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It’s rare that a restaurant’s signature item is so popular it spawns an entirely new concept, but it’s been known to happen (we’re looking at you, Breakfast by Salt’s Cure). But Katsuya’s grilled blocks of sushi rice—charred on each side and covered with tuna tartare and serrano peppers—are doing just that, because the hallmark of chef Katsuya Uechi’s sushi chain is coming directly to your door thanks to a new offshoot, Krispy Rice.
The delivery-only restaurant is all about Katsuya’s original spicy tuna bites, a sort of crunchy take on nigiri, but it’s also offering a rainbow of new options: truffled avocado “krispy” rice, king salmon and yuzu “krispy” rice and a spicy hamachi version, all served two to an order for $5 to $7 (already at a discount to Katsuya’s tuna starter, which comes four for $17).
And because its sibling restaurant is a full sushi bar, Krispy Rice is launching with a few classics, too, including hand rolls—some wrapped with seaweed, some with soy paper—at around $9 for two, plus more traditional nigiri duos and sashimi at around $8.
It’s also selling maki (cut) rolls, both in a straightforward capacity and a mix-and-match option, giving you four, six or eight pieces of each, so you can build the sushi bento of your dreams. About that bento: The playful pink boxes are all made from recyclable materials, and are carbon-neutral, which can help offset the delivery footprint.
Uechi’s original Katsuya locations are currently open for pickup and local delivery, but if you’re not in Hollywood, DTLA, Glendale or Brentwood—or you simply want a menu that feels a bit more casual—Krispy Rice could be the way to go, and it’s available on all the major delivery apps (DoorDash, Grubhub, UberEats, Caviar and Postmates). You can find it delivering in all of Katsuya’s neighborhoods, operating out of their kitchens, as well as across the city thanks to ghost kitchens, which allow delivery-only concepts like Krispy Rice to cook from a rental or commissary kitchen at a lower cost than operating a storefront.
This isn’t the restaurant family’s first ghost-kitchen rodeo; sbe Group launched a fried-chicken delivery concept last month, and in the next two years, the company hopes to roll out 75 Krispy Rice locations around the country, including in New York, Miami and San Francisco.
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