I recently visited the newly opened KURO by Konbu in Groningen. It’s being marketed as Japanese modern cuisine, and while it aims to achieve that, I ultimately gave it a “JANEE” because it tries to straddle the line between fancy and casual, without fully committing to either.
Reservation Experience
The reservation experience was pretty smooth. I visited their website (https://kuro.konbu.nl) and appreciated the simple reservation button—no need to mess about with phone calls or phone numbers. It worked well on mobile too, which was a plus!
Drinks
They had a nice selection of drinks in my opinion. I started with the Japanese Asahi Draft Beer, which was smooth and nice. Then, I tried one of their cocktails, the Yuzu Sake Mojito—it was quite sour and refreshing! Interestingly, my partner ordered the mocktail version, which was much sweeter and actually more to my sweet tooth heh.
The Food
The menu’s kinda limited, I’d say. It’s all about sharing here, so everything’s meant for the whole table—you’re not just ordering for yourself. The concept is pretty cool, and honestly, I didn’t feel like we were short on food. We went for some sushi, edamame (glazed with butter), eggplant salad, and a round of fried tempura veggies.
edamame, fried tempura vegetables, eggplant salad, sushi
Out of all the food, I think my favorites were the sushi and the fried veggies. The veggies did come with yogurt, though—which, for my lactose-intolerant self, is basically a death sentence (also, it wasn’t mentioned on the menu that they came with yogurt).
One issue we ran into was the edamame beans—they were super spicy, like, literally coated in a thick layer of spicy sprinkles. I even tried dipping them in soy sauce to tone it down! But the restaurant staff was super friendly and offered to swap it out for a non-spicy version. The new ones were only butter-glazed, and honestly, they were delicious!
Overall
I feel like the atmosphere and food are nice, but they’re trying to wedge in between not too fancy and not too simple, so it comes off a bit unbalanced. Loved their mocktails and cocktails, but I don’t think I’d go back just for myself.
