When you spend most of your week on Jury Duty, it really puts you behind on everything. Work, Laundry, Dishes, and even Blogging. Why did I capitalize almost every word in that last sentence? I don’t know, your guess is as good as mine.
But here we are again, another day, another letter. K was loaded with many good options. But I wanted to go a route I had not been through the previous however many letters. Something I love: sushi. So that definitely limits the options down. You all probably know where this is headed, so I bring to you Letter K: Kanai Sushi
12111 W. Maple, Suite 131
Wichita, KS 67235 | Map
Phone: (316) 719-2929
This is located at the southwest corner of Maple and 119th in that little shopping area even though I don’t think there are any shops in that little strip. Walking inside you are greeted with an Asian greeting. Unfortunately being half-Asian doesn’t give me the inherent ability to translate Chinese, Korean, Japanese or any Asian language for that matter. Regardless its a greeting, it gave me warm fuzzies inside (ok, just kidding there). The place is pretty small. There are roughly 12-14 tables inside. Six 2 person benches (could probably) and 6-8 four tops.
Our wait wasn’t long. My guest eater for Letter K was my friend Megan. A fan of food and a person who relies on the power of food to survive daily (not that the regular human doesn’t either).
When you are seated, they give you a sample appetizer of seaweed salad as seen below. Do not let the look fool you. It’s absolutely delicious. The correct term for this is Wakame Salad. After trying this, I went ahead and ordered the full size which ran $4.50.
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| Absolutely delicious! |
Along with the Wakame Salad, you’re given this warm little cloth to clean your hands with. Megan did not its not very “green” and Earth friendly. While I noticed, they don’t offer these in the bathroom to wipe with…. for babies that is…… for BABIES!!!
There were three appetizers ordered, some edamame which is self explanatory. Came in a rather large bowl that probably feeds 2-4 pretty well. Salted nicely. Megan ordered the vege tempura which were nothing too special to me but Megan really liked the variety of veggies offered. She was a fan! And a couple that was with us ordered the Invader. What is the Invader? According to their menu, its “Deep fried jalapeno, cream cheese and spicy tuna plus grilled e-dako (baby octopus). No rice.” I’m going to post a picture of the baby octopus so brace yourselves.
The picture to the right is one of a baby octopus which is totally edible and once again I’m going to use the phrase, absolutely delicious! When its served its not moving so I know it’s not alive. The baby octopus have a nice little marinade to them that adds a ton of flavor. If you aren’t a fan of “texture” or even “appearance”, I’d still urge you all to give this a try. You won’t be disappointed. One of my friends who hates things like this even gave it a thumbs up. The invader also comes with deep fried jalapenos which aren’t too bad either.
Between Megan and I we ordered three different rolls. Fisherman’s Wharf (Shrimp, crab and masago topped with fresh salmon.), Melanie’s Pumpkin (Spicy tuna and avacado rolled with seaweed and soy paper topped with cream cheese and seaweed salad.) and Roppongi Roll ( Spicy tuna and shrimp roll topped with tuna, masago, scallions, mayo and tataki sauce.)
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| Roppongi Roll |
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| Fisherman’s Wharf |
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| Melanie’s Pumpkin |
Between the three, my favorite was Melanie’s Pumpkin. It’s something I’d definitely order again, Fisherman’s Wharf….I’m not so sure on. The Roppongi Roll was delicious too.
One common thought during the “devourment” of sushi (yes I made that word up) was that the sushi rolls were big. You really had to open your mouth to fit a single piece in. Megan needed to cut hers in half to eat them making the use of chop stix more difficult. You can look at it either as a “more bang for your buck as in more sushi” or “the sushi is just too big”. Megan also did comment that the sushi was VERY tasty and the menu provides a large variety of different rolls to choose from. If you like sushi, you’ll find something you like.
Price wise, its all pretty affordable and comparable to many other hot sushi spots in Wichita. around $7-11 for most of their main rolls. They have some higher offerings that will run you over that amount. But for your basics, its all in the aforementioned range.
The service was good. One low note is they bring you the sushi I believe when its done, so you may have one or two rolls brought out to you and stuck there waiting for your others. If you’re with a group of people, one couple may be sushi-less while the others are starting theirs. But other than that, drinks were refilled in a timely manner, service was friendly and our questions were answered.
After the appetizers, three rolls and a couple beers, we spent $50 before tip. I know $50 for a meal might be high for some but for quality sushi thats the price you have to pay!
After sleeping on it and thinking about what rating to give this Megan ended up giving Kanai a 4 for the service, price and food. She gave the company a rating of 5 but I won’t let that get to my head! I, on the other hand, gave Kanai a 4.5. So the Wichita By E.B.’s Super Scientific Rating official score is a 4.25. By far the best sushi on the west side of town. If you think there’s a better one out there, let me know and I’ll give it a try.
I want to thank Megan for coming out with me for Letter K.
……….on to the next letter!
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