Nori Handroll Bar

I had the chance to attend the soft opening of Nori Handroll Bar, a trendy and new sushi restaurant located in Deep Ellum. I've passed by their closed doors a few times and read the "coming soon" sign and anxiously waited for the opening. Fortunately, my awesome and handsome boyfriend Osman, followed them on instagram and saw that the soft opening was this weekend and we knew we had to go for date night and check this place out.

Upon arriving and entering through the doors, you notice there is a small host stand on the right, a small bar on the left and a millennial must- a neon sign up top. The host said the wait for a spot for two at the bar would be about 30-45 minutes so Osman went ahead and grabbed a beer from the bar and some complimentary edamame to munch on while we waited for our seat. We ended up only waiting about 10 minutes and walked through to the bar. As we were being seated we were welcomed by all the staff as our host shouted our arrival. This was a little strange but also very fun and memorable. Usually when I'm waiting to be seated or while i'm waiting on my food, I like to take in the decor and what the restaurant has to offer in addition to the food to create the entire dining experience. Nori is a minimalist dream. With subtle accents and sleek design, you really can't be distracted from the main feature which was awesome food made in front of you. They had a really great playlist that made the atmosphere very chill and relaxed. You know how to go to a really fancy steakhouse where you know you have to dress a certain way and if you drop your silverware you basically can never show your face again? Well Nori is the complete opposite.

Osman brought his beer from the bar and I ended up getting talked into trying the green tea after Joanna, our assistant server, raved about how she liked it so much. While I'm not much of a tea drinker, I'm very glad I listened to her because it was so good! I had the sweetened version and it wasn't overwhelmingly sweet at all. The subtle notes of tea and added sweetness from the simple sugar made the drink really well balanced and palatable. Osman and I started off with three different appetizers because we're crazy and I was excited to try as many things as possible. We ordered the takoyaki, brussel sprouts, and rock shrimp tempura. My favorite of the three were the brussel sprouts. I really enjoyed the flavorful and sweet sauce they used, but I'm honestly a little biased because I LOVE brussel sprouts. The rock shrimp tempura was basically just shrimp tempura. I've had takoyaki (octopus dumplings) before at two other restaurants and never cared for them so that's just my personal take.

Since we got three appetizers we decided to get the "Starving" set of 5 different handrolls. These were made right in front of us and I even got our guy Terry to let me take a picture of the roll before he rolled it up. I thought the handrails were the perfect size for Osman and I to split in half and enjoy. In addition to the 5 handrails from the starving set, we also ordered the chef's special for the evening which was chargrilled eel. This was also made right in front of us using a blow torch! My favorite roll of all the different ones we had was the crab roll. As if we didn't already order enough food, Osman was set on ordering some sashimi so we got the tuna and chef's special- yellow tail. Both were delivered to us by Chef Jimmy along with some advice to try the mountain berry first before diving into the fresh fish. While both plates were amazing, I enjoyed the yellowtail more because of the added kick from the sliced serrano and micro cilantro.

We finished our meal with dessert. On the menu it's listed as "Donut with Ice Cream" but unfortunately, we didn't get a donut. Osman and I chose to get green tea ice cream and Joanna carefully drizzled the coconut almond milk on top of our ice cream for us. I think the dessert definitely would've been a lot better with the donut to add a different texture to the dessert but this just gives us another reason to come back and enjoy Nori again!

Overall we had an amazing experience. As we enjoyed our food we had the chance to talk to the different staff members and were able to connect and learn more about them. It seems as though Nori is a family owned business and they're really just trying to provide high quality Japanese food as well as exceptional service. Thank you Joanna, Terry, Grace, Chef Jimmy and all of the staff that make Nori such a great restaurant with amazing, high quality food, sick playlist and awesome vibes. I definitely recommend stopping by this new restaurant while you're out enjoying a night in Dallas exploring a little bit of Japanese dining as well as my favorite neighborhood of Dallas- Deep Ellum. Thanks for reading, Quynhthy.