April, 2023
By Mikayla Conde, Staff Reporter
It may look like your average sushi restaurant, but Kura Revolving Sushi bar isn’t just an average restaurant! They have food revolving around the restaurant and they have cute anime art around the restaurants on the wall. Kura’s first location was in Taiwan in 2014, but there are several other locations, Arizona (2), California (19), District of Columbia (1), Florida (3), Georgia (3), Illinois (3), Massachusetts (3), Michigan (2), Minnesota (1), Nevada (1) New Jersey (3), New York (1), Pennsylvania (2), Texas (12), Virginia (1), and Washington (1). But there is only one location in Austin which is at 6929 Airport Blvd Suite 125, Austin, TX 78752. They opened this location in May 2016 next to the 99 Ranch Market.
I wandered in with my dad, his friend, and my boyfriend on a Thursday afternoon and was immediately greeted by the friendly staff and asked if it was a table of 4. They gathered our chopsticks and led us to our table, while walking towards the table they used a louder tone to greet us by saying “Irasshaimase!” (“Welcome! Please come in!”). All the other employees then said it too after our servers led us to our table. While I was getting led to my table, I looked around and saw the sushi conveyor belt moving around the tables. The restaurant looked clean and spotless and some employees cleaned the tables once people left their tables. I also saw people grabbing the food that was on the revolving plates.
The belt moved towards the right of the restaurant and went to all the tables. Some people were using a tablet to order the food they wanted that they didn’t see on the conveyor belt. While walking in I also realized the restaurant was almost all filled up with no empty tables; just a few tables open. It was almost 6:00 pm, and we managed to get a table.
Once you get to your table, the waiter will ask if we have been there before. If it’s your first time your server will give you an introduction to how to use the tablet and how to get the plates off the conveyor belt. On the tablet you will order your drinks, the options are: sodas, teas, and Japanese alcohol. Once you have ordered your drinks you can start looking at the food options on the tablet or you can take another look at the conveyor belt, which is very fun! You could see if there is any sushi that interests you and you can try grabbing it, but don’t lose your chance because the conveyor belt is constantly moving.
Your drinks will come to you in a little robot that moves around and helps the employees out to take the drinks to you. You will grab the drinks off the little shelf on the robot. Then the robot will say “If you need anything else, don’t be scared to call me over. See you again soon,” and will continue on with its day. The robot is a new addition, put into the restaurant in 2022. It moves around the whole restaurant and if you get in its way it will stop or go around you, but I suggest you just go around it.
Now let’s say you ordered food on the tablet the food will come to you or another conveyor belt that is on top of the other conveyor belt that had the sushi you can just grab. You grab your food. When you are done with your plate you put it in the plate slot that is on the end of the table.
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