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Hello Nori
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There’s finger food, there’s fast food, and then there are the warm and crunchy, fresh and delectable hand rolls served in seconds at Hello Nori. A place where contemporary design and superb service are matched with top-quality bites, Hello Nori invites guests to experience simplicity raised to rare heights.
Founded in Vancouver, in 2021, Hello Nori is a chain of hand roll bars with succinct menus focused squarely on über-fresh fish.
“What we wanted to do with the concept is elevate it, create a space that is truly unique but really quite premium, as well,” says corporate director of operations, Isaac Olivier.
“Our name, Hello Nori, really speaks to our company’s values, which is hospitality and people first,” he continues. “Our staff are very much engaged in the guest experience. We’re not truly satisfied unless you’ve had a truly exceptional experience, from the food to the space, to the interactions that you’ve had with the staff.”
Opened on King Street West this fall, Hello Nori’s fourth location is a vast, double-height space blessed with minimalist finishes and a yawning central kitchen, around which customers perch on polished stools. Beyond the kaleidoscopic platters piled with jewel-toned morsels of fish, the restaurant’s most dramatic feature is a jaw-dropping, undulating ceiling fixture, made by BUILD-IT, that’s meant to pay homage to the area’s history as a textile mecca.
“One of the things that we do differently,” adds Olivier, “is that we want to create a full experience. Our beverage list really reflects that, with beer, wine and sake. …On the food side, we have beautiful sashimi platters, we have oshi sushi, we have desserts.”
With its high design, quality dishes and polished service, Hello Nori is as comfortable for a quick, 20-minute lunch, as it is, says Olivier, for a prolonged celebration. “Come in, maybe have a bottle of sake, have a three-course meal, have something that is more fulsome in an environment that really reflects that premium product.”
Designed by corporate chef Jay Pugong, Hello Nori’s menu isn’t lavish in its scope but is extravagant when it comes to details. “Our food is simple,” explains Olivier. “It’s seaweed. It’s rice and seafood. Because of that, when it comes to those ingredients, we are extremely picky.
“We have a very focused menu,” he continues. “We don’t do everything, and that’s for a very specific reason. The things that we do, we want to make sure that we do to a very high level, with a lot of intent.”
For example, the nori hugging every piece of charred octopus and buttery slice of king salmon was selected from a long list of dozens of contenders. From a specific region of Japan, it’s prized for its texture and distinct terroir.
A source of pride for chef, Hello Nori’s rice is “a proprietary blend made from two types of grains,” says Olivier. One, Kinmemai, is known and valued in Japan for its high nutritional content and lower caloric value. The rice, adds Olivier, allows guests to crush scads of hand rolls all while avoiding bloating, heaviness and other dreaded consequences of overindulgence.
Beverages are chosen using similarly stringent methods, with a focus on local collaborations a highlight at each location. In Toronto, the Hello Lager, an unfiltered rice beer, was brewed locally by Rorschach Brewing Co. Izumi Gold, a Junmai Ginjo sake from Izumi Sake Brewery, is a delicate, premium offering also sourced from nearby.
A component of most dishes (though vegetarian options are also available), Hello Nori’s seafood is of the highest quality. The team, says Olivier, works with Ocean Wise, to ensure “all of our seafood is sustainably raised. We are sure that we’re managing our impact.”
Despite the luxurious ingredients on offer, Hello Nori has a casual feel. Hop onto a stool and a jovial server will appear to explain the concept, answer questions and take your drink order.
Served in a masu box (or traditional Japanese measuring container) with a cup inside, sake is poured until it overflows, spilling into the vessel below. “It’s a gesture of hospitality and good will,” explains Olivier. “We are overflowing your glass. Showing that we want to overprovide,” he laughs.
The show continues in the centre workspace, where three chefs (one per 12 customers is the ideal ratio) work diligently to prep hand-roll orders. They tenderly dab mounds of warm, subtly sweet rice onto crisp, branded nori sheets before layering on seasoned shrimp or truffle lobster, spicy bluefin tuna or, on occasion, wobbly strips of meltingly tender torched wagyu. Each roll is served the moment it’s ready; to ignore it, even for seconds, is to allow time to wreak havoc on the singular characteristics that make it sing.
Though one could easily, very satisfyingly, make a meal of nothing more than a stream of Hello Nori hand rolls, the menu also tempts with aburi oshi and ornate sashimi platters, trimmed with salmon and Hokkaido scallops, bonito tataki, tuna and squid. Staying in? Traditional sushi rolls are also available for takeout and delivery.
With two more Toronto locations (in the Financial District and Yorkville) opening soon, plus a grand plan to swell to 100 restaurants worldwide, Hello Nori’s unique blend of simplicity and finesse will eventually feel as familiar as ubiquitous fast-food options. With dishes that are immeasurably more enjoyable, more surprising, nutritious and polished, that’s incredibly good news.
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