Kuu

For my birthday, I talked my friends into taking me to Kuu for dinner.

If you've never been before, Kuu is nested by the freeway across from the Memorial City Mall, but the restaurant itself is in the middle before you hit Gessner intersection, across from Churrasco.  

Our server overheard us that we're celebrating my birthday, they gave us a complementary Citrus Cured Fluke, which is citrus cured flounder, kale chips, edamame puree at the very bottom, and those little cubes are citrus gelee'.  You eat the kale chips, with the flounder, and the cube together topped with the puree.  Very reminiscent of Uchi's Yakai Berry.

I had heard alot about the Waygu and Unagi from various places.  I was highly curious because it's essentially a mini surf and turf but the marinated is salty and sweet.  Turns out it's  a perfect harmony and you kinda think, duh... so obvious and how come I didn't think of it first?!  I love Waygu beef and love unagi as fish... how awesome!

Here's some nigiri.  As you can see, they try to give you more fish than alot of other places.

This is their Poseidon roll, it has chopped scallop (yum), diced tuna, salmon, yellowtail, tobiko, with citrus truffle vinaigrette.  While the fish is fresh and the combo is cool, I really think it's the vinaigrette that did the trick.  Call me bias, but I really think so.

I had the ginger cake with green tea ice cream and a slice of granny smith apple.  I'm normally not a ginger anything person, but the pairing worked for me.  It's kinda refreshing for that day.  Light and fluffy, can totally compete with Chris Leung's dessert at Kata.

Overall, the decor is hip and though they claim to be Japanese fusion, it's more Japanese than fusion.  Definitely points for creativity to their dishes.  I've heard people comparing Kuu with Uchi.  Personally, they are not competitive to each other in terms of dishes and taste... they are just different.  To me, Kuu is really about taking advantage of fresh food.  While Uchi, yes definitely fresh, is about creativity, that's where their 'fusion' came from.  One is not better than the other, just different.  And I've heard people complain about their service, personally, we went during lunch on a weekend, and service was great, the manager stopped by to check in on us, as did the chef, guess it wasn't super busy.  But, definitely no issues there and looking forward to return.  Reservations are recommended.

Kuu Restaurant

947 Gessner Rd #A180

Houston, TX 77024

713-461-1688

http://www.kuurestaurant.com/