s a lot of restaurants that use nori, but what we use, It’s specially made for handrolls,” Orellana said. “You want that crispiness in a handroll whenever you enjoy it.” Dupreez said the other key factor is using high-quality sh such as BGB grade salmon. “In order to achieve the grade of BGB, it’s a very, very rigorous process,” Dupreez said. “So it is farm raised, but like in the ocean...so they have a huge amount of water in their natural environment and they develop very fatty muscular tissue which is why it’s so melt in your mouth.” What else? Dupreez said The Woodlands location has already brought in regular customers, a key goal of Kokoro. “In Japanese, kokoro means ‘heart’,” Dupreez said. “We like to really present that in our food, we want it to be made with a sense of love and appreciation because there was so much of that which went into the creation of the dish itself, and really the entire project of the restaurant.”
As the newest addition to dining options along The Woodlands Waterway, Kokoro Handroll Bar focuses on providing fresh sushi in a relaxed environment. “You can come in here on a Friday night and sit around the bar and you can watch everything and have a lot of energy, but you can also have a table 10 feet away and it’s a lot more relaxed,” The Woodlands location General Manager Ashton Dupreez said. Meet the team Founded by chefs Daniel Lee and Patrick Pham in partnership with businessman C.J. Short, Kokoro Handroll Bar opened March 10 in The Woodlands to meet a demand for traditional fresh sushi in The Woodlands, Dupreez said. Lee, Pham and Short also own Duckstache Hospitality, which owns a number of sushi concepts across Houston including Doko and Aiko in downtown Houston. “We like to kind of combine elements from a few of our restaurants and put them together to nd the perfect mix for The Woodlands crowd,” Dupreez said. Head Chef Jesus Orellana brought several years of experience in sushi preparation to Kokoro. In order to create the “perfect” handroll, Head Chef Jesus Orellana said the key ingredient is high-qual- ity nori, or seaweed, in order to provide an extra crispy crunch in each bite.
The Double Down Margarita ($16) features yuzu juice.
The spicy tuna handroll ($9) uses high-grade nori.
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24 Waterway Ave., Ste. 110, The Woodlands www.kokorohandrollbar.xyz
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