Asian Food through Houston
I never noticed till recently, but Houston, Texas, my hometown, has quite a few foreign food spots that aren’t talked about enough. The first of which, and my favorite, is Kura Revolving Sushi Bar. The place is compact, but really nice. The main gimmick of the place is that different kinds of sushi plates revolve around your table in a conveyor belt, and you can pick and choose whichever and however many plates you want.
Each plate is about $3 each, and you don’t even have to keep track. You dispense your plates into a machine that counts them up for you. Every time you hit ten plates, the machine plays a little animation on a small screen, and you’re given a random gacha prize. Gacha balls usually contain an anime character pin, and if you eat enough, with some luck, you might be able to collect them all. If you’re not a big fan of sushi, but still want to try Japanese foods, then you can tap the screen for other options to revolve around your table such as noodles, takoyaki, miso soup, or mochi. My absolute favorite thing however, is the little robot that delivers your drinks to you.
Sadly, this robot only appears for drink delivery, but seeing it is always a treat. The 3-foot robot has a screen with a smiley face, and carries the drinks on a platform attached to its back. Then, it turns around, and waits for you to grab your drink before driving away.
Next is actually a restaurant I didn’t know about until only a few days ago. Despite the similar name, Sushi Yoto has less to do with sushi than the previous restaurant. The place does serve plenty of sushi, but there’s no revolving machine. Instead, you get many options such as different types of soup, noodles, steak, food on sticks, and even baby octopus on a stick. This place even has an “all you can eat'' menu which lets you choose from many options for only about $30. Of course, I ordered this, and felt like I saved a lot of money for the insane amount of food I got, which obviously included even more sushi. I was pleasantly surprised when the place also had a small robot that didn’t deliver drinks, but instead delivered your desserts.
Overall, I never noticed how common these restaurants were, but they just don’t seem to be as popular as American restaurants. It’s a shame, but at least it’s a chance for Asian culture to be shared through their food.