KazuNori | The Original Hand Roll Bar Review

Recommendation: A must try if you are ever in New York

Price: $$

Before visiting KazuNori | The Original Hand Roll Bar I can confidently say that I had never walked out of a restaurant with my mind blown by the experience. That changed after visiting KazuNori in late February 2020, just weeks before the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic could be felt in the United States. Walking out I still remember myself struggling to process what I had just experienced.

KazuNori is the newest restaurant to come from the Sushi Nozawa Group which was formed around the legendary sushi chef Kazunori Nozawa who specialized in traditional Edomae-sushi up until his retirement in 2012.

The Nozawa Group is famous for their other restaurants such as SUGARFISH with locations in Los Angeles and New York which aims to carry on Chef Nozawa’s traditional style of sushi.

KazuNori on the other hand, focuses on cylindrical Temaki or “hand rolls”. Like SUGARFISH, KazuNori has multiple locations in LA and one in NY. The restaurant seats 24 at a single bar and has a very warm and welcoming environment.

While dining, you are surrounded by people on each side and behind you lined up along the wall, so this is not a restaurant you should go to if you want privacy. After waiting around 30 minutes in line we were finally given a seat and a card where you check off what you want, similar to dim sum restaurants.

The average price of the rolls comes out to around $6.59 (menu & prices here) ,and I initially checked off the Bay Scallop and Toro handrolls.

The hand rolls are made to order right in front of you, and as our chef began making our rolls I was able to talk with him and learn about the training process he undertook. He told us it takes 3 months of training to work at the bar ,and even after that it wasn’t guaranteed that they would be given a job. You had to be truly skilled and exceptional to make it to the restaurant. He made this very apparent by his speed, accuracy, and ability to quickly and consistently portion out exact measurements of ingredients without the use of a scale.

The first roll served was the Bay Scallop which I ate immediately. All it took was one bite and I knew that we were in for an experience of a lifetime. The rice was still warm, the seaweed was crisp, and the scallops were extremely fresh and sweet.

The only picture I took during our meal was of my toro roll.

With the memory of the Bay Scallop Roll still fresh in my mind I frantically snapped a photo while throwing the concepts of angles, framing, and focus out the window, devouring it right after. Hand rolls should be eaten immediately as they are given to you to ensure that the seaweed is still crispy. Not only does it become harder to eat as the seaweed softens there is something special about eating sushi rice that is still slightly warm straight from the hand of the chef who made it right in front of you.

While satisfied with our two rolls, we still wanted more. So we all ordered one more roll each, this time the Yellowtail. Just like everything else we had that meal it was amazing, it was almost as if the fish came straight out of the sea and onto my plate.

The rolls at KazuNori have very few ingredients, but the few that are used are of top quality. My three rolls only cost me around $20 but I would have happily paid $50. I highly recommend that anyone who has an opportunity to eat at one of their locations to do so, in-person, once things become safer outside. I know I will, stay safe everyone.

– Minh

Additional Sources: https://www.forbes.com/sites/akikokatayama/2019/04/15/why-is-sugarfish-so-popular-the-co-founder-tom-nozawa-answers/#192bc2b22ffd