I have to admit, my first visit’s failure may have been a fluke. There were so many things that I immediately loved about Kaze, which is co-owned and operated by Jon Zipperstein, who also owns Embers restaurant near Kenwood Mall, and Hideki Harada, who has been a chef at both Boca and Embers. They have done a beautiful job of renovating the historic Cincinnati Color building with cozy warm colors, low lighting, comfortable seating, interesting wall treatments and ever-changing, large-scale, elaborate chalkboard drawings. They have also done the best job of controlling the acoustics of all the restaurants in OTR. The service is flawless. The polite servers are more than happy to elaborate on menu descriptions and explain their dining style of encouraged sharing and bringing out plates as soon as their ready from the kitchen, not to mention help with pronunciations. Wonderful. So, what’s my problem? The food.
On my first visit, we shared a couple of large sushi rolls and I ordered the Ramen Tonkotsu, which is pork belly ramen noodle soup with small portions of baby bok choy and egg. I’m in no way a sushi snob, but these sushi rolls were mostly rice with a laughably small amount of actual sushi goodness in the center. It was pretty low on flavor. The pork belly ramen was served scalding, but unfortunately I didn’t burn my taste buds enough to mask the extremely fatty flavor of the soup, which was made with dashi broth. I usually cook with chicken or vegetable stock at home, so I my palate may be accustomed to a milder broth, but the only flavor I could taste in the soup was fat, and I'm not talking about a bacon-y goodness, more like eating a stick of unsalted butter, but meatier. I forced myself through some of the noodles, but overall it was inedible for me.
I am happy to say that my second visit was a complete flavor reversal. Again, the service was amazing and they’ve even added some slatted partitions above and between the booths to make them more private. This time, we ordered a house-infused sake, which was flavored with blood orange and ginger. It was so delicious and fresh. I ordered the Niku Sliders, which came as a pair and together made a healthy portion. The sliders were the best thing I’ve tasted there, above all of my friends’ dishes and definitely a far leap from the pork belly ramen. The sliders came with nice thick pieces of short rib, a spicy and cool cucumber kimchi, and an addicting barbecue sauce that had me practically licking my plate. And, the buns weren’t a soggy mess. The cucumber kimchi was a genius invention. The cooling cucumber juxtaposed by the spicy dressing was an amazing combination.
Again, we ordered sushi. The Slammin’ Salmon came with a nice chunk of slightly blackened salmon, cucumber, avocado, scallion, tobiko, and yuzu creme. Although, the surface of the salmon was charred, the fish itself was still raw, so it was extremely moist and nicely smokey. The Kato Roll with vegetarian kakiage, which is like a tempura, asparagus, avocado, and pleasantly crispy sweet potato was also surprisingly flavorful, with a proper balance of rice and a side ramekin of not-quite-enough yummy chimichurri dipping sauce. I was totally satisfied. What a total turn-around. I have to conclude that maybe on the first visit I was unlucky in my choices, because everything during this visit was spectacular.
I still need to investigate the back bar at Kaze. I am happy to see that they are experimenting with infusions, which has me eager to try some specialty cocktails. They have happy hour from 5-7 p.m. daily, a special happy hour with food specials on Sunday and Monday nights from 9 p.m. to midnight, karaoke is on Wednesday nights from 8 p.m. to midnight, and they feature a DJ on Saturdays for a dance party from 10 p.m.-2 a.m. I suppose I'll need to return for a third take.
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