New Era For Sushi In Buffalo
That's how Wesley Choy (owner) views Kibarashi, Buffalo's 'coming soon' sushi joint located at the epicenter of Elmwood Avenue. I asked Wes where the name Kibarashi came from and he explained, "It's a Japanese word for recreation. We want people to come to relax and enjoy the restaurant's new surroundings. We've maintained the basic layout of Kuni's (former sushi joint), but we are in the process of changing the interior's appearance."
Wes is proud to take over the space that once hosted Buffalo's most popular sushi restaurant. He feels that what worked (layout-wise) for Kuni should work for Kibarashi. "But if you look around, you can already see the changes taking place." Wes told me. "The walls are being recreated to look like soji screens. There will be a waterfall feature in the front window and we are dedicating the back hallway to the works of local artists (who will retain 100% profit from sales). Much of the interior design work is being done by Kim Lees of New Age Designs. The sushi bar will feature three Japanese Zen sand-gardens covered with tempered glass. The look that we are going for is traditional Japanese with a twist. That will also transcend to the music... and even the food."
The food will revolve around the basis of traditional sushi styles. Wes interviewed sushi chefs from Toronto and NYC before eventually choosing a local pro by the name of Chris Van Every. Chris not only brings a long history of sushi-making to the table, he also brings a European flare that he intends to incorporate into both a Pan-Asian cuisine and a special sushi style. Don't be surprised to see a sushi special that might venture into an experimental French-Asian fusion territory. Wes explained, "You will still be able to order standard favorites that can be found at many sushi restaurants (maki and nigiri), but here you will find flare... some in-house touches that will become synonymous with Kibarashi. We will also have a premium sake selection that will be unmatched in the city. We're putting a lot of thought into the details... we want everything to be perfect by opening day."
Wes hails from NYC where much of his family has been (and still is) involved with the running of Chinese gourmet restaurants. He ended up attending Alfred College where he befriended a number of Buffalonians. "These friendships were very special to me." he said. "While still in college I came to Buffalo to catch a couple Sabres games. I fell in love with the city and the people. Upon graduating, a bunch of my friends moved back to Buffalo for job opportunities (!!!!!), and I decided to follow them. One of the first things we did was go to Kuni's. It was great and I was very sad to see the place go. I only ate there twice, but I knew that Kuni really had something special going on. One day I walked by and saw the sale sign in the front window. I called... and the rest is history. Once I hooked up with Chris (filling the Executive Chef position) I knew I was on my way."
Kibarashi will not take reservations. Wes is sticking with many of the practices that worked so well for Kuni in the location... right down to the whatever-you-want-to-wear dress code. He will serve take-out and... get ready for this... LUNCHES! This is really great news for the Buffalo lunch crowd and will be a sure hit this summer. Plus, the patio will open the same day the restaurant does... June 8th (cross your chopsticks). Located at 752 Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo and found by phone @ 716.885.5530. Mon-Thurs 11am-10pm and Fri-Sat 11am-11pm.
Yay, lunches!!!!!
This is a great story. I love to hear how people make their way to Buffalo. I am looking forward to catching a meal on a future trip to the city.
Way to go Wes!!! Can't wait to try it out
No mention of soba or ramen but one can't have everything.
Maybe there''s hope still? Also, a minor point, the word in Japanese for "chopsticks" is " hashi". Good luck, Wes!
Great! can't wait to see the menu!
Looking forward to try out the new place!
Lunch sounds great too!
SOJI (screen) should be SHYO-JI.
ikt- That's awesome! I never knew it was spelled that way. Is the spelling shoji also correct?
Anyone dealing with fresh seafood has my admiration, re-creating the location is an excellent idea, good luck.
Finally! The mystery as to what is going on in there is solved. My co-workers and I were torn when we heard Kuni's was closing. We are ecstatic that it's staying sushi! Good luck and we'll be there for lunches, you betcha!
I wish Wes all the luck in the world. Your friends are behind you 100%
this guy's business isn't going to last long unless he finds someone who actually knows how to cut fish! I went here last monday and thought that the service was horrible, fish was near contaminated (which made me vomit when i got home).....overpriced....seems like he is just tring to make a buck off of the kuni legacy.
I wouldn't be suprized if real sushi lovers never go there more than once. I know that I am never going to return. But, then and again, most buffalonians have no clue what great food really is.
Also, this guy needs to, or at least should have given his waitresses some sort of training on how to serve food. I got my meal 45 minutes before my friend got his meal and we were sitting at the same table! In addition to that she messed up the order.
God...i can't wait till kuni reopens....so that i can have some real sashimi!
Ate at Kibarashi last Thursday. Had high hopes, but Big problems here. I have been to many sushi bars in New York, Toronto and San Fransico. Kuni was possibly the best (even better than Nobu!), so the bar is already set high. The problem began with the wait. All us former Kuni goers are used to that, but the wait never ended. Once we were in the place, the waiting continued. Finally got our miso, it was luke warm. Sushi quality was pretty good, but it came to us in small batches rather than all at once. It looks like they are paying too much attention to take out orders and not enogh to the people in the restaurant. All I can say is I will be headed over the border to Yukiguni in Fort Erie for some dependable Sushi. I predict this place is going to go under within 1 year if it keeps it up. I'll never go back!!
Most Buffalonians don't know what great food is? That is about the most snobbish thing I have read on this site! For the most part BRO attracts cool people. I have no prob with a bad review it's the dickhead attitude that I can do without. Because of the snobbery I am heading over to Kibarashi and will disregard the bs comment.
So much of this thread is just crap from folks who know shockingly little about sushi.
First off, as much as I love Kuni’s and look forward to his return, there’s no way in the world you can compare his style of sushi to Nobu. And when you do, you betray how little you know about sushi. When anyone does that, you can be sure they don’t know what they’re talking about.
You may have liked Kuni’s simple style better. Maybe you preferred Kuni’s prices or the fact that while you had to wait in line, you didn’t have to book a table at least a week in advance. But Nubu and places much better than Nobu like Sushi of Gari and Jewel Bako and Sushi Seki and Uni and Sushi Ran offer dining experiences that are some of the best in the world and serve food with a ridiculously high level of inventiveness and meticulous preparation. Kuni made really good sushi. But you can’t compare his offerings to the live lobster sashimi at Jewel Bako or the toro tartar at Sushi Seki topped with Osetra and gold leaf or the quail egg spoon with uni and caviar at Uni or the miso marinated Black Cod at Nobu or the Kumamoto oysters with uni and American caviar at Sushi Ran. So when people say Kuni’s is better than any place in the country including places like Nobu, they sound like fools.
And complaining about the miso soup being luke warm at a restaurant aspiring to render a fine dining experience is like complaining about there not being a bottle of A1 steak sauce on the table at the Chop House. Piping hot miso soup, the result of heating the dashi and miso together, is just the common, everyday preparation. In gourmet preparations, miso is not usually added until after the dashi has a chance to cool—to keep the agents in the miso active.
And this one I just find really hard to believe.
The symptoms of food poisoning from sushi are pretty extreme. I’ve suffered from it and have researched the symptoms to make sure mine aren’t just anecdotal. Saving readers the gory details, suffice it to say, if you had “contaminated” fish, you wouldn’t have just vomited. You would have been near dehydrated. You would have seriously considered going to the emergency room and you’d feel like hell for days afterward. In your comment, you treat it almost as a casual aside, just another way to throw Kibarashi under the bus. If you really had food poisoning, I doubt you’d spend more time talking about the cut of the fish, the price of the food and the service more than you do about supposedly getting “contaminated” fish.
I think Wes is working some things out and he’d be the first to admit that. But what he aspires to do at Kibarashi is an admirable goal and will fill a niche that’s different than Kuni’s, but at the same high standard—a standard it took Kuni 10 years to create.
By way of reference, I lived in NY when Jewel Bako opened. I happened to walk past it on opening night and the owner invited us in for champagne, amuse bouche, sushi. It was pretty ordinary, but the way the owners Jack and Grace spoke of what they wanted to do with the restaurant, their vision for the place, made me keep going back. And they kept getting better and better until they realized their vision and became arguably one of the best fine dining sushi restaurants in Manhattan.
As Buffalonians and folks who don’t just claim to know great food, but are fans of it and want to nurture gourmet culture here, I think we owe Wes and others a few chances and some time to reach the goals they have set for themselves. Pretending to be experts just for the sake of throwing them under the bus is crap. We’re better than that.
OK Mr. Know it all sushi boy. I don't like fancy sushi. I like simply prepared traditional sushi where you can actually taste the fish. That is what Kuni did. In fact he did it very well. You can shove your "gold leaf" and Ocetra caviar or "dining experiences". I just want a good quality salmon roll in a clean place without any attitude or hastle. For the prices I've paid at Nobu or Blow fish in San Franciso all the "dining experience" in the world are not worth it because it is simply not better than Kuni and neither is Kibarashiu. I am not saying by any means Nobu or Blowfish are bad, they were simply not better than Kuni. I have a tongue just like everyone else, and have had many dining experiences. To suggest that you somehow can taste more than any other person is ridiculous. By the way, my opinion is unbiased. Your's obviously is not. You seem to be a personal friend of the owner, and therefore should keep your opinions to your self. I really hope they get better, they are not so good now though. Sorry..........
Chris is right on!!! I was just at Kibarashi last Saturday & it seened the fish was day old & not fresh to say the least - their were fruit flys flying all over - attention to detail is lacking here - even the decorating is sloppy. The "zen garden bar" is cool but again - lacking attention to detail - silicone caulking is sloppy. Too much wasabi under certain pieces & the slices of fish were very inconsistant some very thin & some thicker. The music was too low & C'MON it doesnt always need to be Japanese music - get some JAZZ or something else going on. My friends & I go to sushi to have a good time not to leave with much to be desired - I WILL NEVER GO TO KIRIBASHI AGAIN!!!!! One last thing I thought was wierd - as I was sitting @ the sushi bar I noticed one of the sushi preparers (asian) was totaly staring - I mean fixated on this attractive girl sitting down the bar from me. I mean - THATS WIERD! Liven this place up & make sure the fish is fresh & consistant or this place wont be there for long at all.
I'm going to Pangea and Kuni's take out when it arrives!!!
Chris is right on!!! I was just at Kibarashi last Saturday & it seened the fish was day old & not fresh to say the least - their were fruit flys flying all over - attention to detail is lacking here - even the decorating is sloppy. The "zen garden bar" is cool but again - lacking attention to detail - silicone caulking is sloppy. Too much wasabi under certain pieces & the slices of fish were very inconsistant some very thin & some thicker. The music was too low & C'MON it doesnt always need to be Japanese music - get some JAZZ or something else going on. My friends & I go to sushi to have a good time not to leave with much to be desired - I WILL NEVER GO TO KIRIBASHI AGAIN!!!!! One last thing I thought was wierd - as I was sitting @ the sushi bar I noticed one of the sushi preparers (asian) was totaly staring - I mean fixated on this attractive girl sitting down the bar from me. I mean - THATS WIERD! Liven this place up & make sure the fish is fresh & consistant or this place wont be there for long at all.
I'm going to Pangea and Kuni's take out when it arrives!!!
By the way BuffaloFan - In fact I was ill after eating @ Kirabashi - on the toilet all night!! So dont tell me its hard to believe - idiot!!!
Bad fish - bad everything - too bad for Buffalo sushi lovers!
DONT GO HERE!
I love Kibarashi! I've never had a bad meal or bad service & I eat there once a week. I love the steamed dumplings & angry tuna roll. Don't get me wrong, I am sympathetic for those of you who claim to have gotten sick. I've had food poisoning & it's not fun to say the least! However, I hope that you did the right thing & gave the restaurant a call the next day & told them that you think that the food you ingested at their establishment may have been contaminated. By calling you're doing two things: 1.) you're giving them a chance to get rid of the "contaminated" fish so others don't get sick & 2.) you're giving them a chance to apologize & try to make the situation better for you. I don't think it's fair to go online & rant about how you spent the night on the toilet after eating at a restaurant. It's all around, BAD TASTE.
Lighten up Lola - if you were that sick you'd be pissed too!!!!
P.S. - I did call - I rec'vd an insincere apology! If you cant manage your fidh inventory properly - you shouldnt be in the biz!!! Lessons to learn here Kiribashi!
Lighten up Lola - if you were that sick you'd be pissed too!!!!
P.S. - I did call - I rec'vd an insincere apology! If you cant manage your fidh inventory properly - you shouldnt be in the biz!!! Lessons to learn here Kiribashi!
Lighten up Lola - if you were that sick you'd be pissed too!!!!
P.S. - I did call - I rec'vd an insincere apology! If you cant manage your fidh inventory properly - you shouldnt be in the biz!!! Lessons to learn here Kiribashi!
I was at Kibarashi recently and also had a horrible experience! The fish was disgusting and seemed old. I found the place to be very plain looking & not exiting like Kuni's & other sushi bars in the area.
Try Tsunami or Pangea - much better if you like fresh fish that is!