Sunday, April 25, 2010

Edokko: 8615 Hauser Ct. Lenexa

Sunday, April 25, 2010
The restaurant critics gave a nice shout-out to Edokko on KCUR's Walt Bodine show a few weeks ago. I was glad this place was on their radar because I had eaten there back in March and found it to serve among the best sushi in town.

Edokko Sushi

Edokko is situated in a small strip mall on Hauser Ct. just off 87th street in Lenexa. It sits next door to KC Grill & Kabob which itself offers a very fine Middle Eastern lunch buffet. Inside the entrance is a little lobby with some large bamboo and a delightful fish pond. The little speaker on top issues a barely audible greeting when you walk in or out.

Edokko

Edokko

Sushi is a great option for lunchers venturing out on their own. You can always count on the presence of a sushi bar where you can join other solo diners. The bar also offers the opportunity to watch the sushi chef practice his craft; some chefs (the gentleman at Jun's comes to mind) are veritably chatty fellows who are more than happy to discuss the finer points of sushi-making.

Edokko is very tastefully decorated, anchored by an 18-seat granite sushi bar with stone accents.
Sushi bar

A series of elevated wooden booths run along two walls above the central dining area. The booths are sleek and modern with appealing earth-toned cushions.

Booths

Like most better sushi places, prices run a little higher than the average lunch excursion. The sushi special runs $10.95 and includes 6 pieces, a California roll and miso soup.

Sushi lunch

Miso soup

This is definitely a crowd-pleasing special as there are no "weird" choices, and a California roll is about as safe as you can get. But this was great sushi, absolutely creamy, fresh tasting and delightful. The nigiri were on the large side as well.

I went back recently and wanted to check out something else from their lunch menu (PDF). I opted for Yaki Udon, a dish of thick noodles mixed with chicken, snap peas, egg, lettuce, carrots, mushrooms and topped with sesame seeds and slivers of dried seaweed. Delicious. I strongly suspect that they make they own udon noodles but I haven't eaten them a lot. I just have a hard time believing that a dried noodle could taste this tender and fresh. I asked the server but she had no idea how they were prepared, and indeed seemed clueless as to what the cooks did back there. That's some serious division of labor.

Yaki Udon

Nonetheless, I appreciated the otherwise great service both at a booth and at the sushi bar during each visit. When I visited shortly after they opened, the owner chatted with me briefly, asking how I heard about Edokko, whether I liked the food and encouraging me to come back. She seemed like a nice lady and I felt good about patronizing the place. You will too, assuming you want to eat in Lenexa.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure they have karaoke.

3 comments:

Faith said...

We went and tried this place out a while back when we heard about their sushi special they have on Sunday nights. Not sure if they still have it, but it was too rich for our blood, anyway. Even though we have 400 pounds between us, we couldn't put away enough rolls to make the special worth our trouble!

The rolls were delicious, though. I totally agree with your assessment of the tastiness of their sushi there.

And that is a freaking AWESOME lunch special, comparatively. I usually order from Sushi House for lunch, and get one of their bento boxes for lunch...they generally run me above $12. So $10.95 is totally in line with most sushi places, I think, and WOW that is a lot of food!

JJSKCK said...

Haven't been there for lunch, but I agree with your assessment. Really, really good sushi. We now go to Sakura (aka "sushi train") for quantity and Edokko for quality.

Unknown said...

Second this on the sushi - We get it to take out often. Really great sushi and the owners are super nice.

Your Ad Here
 
Copyright 2007-2011 by Kansas City Lunch Spots. All Rights Reserved.