RA Sushi (Leawood, KS)

With various locations in nine states RA Sushi • Bar • Grill is a Japanese fusion sushi bar. Their menu includes signature sushi rolls, a full grill menu and bar. I reviewed the Leawood, Kansas location (11638 Ash Street) during a recent weekend trip. Happy Hour is Monday - Friday 3pm to 7pm and Sunday 8pm to close with a reverse option Monday - Saturday 10pm to close. Discounts include select sushi and appetizers like pineapple cheese wontons and the Viva Las Vegas roll as well as drink specials.

I liked the exterior of RA as well as the location (it was conveniently right next to the hotel I was staying in) immediately. You could see the sushi bar as soon as you walked in which was nice and there was tons of seating. We went during reverse HH on a Saturday so much of the bar seating was taken already. We ended up at an awkward railing type of seat that forced us to spread out, causing us to not really talk as it was harder to hear each other. The interior was nicely designed, but a bit too dark lighting wise. Our waitress took our order promptly and the wait time wasn't too bad.

I started with the white peach sake sangria ($7: cordials, cold sake, fruit juice) which was pretty good. Not terribly strong, which was helpful after Power & Light the night before, and fresh. Would have liked a few pieces of peach in the sangria.

My first roll was the shrimp tempura roll ($6.89: shrimp tempura, spicy crab mix and cucumber) which arrived in 5 pieces. Really liked the crab mix, hated the tempura batter. The bits of cucumber on the end pieces were a bit too big to eat in one piece so I ended up taking them out. Gagged a little when I discovered the shrimp tail on the end piece still had its shell.

Next was the crunchy calamari roll ($5.89: calamari tempura, crab mix and cream cheese rolled and topped with spinach tempura bits; served with sweet eel sauce). I didn't get much of the tempura batter in this one, which could be a good thing (because I hated it) or a bad thing (did that mean i didn't get much actual calamari). Was expecting this roll to be a bit more flavorful, which it wasn't. The spinach tempura pieces looked fun, but you don’t really taste them at all.

I give RA 3 smiles. Overall I didn't love this place, but they had quite a few HH appetizers that I’d be interested in trying. I’d also try a few of their non-HH rolls. The drink was good and the service/atmosphere helped tip the scales a bit as well.