Wichita will soon be buzzing about the unique design, food at this east-side restaurant

The sign has been up for several weeks at Kyuramen / TBaar , the restaurant just behind Freddy’s Frozen Custard on Rock Road that Sapporo owners Lee Li and Leo Lin are about to open along with some partners.

But when Wichitans get inside the restaurant after it opens later this month, they’ll be able to also check out the restaurant’s unique interior and surprising menu items.

Kyuramen/TBaar, which will be at 314 N. Rock Road, is nearing completion, and Li says it will open before the month is over.

This week, Li invited me over for a sneak peek at the restaurant, which is part of a chain based in New York City whose interior is like nothing Wichita has seen. Construction on the involved design started nine months ago, and though the dining room is not quite complete, the blonde wood structures that will have people talking are already in place.

Chief among them: a honeycomb-shaped wall of enclosed wooden booths that includes eight individual booths on three levels. Each booth is fitted with its own Japanese lamp shade and lined with lighting, and the levels are connected by stairs.

Nearby are two enclosed circular wooden booth structures that are both shaped like sake bottles. The restaurant also has a long row of enclosed wooden booths that are made private with curtain panels. In the back of the restaurant are two private booths that will accommodate larger parties.

The centerpiece of the restaurant is an intricate wooden wishing tree whose wooden “branches” stretch out across the ceiling and are fitted with tiny hooks. Kyuramen staff members will encourage people to write their wishes on small wooden panels, which they’ll hang from the tree using ribbon. A nearby wall structure has been designed to hold the wishes that don’t fit on the tree, and the staff will regularly switch them out.

Kyuramen also has an open kitchen lined with a bar where people can sit and watch the cooks at work as they dine. And near a Japanese lantern by the entrance of the 4,800-square-foot space will be a hanging swing chair where people can sit and pose for selfies.

“I think it’s really a cool experience just because you don’t see that type of restaurant here,” said Quinn Nguyen, who has managed Sapporo for four years but is moving over to Kyuramen as a partner. “People get to interact with things within the restaurant.”

The menu at Kyuramen will also likely get people talking. Li, who will staff the kitchen, has been to New York City twice for training, and one of the biggest challenges, she said, was learning to make an entree called Omurice. The Instagrammable dish is essentially a puffed up, oval-shaped omelet with a firm exterior. When a diner runs a knife across the top, the omelet dramatically opens up, almost like a flower, and the scrambled eggs nestled inside spill out. It takes eight eggs to make the dish, which sits on top of a bed of chicken fried rice that then can be topped with the diner’s choice of curry sauce or demi glace.

The star of the menu is the ramen, which the owners say is made with broth that takes a week to prepare and then simmer. Once the restaurant gets its final approvals from the city, Lee said, she’ll need another week to prepare the ramen broth. Customers will be able to choose from nine different ramen soup options .

Kyuramen also is known for its extensive appetizer list , which includes things like steamed bao buns, deep fried dumplings, octopus balls and fried oysters. Li said her favorite appetizers are the salt-and-pepper popcorn chicken bites and the crispy corn, which features deep fried corn kernels. Li said she loved the corn so much that she kept sneaking pieces of it while she trained.

The official Kyuramen menu also includes hot pot dishes and unique rice burgers, which feature different proteins served on buns made of rice. The corporate trainers ask new restaurants not to serve that part of the menu when they first open, Li said, but those items will be added later.

The desserts, Nguyen said, are also decadent and include things like matcha pudding, matcha tiramisu, mango crepe cake and Japanese cherry blossom jelly.

Kyuramen will open with an attached business called TBaar , which will be open the same hours as the restaurant but will offer boba tea. It has its own counter where people can order from a drink menu that also includes smoothies and fruit tea.

Kyuramen’s customers will be able to choose from several combo options that include boba drinks from TBaar. Meanwhile, those who stop in just to patronize TBaar will also be able to order some of Kyuramen’s appetizers.

Li said she became acquainted with TBaar during her travels to New York City. The shop sold the only boba she truly loved, and she later also found a ramen restaurant she liked. Eventually, she learned that the two businesses were under the same ownership umbrella.

Once the new restaurant opens in Wichita, Li — always an energetic presence at Sapporo, the sushi restaurant at 8065 Peachtree Lane that she and her husband opened in 2017 — will lead the kitchen. Her husband, Lin, who is Sapporo’s sushi chef, will stay at Sapporo.

Li said she’d share the opening date for Kyuramen/TBaar as soon as she knows it, so stay tuned.

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