Fresh, Crackling-Crisp Hand Rolls Make Nori Bar Worth a Visit

Photo: Andrea Lee

Nori Bar, it’s already a fave. Three out of four of us invited to the hand-roll sushi bar’s soft-opening at Ward Village at the end of November have already gone back on our own. The why is as simple as the offerings: Fresh seafood wrapped in a thin layer of warm sushi rice and insanely crisp nori, each roll made as you finish the last one so you can bite in at maximum crackling crisp.

Nori Bar isn’t Honolulu’s first hand roll sushi counter—that nod goes to Obake, which opened in Chinatown earlier this year. There are no Edomae-style flourishes, no impeccably pedigreed chefs who bring their own followings. Reminiscent of KazuNori, the OG hand roll sushi bars of L.A. and New York City, Nori Bar follows Kaimukī Shokudo’s formula of basic dishes done well at reasonable prices. No hand roll is more than $7; most, including scallop, spicy ‘ahi and fresh Atlantic salmon, are $6 or $6.25, and vegetarian rolls are $5.

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What it has in spades is attention to detail. The shōyu: not from a bottle, but a house recipe for slightly sweet dashi shōyu. Wasabi: not included in the rolls, and not the reconstituted, artificially colored horseradish powder—it’s kizami wasabi, fruity and slightly crunchy with the chopped fresh rootstalk marinated in shōyu, and it’s a side order (get it).

The saucing: refreshingly light. The kabayaki on the warm unagi roll is a complement that doesn’t overpower. Same with the yuzu ponzu dressing the hamachi; it’s just a kiss. The mayo in the scallop, blue crab and spicy ‘ahi rolls is similarly restrained.

Here’s what else you need to know:

1. With only 16 counter seats and no table seating, Nori Bar runs on efficiency. You scan a QR code and order on your phone—and appetizers, sides and hand-rolls will appear one by one, in the order you ordered them. Don’t make the same mistake as me and wait for more rolls to appear: They won’t until you’ve finished what’s in front of you. Why? The nori gets soggier the longer you let it sit. The crispness is memorable, as I might have mentioned, so do it justice and eat quickly.

2. Seafood is fresh—it’s from Fresh Island Fish, the state’s largest seafood distributor with 25 boats. What’s not are the blue crab, which is generous and sweet; scallops, which are rehydrated but still my second favorite choice; and unagi, also flown in and my top choice, warm and freshly grilled with a light touch of tare sauce.

Photo: Thomas Obungen

3. There is a small alcohol selection, including the top three best-known sake labels: Kubota Manju, Otokoyama and Dassai.

4. There’s a 90-minute time limit—see the part about 16 seats.

5. You can get a boxed set of sliced hosomaki skinny rolls to go. Spicy ‘ahi, salmon, hamachi and cucumber rolls come with upgrades of yuzu ponzu and kizami wasabi for $18 during Nori Bar’s soft-opening phase.

6. The eatery is on the ground floor of the Kō‘ula condo tower, kitty-corner from Rinka Japanese Restaurant on the narrow street that runs between Whole Foods Market and the theater parking structure—the two best places for parking.

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Menu adds are still coming, co-owner Chance Kim says, including miso soup, toro hand rolls, uni hand rolls and bluefin akami, ōtoro and chūtoro. The grand opening will happen in January, once the menu is finalized.

And while Nori Bar has been more than a year in the making, outlined to us in this roundup of coming restaurants from January 2023, that’s not all Kim and his partners are up to: They’re opening their third branch of Paradise Poke at Pearl City Shops on Dec. 27 and, Kim says, their fourth at Hawai‘i Kai Towne Center in January.

Open Sunday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. 1000 Auahi St., noribarhawaii.com, @noribarhi, reservations at (808) 379-1144 or on Yelp.