Two years after an electrical fire forced it to close, Kanpai Japanese restaurant will reopen May 10 in Boca Raton under the ownership of Lixii Sun, founder of South Florida’s Yakitori Sake House and Ninja Spinning Sushi Bar.
Located at the intersection of Federal Highway and East Palmetto Park Road, Kanpai’s 6,000-square-foot space hosts 256 seats, three dining venues, two cocktail bar and a wine library. Moreover, it will have a revamped sushi bar and will remain the sole dining establishment in southern Palm Beach and Broward counties offering yakiniku (Japanese barbecue).
For Kanpai’s reboot, Sun partnered with executive sushi chefs, Choum Loy and Jimmy Hernandez, who commandeered the restaurant’s previous kitchen, to create dishes that transported palettes to Hong Kong, Osaka,Hokkaido, Tokyo, Taiwan, and other gastronomy destinations around Japan and the Japanese archipelago.
Coupled with fresh seafood like Bluefin tuna from Tokyo’s legendary Tsukiji Outer Market and Faroe Island salmon, the menu amalgamates new creations and old favorites such as bulgogi, wagyu gyoza, and bang bang shrimp remastered with bold flavors. Highlights include kinoko nabe, a Japanese mushroom stone hot pot with umami shoyu and jidori egg yolk; paella with wagyu fried rice, house kimchi, poached egg, and nori furikaki; miso black cod; mentaiko cream udon with spicy cod roe, ikura, shiso, and sake butter; and a variety of aburi-style, or flame-seared, nigiri, including torched Bluefin salmon belly with kewpie mayo, togarashi, scallion, seared foie gras, and black garlic shoyu.
The yakiniku experience has also been enhanced. In an intimate, art-imbued dining hall teeming with 13 smokeless grills, diners are encouraged to relinquish the tongs to “barbecue butlers” who are trained in the ancient art of Japanese grilling and enhance the process with sauces, marinades, and side dishes personalized to patrons’ predilections. Yakiniku selections showcase fine cuts of meat, including wagyu beef and USDA Prime steak sourced locally from purveyors like Palm Beach Meats in West Palm Beach.
Allied with the culinary artistry is a libations menu comprised of scratch Asian-inspired cocktails such the strawberry-lemongrass mule, a comprehensive wine list, award-winning Japanese whiskeys, and an extensive collection of celebrated and outré tequilas
“I am definitely a tequila enthusiast,” Sun said. “In addition to Don Julio 1942, Casamigos, and other standards, we will have ultra-premium and award-winning selections like Black Sheep, El Tesoro, El Tequileño Reposado Gran Reserva, and Fortaleza, which is my personal favorite.”
Kanpai will be open for dinner Sunday through Thursday, 4 p.m. to 12 a.m., and Friday and Saturday, 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Daily happy hour is 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and late-night happy hour is Sunday through Thursday, 10 p.m. to 12 a.m.
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