The kanpaccio, a word play on "carpaccio" and "kanpachi," or mature amberjack, is a dish that delights every taste bud. Rich slices of fish, shaped into rosettes, gather a bit of heat from small green slices of fresh Thai pepper before being bounced back and forth between the salinity of tobiko and soy and the sweet fruitiness of a fresh slice of orange and halved red grapes that were soaked in sake.
It's a signature dish for KUU, a Japanese fine-dining establishment in Gateway Memorial City that opened in February under the deft hand of chef Adison Lee. Lee trained under Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa, a pioneer of modern Japanese cuisine, and it shows. Lee's sashimi dishes are similar in style to Nobu's, with garnishes and accoutrements meant to enhance their flavor and appearance.
For example, slices of salmon belly are carefully placed in staggered layers atop crushed ice and dabbed with little mounds of yuzukosho (a seasoned, fermented paste of yuzu rind, chile peppers and salt) and salmon roe, or ikura.
These meticulous preparations make KUU well worth a visit. Some of the fish is flown in from the southwestern Japanese island of Kyushu. Generous slabs of yellowtail sashimi were firm and radiated rich hues of pink that fanned out to a rose-petal red on the edges. KUU has an Achilles' heel, though: its cooked dishes. Three of the dishes that included naturally rich and succulent meat -- specifically duck breast, foie gras and pork belly -- had execution flaws.
Foie gras nigiri is found at a few other high-end Japanese restaurants in Houston, most notably Uchi. A slab of hot, seared foie is placed on top of a compact bed of rice, just as a slice of raw fish might be in traditional nigiri. Since the foie is hot and fatty, the rice soaks up the excess richness. At its most transcendent, foie gras has a taut, seared exterior and a creamy interior. At KUU, however, it was not piping hot, so all those great characteristics were lost.
Similarly, the pork belly on the "butaniku" nigiri, even when combined with a promising-sounding peach vinaigrette and micro-cilantro, fell short. The buttery, rich quality one expects from pork belly was absent. Instead, it was overcooked and tough.
It should be a crime to overcook duck breast. Ours was dry and tough and had an unpleasant livery quality. Also, it's annoying to be told, "Chef would like you to eat it with a little bit of everything all at once." "Everything," in this case, was compressed apple chunks, dehydrated scallop chips with a waffle pattern on the surface (which by themselves were quite tasty) and a wasabi beet reduction. If scooping all this stuff up at the same time is what's needed to make a dish taste good, perhaps Chef should have made a casserole.
One of the cooked dishes, though, broke the disappointing pattern. A concoction of Pacific prawns, with garlic chile sauce, kohlrabi and kale chips, was pure pleasure for the palate with its varying textures and spiciness. The prawns are heavily anointed with the chile sauce, but mild kohlrabi cubes prevented the heat level from becoming too much to bear. Although no item on the menu costs more than $20, KUU still ends up being pricey. Most dishes are small and delicate. A couple will need to order five or six to feel satisfied. Expect to rack up a $100 bill -- and that doesn't include drinks.