Houston’s Blade Runner Restaurant Leaves a Cool Impression — Your First Taste Review Of Haii Keii and Its Asian Flavors

One steps inside Houston’s new globally inspired Asian restaurant Haii Keii through a dark portal lit only by the neon glow of illuminated Plexi screens and into a dining room that soars to 17 feet in height. And it quickly becomes apparent that this is a restaurant group that takes its food as seriously as its thematic interior. Gin Design Group’s decorative inspiration for the 3,000-square-foot space (with another 1,000 feet of outdoor dining room) was found in the futuristic realm of director Ridley Scott’s science fiction classic Blade Runner melded with the cinematic bent of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, with a good dose of Asian iconography added.

Haii Keii is Japanese for “Dear Sir or Madam”(albeit with an extra “i” added). Its dining room features an eight-foot-tall inverted bonsai tree glowing with LED embedded leaves that can change color at whim, each reflected in the red-tinted spherical mirror behind it framed with black river stones. Whether you’re seated in a cozy two-person alcove with red lacquered tabletops framed with rows of hanging silken crimson cords or you’re ushered to the plush violet and turquoise upholstered seats, be sure to glance ever so often at the 8-foot-tall Shoji screen high above where shadows of a geisha girl and a sumo wrestler subtly walk through the room.

“Haii Keii is more than just a restaurant,” Jarred Tosto, who co-owns this first-year Houston restaurant with Jeff Auld. “It’s an experience. We wanted to create a space where people can explore the bold, diverse flavors of Asia while being immersed in an atmosphere that feels both vibrant and refined.”

Located in the River Oaks/Upper Kirby District at 3300 Kirby Drive (in the Kirby Collection development), the powers that be sought out executive chef Jeffrey Taylor, who spent seven years at Morimoto in Philadelphia to lead the kitchen, along with sushi chef Jose Espinoza. Together, they blend the traditions of the East with modern culinary influences.

Diving Into The Haii Keii Menu

With dishes intended to be shared, you’ll find cold offerings like blue tuna crudo with three cuts of tuna: akami, chutoro and otoro tinged with citrus spiked dashi, fresh blueberries and ginger chips ($24) and oysters that hail from the chilly waters of the East Coast topped with cucumber granita and chili oil ($9).

On the hot side, the warm milk bread, made in-house, is served with cultured butter and a scattering of smoked trout roe ($8), while the indulgent lobster dumplings filled with lobster mousse are presented in a shallow, flavorsome pool of wasabi sabayon ($22). Even more decadent is the one-bite wonder of grilled eel and foie gras mousse poised on a milk bread toast point drizzled with a plum gastrique ($15).

For those who appreciate the taste of Wagyu beef, take your pick of Wagyu steaks raised in America, Japan, or Australia, all of which are finished with truffle-scented miso butter.

The nigiri, sashimi and maki selections at Haii Keii highlight pristine seafood flown in daily and include the torched Kinmedai golden-eye snapper tinged with apple miso and Thai basil ($8/$22), a vegetable-forward Chinese eggplant with sweet miso and togarashi ($3.50), and what is sure to become the signature maki roll. That’d be the Murakami roll, a luxe creation featuring king crab, Japanese A5 Wagyu, Kaluga caviar and a sparkle of edible gold leaf brought to the table with a lit candle beside it made with the delicious fat of the king crab ($50).

While Haii Keii features a full bar, don’t miss scoping out the colorful cocktail menu, where Asian ingredients are blended in new and modern ways, like the tincture Spring in Nagano, this new restaurant’s version of a vodka lychee martini with cherry blossoms.

Haii Keii is open Sundays through Thursdays from 5 pm to 10 pm  and Fridays and Sundays from 5 pm to 11 pm.