by Ellen White » Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:11 am
Sorry, Kansai fans, but I didn't like this place as much as you did.
The manager was, as stated, very friendly. He seemed like a really nice guy, and I only talked to him for one second!
The place seems pretty big. It is one very large room. There are 10 grill tables,maybe 10 regular tables, and the sushi bar, with 8 seats. The walls are rust-colored (not my favorite, but ok). The sushi bar is black granite with sparkly flecks in it-pretty, but kind of weird for a sushi bar (this is the same material they used for the counter in the bathroom). The acoustic-tile ceiling is painted black, and, with the stainless steel vents hanging down from the ceiling over the grill tables, looks pretty cool.
I arrived at approximately 5:15 p.m. Perhaps four tables were occupied, plus two of the grill tables. After I was seated at the sushi bar by the manager (I was the only one at the sushi bar), the waitress came over to take my order. I ordered iced tea and a ginger salad.
As I was looking over the sushi menu, it seemed a little expensive to me (however, after further research, it was not out of line). Salmon roll, tuna roll, and California roll were $5 each; eel roll was $7; rainbow roll was $8.95; avocado roll was $4. Nigiri prices were $5 for salmon or tuna, $6 for yellowtail. There was an extra charge of around $1-$2 if you ordered sashimi. For example, salmon nigiri is $5, but it is $7 for sashimi.
Ginger salad and miso soup were the standard $1.50 each.
My iced tea and ginger salad arrived. The unsweetened iced tea was nice and crisp; just a danged good glass of tea. The ginger salad was standard fare-iceberg lettuce, a few shredded carrots, and a lot of ginger dressing.
It seemed to take a while for the sushi to arrive; I would say at least 25 minutes. I had been finished with the salad for a while, and I recall that I kept looking at my watch.
When the sushi arrived, it was arranged on a large white plate. I ordered salmon nigiri, scallop nigiri, and a spicy tuna roll. The salmon and scallop were on a diagonal on the right side of the plate on top of a green leaf. The tuna roll was cut into 8 pieces and arranged on the left side of the plate with four pieces on the bottom and the other four pieces on top. There was a small serving of wasabi and ginger (the ginger was white, not pink).
When I first saw the salmon, it seemed like a small cut of fish, but then, when I took it off the rice, it was actually a nice-sized piece. The proportion of fish to rice was good; the rice was a little less than thumb-size. The scallops looked big enough, but they were served with a thin slice of lemon on top. Now, I know that a lot of people like lemon with fish, but when I see a piece of sushi with slices of lemon on it, I automatically think that the fish is not fresh enough and they're trying to mask it. (This may not be true at all, but that's just what I think).
My test for salmon nigiri is this: take it off the rice and take a bite, just the fish, no soy sauce. Well, this salmon did not pass that test. For me, the salmon should be almost buttery, like it could just melt in your mouth. This salmon was dry. However, when I ate it with the sushi rice and dipped it in the soy sauce, it was better.
The scallops, although a little fishy-tasting, were good, but they did retain some of the flavor of the lemon (even though I took the lemon off immediately).
The spicy tuna roll was good. It was not too spicy, but I could feel the heat, and after finishing the roll, my tongue was burning (not burning off, but enough for me).
The waitress came over twice, and the manager came over once while I was there. Normally, I hate it when managers come over to the table, but this guy was so nice that I didn't mind.
My total came to $25.00: salad $1.50, tea $1.95, scallop nigiri $5, salmon nigiri $5, spicy tuna roll $6, tax $1.36, tip $4.19.
Pretty expensive for one person, but I wanted to get a representative sampling of a couple of nigiri and a roll.
