New and Now

5 things to know about Toyota Music Factory's newest restaurant

Sushi should be for everyone — or at least that's what Kabuki Restaurant believes. The newest eatery at Toyota Music Factory in Irving has a diverse menu that showcases traditional and innovative Japanese cuisine and is one more place you can plan to visit whether you're taking in a concert or just looking for a fun time out.

Here are five more things to know about Toyota Music Factory's latest addition:

1. The kids menu is award-winning
Restaurant Hospitality magazine showered Kabuki's kids menu with accolades, and one glance makes it easy to see why. Along with kid-friendly choices like beef teriyaki and chicken sesame, there are slightly more adventurous items like a sushi combo and beef yaki soba. Each meal is served with rice, salad, and a drink.

2. Vegetarian and gluten-free diets get their own menu
Have specific dietary needs? Kabuki is ready for you. Everything from small plates and salads to sushi and signature dishes can be tweaked to accommodate, and it's certainly a lot more welcoming than a single option or requesting a lot of customization.

3. Kabuki has been around for 27 years and boasts 17 locations
Sushi connoisseurs and novices alike have been eating up Kabuki's Japanese cuisine for nearly three decades. What started in California has since expanded to restaurants in Arizona, Nevada, and now Texas, making the Toyota Music Factory location the 17th in the empire.

4. All-day Sapporo happy hour
For the month of October, Kabuki has partnered with Sapporo to bring to Texas its most popular and awaited annual promotion: all-day happy hour Sapporo on draft. Refreshing Sapporo draft beer mugs are $4.50, and pitchers are only $21.50. If you're wondering what pairs best with Sapporo's crisp taste, try ordering up spicy dishes like the restaurant's most popular happy hour small plate, the Fire Cracker (spicy tuna mix, tomatoes, red onion, and wonton chips), or the Spicy Lava Roll.

5. Traditional happy hour
Expect great deals even when it's not October. Traditional happy hour at Kabuki runs Monday through Friday from 3-6 pm, with Late Nite happy hour giving night owls something to look forward to, Monday through Thursday from 9 pm-close and Sundays from 8 pm-close. During happy hour, enjoy $6.50 house-made sake sangrias and sushi starting at only $3.95.

Beef teriyaki shows up on both the adult and kids menus.

Photo courtesy of Toyota Music Factory

Beef teriyaki shows up on both the adult and kids menus.

All You Can Eat News

Eki Sushi will bring buzzy sushi experience to southwest Dallas 'burb

A sushi restaurant with a little something extra is coming to Cedar Hill, on the southwest corner of Dallas: Called Eki Sushi, it'll open at 649 Uptown Blvd., where it will bring two buzzy options to a neighborhood eager to have them.

The restaurant is opening in a former Applebee’s, and is from a team that includes Meng Yang and Ben Zhu, who've operated other Asian restaurants in Texas. A spokesperson says they chose Cedar Hill, which is 18 miles southwest of downtown Dallas and just below Duncanville, because it's an up-and-coming area without many sushi restaurants so far.

They'll open in mid- to late-September.

Eki Sushi will offer:

a "revolving sushi" experience, in which pre-plated sushi is placed on a conveyor belt that circulates past tables, allowing diners to pluck them as they pass
"AYCE" all-you-can-eat sushi, in which diners pay a set price and order as much as they want

Both of these options have proven to be highly appealing to diners. The revolving sushi experience, for example, is a novelty with a sense of "fun" that takes it beyond the usual restaurant meal; entire chains are dedicated to the experience such as Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, which has numerous locations in the DFW area.

AYCE sushi places, also plentiful around DFW, are a lure for those seeking variety and instant gratification. And like a buffet, they allow diners unfamiliar with a cuisine to try a variety of dishes at a low-risk low price.

That said, Eki will follow the lead of many AYCE places that monitor your consumption to avoid waste; if you don't finish the food you order, you get charged regular price. There's also a 90-minute limit — no all-day gluttony — and it's priced differently depending on time of day: $20 at lunch, $30 at dinner, and $31 on weekends.

Eki has a massive menu with sashimi, sushi rolls, 25 specialty rolls from the prototypical Rainbow Roll with crab, cucumber, and avocado, draped with tuna and salmon, to the Sweetheart Roll with spicy tuna, cucumber, and avocado, wrapped in soy paper as well as seaweed and artfully fashioned into a heart-shaped roll.

In addition to sushi, the menu also offers Asian appetizers like edamame, spring rolls, egg rolls, tempura, and gyoza, plus wings and French fries, which are surely welcome in any restaurant, regardless of cuisine.

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Eki Sushi will bring buzzy sushi experience to southwest Dallas 'burb