Sushi Kadan Feels Like a Japanese Picnic — in Carrollton

Walking into Sushi Kadan, a new sushi and Japanese restaurant in Carrollton, customers are met with a cool, dark, dimly lit interior. They can sit at the bar and watch as sushi is made or sit at a table underneath three faux cherry blossom trees. Eating at Sushi Kadan is almost like having an Asian picnic. That is the idea, anyway.

Kadan means garden in Japanese, floor manager Seung Kang says. In Asia, especially in Korea and Japan, the cherry blossom tree is everywhere, he says.

“We wanted to make our customers feel like they’re on a picnic under the beautiful trees, eat the great food and enjoy their time,” he says.

Young Kang, the owner, operates five Japanese restaurants in Vancouver, Canada. When he visited a friend in Dallas, he saw a lot of potential for a new place. In his mind, Japanese restaurants here were flawed, Seung Kang says. So Young Kang got his business visa and began working on Sushi Kadan.

The menu at Sushi Kadan consists of Japanese classics such as chicken teriyaki, tempura, and yakisoba and udon noodles.

While agedashi tofu might not be a rarity at most Japanese restaurants, Seung Kang says spicy agedashi tofu is. Sushi Kadan’s version of this dish is deep-fried, coated in a custom spicy orange sauce, and garnished with small shrimp and broccoli.

Yakisoba noodles are like the angel hair pasta of Japan, Seung Kang says. The yakisoba is a stir-fried, thin noodle dish with mixed vegetables and a choice of chicken, beef or seafood. This dish is topped with sesame seeds and doused in oyster sauce.

Sushi Kadan serves California, eel and other traditional sushi rolls, but the heart of the restaurant lies in the specialty roll menu. The Crazy Boy and Crazy Girl rolls were made to the tastes of the owner's children.

“He has a daughter and two sons, and since we were like monkeys when we were young, he wanted to make our own [rolls] that we liked,” Seung Kang says.

The Crazy Girl roll is a deep-fried California roll with crab meat, cucumber, avocado and a mayonnaise mix topped with spicy mayonnaise and eel sauce.

Sushi Kadan is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Sushi Kadan, 3052 Old Denton Road, Carrollton