Katami

Kata Robata has a new little sister, Katami (means keepsake, remembrance)! We went three days ago and I was so happy! We've been to a Japanese restaurant in the Galleria and one near Katami, but my husband and I agreed that Katami was the best experience of the three! It was our first visit, so Nicole, our sever, made great recommendations. We only ordered four things, so we'll have to come back to try more. My favorites were the appetizer, Toro Tar Tar, and the Mushroom Rice Hot Stone that, with a tweak, became Wagyu Yakimeshi! First course was the appetizer. I love tuna and had fun adding the tiny mushrooms to make little vignettes on the toasted milk bread cubes. Told Nicole I could make the Mushroom Rice Hot Stone at home, and it needed something more. She thought for a quick second and said she'd ask the chef if there was any wagyu available to add. There was, and it was my second favorite - it made the rice sing! (Although, next time, I'd ask if less oil can be used.) So, my Mushroom Rice became Wagyu Yakimeshi! It can even be someone's meal who comes along but doesn't like raw seafood. Tip: Press the rice against the hot stone bowl's sides for 5-10 minutes to get this wonderful, flavorful, crunchy rice char! The Nigiri Sushi had 10 pieces. The  tuna pieces, I enjoyed. There was one piece that didn't taste as fresh and the hikarimono that reminded me why I don't like skin on sushi. The Robata Baby Back Ribs were tender, but I was getting full by that time, and my husband said he preferred Texas barbecue sauce to their sauce. No problem. Ya can't like everything on a menu. There are lots of other things I'd love to try, like the omakase. If you're interested, you might want to reserve your spot a few days in advance. That will give the chefs time to properly prep. If you're celebrating an event, let the server know. We were celebrating my husband's birthday, and they brought out a complimentary dessert (choice of two). The cable lit Apple Caramel Bread Pudding uses milk bread. We cleaned the dish! It's busy! We left at 9p on a Tuesday night as people were still arriving. The place was packed and noisy. We were led to the side room but the sound bounces off hard surfaces too much for my liking, so I asked and was moved to the larger, open dining room. It's difficult to find parking space, so we valeted ($7 for dinner, $3 at lunch).

Mind. Blown.I've been a long-time fan of Kata Robata, but Katami takes the cake. The ambiance is amazing: it's modern and luxurious, while remaining intimate and cozy.The menu and food is so well thought out. It's is the perfect combination of sophistication and simplicity. Katami has simplistic dishes that pay homage to timeless Japanese classics that are perfect as they are. Katami also innovates other dishes in a way that is eloquent, but not over done. I've already been here twice in the past 2 weeks because I could not stay away. All of the food has been absolutely delish, and the quality speaks for itself. The service was amazing on my first visit. Dana, our server, guided us through an amazing dinner service. We also had the pleasure of meeting the manager, Brandon. Both left us with an amazing impression, they were well-spoken, and took great care of us. For my second visit, I'm not sure what the issue was, but food was taking so so long to come out. Averaging 20 - 40 minutes between each dish on a Monday night. Dinner ended up taking 3 hours and 30 minutes for a party of 4.Overall, I really loved Katami for everything that it is: the vibes, food, service, and drinks. A must have is the Toro TarTar (do not leave without trying this). With all these new sushi restaurants that have been opening up, Katami has done a great job standing out. My only note is that I hope the long wait on the food gets resolved or happened to be a fluke.

Dark and intimate, perfect for an anniversary or a date. A great place for some great sushi, definitely comparable to Kata Robata. The server was funny and personable. Everything on the menu was good, we had a roll and nigiri along with some dessert. Sushi was fresh and so so good. We scraped the apple caramel bread pudding. Thanks for making our anniversary special!

Had reservations for 6:30pm on a Saturday and the free parking spots just barely filled up so we had to do the $7 valet. The restaurant was busy, but the ambiance was great. Loved the decor, even the view out of the windows, just great energy all around. TORO TAR TAR: It lives up to the hype! Everyone loves it for a reason. I have nothing bad to say about it. The toro was delicious. The toast was delicious. I would've gotten two of these if there weren't so many other things I wanted to try. FOIE SCALLOP NIGIRI: SO DELICIOUS! If you're thinking about it, just get it. You won't regret it. My whole table LOVED it. Even someone who doesn't care for foie gras. SEARED TORO SASHIMI: Slices were honestly a little thin, but maybe it was because it was seared. It was our first time getting it seared. Found out we all prefer toro raw, but it was nice to try something new. HAMACHI SAKE CHILI ROLL: Delicious! It was a good balance of flavors. Loved the chili flavor! It says it has jalapeño tempura but I didn't taste it at all.KATAMI FUTOMAKI ROLL: This was mistakenly dropped off at our table, but they let us keep it. The description didn't seem that enticing to me, but my whole table loved it! It was a really pleasant surprise. A great balance of so many different flavors and textures. We would've all gotten this again for sure!SOUTHERN SMOKE ROLL: I liked this, but the fatty tuna overpowered the uni and caviar to the point where you couldn't really taste them. It basically felt like a fatty tuna roll, so I don't really think it was worth the price if you can't taste the uni or caviar. It felt like they made a roll with expensive ingredients to slap a high price tag on it without ensuring the flavors were well balanced. My table preferred the futomaki over this roll fyi.MISO SAKE LOBSTER: It's served in half of a lobster shell. It's good, but it tastes exactly like the lobster mac and cheese from Kata Robata if you're familiar with that, just without the mac. At a higher price point with arguably the same amount of lobster and no mac, I'd just get the lobster mac from Kata Robata next time. I feel like you're just paying for the lobster shell presentation here. The sauce tastes like Parmesan, even though the menu vaguely just says "cheese". And I thought we'd have to peel it out of the shell, but it was already scooped out, chopped up, then just put back into the shell for presentation. BONE MARROW: Delicious and fatty, of course! It came with 3 bones, which was a lot, even between four of us. The 4 pieces of toast definitely weren't enough.SMOKED SAKE KASU BLACK COD: It was decent compared to other restaurants I've gotten this from. Honestly on the lower end of the spectrum. If you've never had some sort of black cod from a sushi restaurant before though, it's great. It just wasn't as tender and didn't melt in my mouth like I'm used to. MUSHROOM RICE HOT STONE: I only got this because people seemed to really like it. It was pretty tasty, but a little salty if you're sensitive to salt. Although it was good, I wasn't blown away or anything. It'd be a great choice for a vegetarian, but I thought it was expensive for a dish without protein. UME CLARIFIED MILK PUNCH: Comes with a cherry. Apparently, this is all the bartenders' favorite drink, but I was disappointed with it. It was a little syrupy/thick and too sweet for me. It was decent enough, but the sunomono sour was way better imo. SUNOMONO SOUR: Everyone at my table loved it! I liked it way better than the milk punch. It was refreshing and lightly sour from the pineapple. Didn't taste any sesame oil. Highly recommend!

Katami had been on my list to try since Kata Robata is one of my favorite restaurants in Houston. It is definitely for a special occasion since the prices are on the steeper side. But let me tell you it is SO worth it. All of the sushi we had was so fresh and high quality. Definitely the highest quality you will find in Houston. I was also obsessed with the match shaved ice for dessert. Such a cool presentation and delicious as well! The service and ambiance were also impeccable. Such a great dimly lit date night spot. I truly have nothing bad to say!

Amazing new Japanese restaurant in Houston! The ambiance is a perfect blend of modern and cozy. The quality is just as good if not better than Kata Robata! You really can't go wrong with anything on the menu. Everything was just so fresh and tasty. I tried the Chef's Choice for sashimi, and they really pick out the best pieces for you. I highly recommend trying the Foie Gras PBJ Milk Bread and Okonomiyaki. Very tasty and unique. Overall, I had a fantastic experience at this spot. The food was simply amazing, and the service was top notch. Definitely worth a visit!

Katami is located where Vincent's used to be. The interior has been completely transformed to an upscale sushi restaurant. We ordered a few rolls and a drink each for the evening. Initially we had opted for two rolls and the foie gras roll but the lobster roll was calling our name so we had to get that as well. We ended up sitting at the sushi bar because watching sushi being prepared is an experience in itself. There is a separate bar area that seems to be for cocktails. So if you are more into watching those being thrown back then that might be more your vibe.It felt slightly fast paced because we were in an out within an hour. I really liked all the rolls but I found the Southern Smoke to be a little bit on the pricier side and I did not like that it was cut into 5 instead of an even portion. Being that everything is slightly pricier and elegant, I just felt that they could have presented it slightly differently. Overall, our service was pleasant as was the whole dining experience. Would definitely come back again to try more rolls.

When we arrived we were promptly greeted and seated. It did take our server to get to us a good 10 minutes before talking and telling us what the concept and food recommendations were.The setting of the restaurant is clean, and airy due to the sun room setting on one side of the restaurant. To start us off, we did some drinks that were good but did not find any favourites.The two cold starters were:Hamachi Yuzu: 2/5 because the yuzu yoghurt was overpowering and the kombu powder left a sandy grit texture on the teeth that made it almost annoying to eat. Could barely taste the hamachi.Madai Carpaccio: 1/5 because the crunchy togarashi and black sesame soy sauce enveloped the Madai and the saucy component was too strong to complement the fish.Oyster with caviar was fresh and briny. Very tasty. 5/5.Would recommend avoiding the cold starters besides the oysters and moving straight to the nigiri and hot components of the menu.From the nigiri portion, we ordered:Hotate, salmon, gizzard shad, akami, amaebi and madai. Fresh, fatty, flavoursome cuts of delicious fish. Definitely recommend, 5/5.Also, tried the Olive A5 wagyu nigiri with black truffle and it was unctuous and absolute yum!From their hot portion, we got the baby back ribs, iberico shumai, and lobster with sake miso. The baby back ribs were falling off the bone, tender and seasoned to perfection. The shumai was good with a pipette of ponzu sauce. The lobster was rich, not overcooked and the panko with the miso sake lent it a Mac and cheese-esque quality to it. Would definitely get these again.For dessert go the Japanese melon which was sweet and juicy and had none of the chemical aftertaste that is found in the fruits here in the states. The green tea kakigori was airy and light. Usually not a fan of red bean ice cream or desserts but this one came with a really nice red bean ice cream. Would have liked the portion to be more to balance out the shaved ice.Overall it was a great time! Price wise it was affordable for the amount of food we ordered.

Had an amazing dinner at Katami on a Friday night.Interior is nice and the service was excellent.Pretty much everything we tried on the menu was great. I probably wouldn't order the A5 wagyu again because of the price tag, but glad I tried it.Bread pudding dessert was stupid good and a must.Bar area looked really swanky and would like to check that out next time.$7 Valet or street parking only which stinks, but the food was so good you won't even care.Excited to add this to my rotation.

Our first experience at Katami was nothing but a waiting game. We noted we'd be celebrating a Birthday and made a reservation for 7:30PM, right before prime time to secure a good seat in the main dining hall but we had the worst seat in house. We were tucked in the corner by the entrance with the view of a door, distracted by people entering/exiting the restaurant all night. We had a super strong start with the Toro Tar Tar, the dish was bursting in flavors all around. I was super bummed when The Chanterelle Mushroom & Tofu was taken off the menu that day, so we went with a safe choice Shumai. Hamachi Sake Chili Roll and Amaebi Nigiris were exceptionally good. Our server finished us off with Foie Gras Nigiris and Bone Marrow which should've been sent in 2 light-years ago because it took an excruciating 40 minutes for that last bit to come out. Two fatty components to end our meal was quite a mouthful. Our waiter was super apologetic for the long wait and enticed us with a Birthday dessert. We went with the Matcha Shaved Ice, we thought it was a super sweet gesture to make up for the slow service but we were actually billed for that. #Birthdayfail. The food is not the issue here, we absolutely enjoyed every last bite and Katami is deserving of their stars. Our concern was the pacing and time span for each dish to arrive. Our excitement declined the longer we sat, 30-40 minutes per dish is an outrageous waiting period. We left the establishment right before closing time 10:20PM. That's almost 3 hours of sitting and waiting for 6 simple dishes. I wonder if a better seating arrangement and a different server would've changed the course of this night.