This local spot owned and run by Japanese people serves a healthy assortment of authentic Japanese cuisine. You won't find any exquisitely named rolls, 2 or 3 roll combinations nor sushi boats here. There are no photos to guide you, descriptions are very brief, so you should have a basic understanding of Japanese food and what it entails. Otherwise, you may find yourself like a deer blinded by headlights. Of course, if you have any questions, the waitresses are more than helpful in describing any of the dishes.
For an appetizer, my friend and I each started with the Chawanmushi ($9.50) which is a steamed egg custard with bonito broth. Inside the egg custard you'll find a large shrimp cut in two, 1-2 pieces of chicken and a few pieces of shiitake mushrooms. This dish is very light yet very delicious. Also worth noting is that they have bottled Yebisu Premium beer ($7.00), definitely something different from the usual Sapporo, Kirin, or Asahi.
For our party of 3, we split a few dishes:
- Octopus carpaccio ($14.00) - Thinly sliced cooked octopus served cold drizzled with oil, and garnished with red onions, capers, baby tomato, and sliced pickled cucumbers which was very light in sourness. The octopus was very fresh, firm yet far from the chewy and tough kind that I'm usually accustomed to. The octopus combined perfectly with the saltiness from the capers and the red onions. This dish reminded me of a Jewish lox variation, replacing salmon with the octopus.
- Sashimi set ($30.00) - 15 pieces of very fresh fish including salmon, tuna, octopus, mackerel, and scallop. The wasabi was homemade, slightly chunky, but very fresh and potent, clearing my sinuses. I was also surprised to see an uncooked okra cut in half, yum!
- Grilled lightly salted mackerel ($12.00) - Yum! I couldn't get enough of this simply prepared mackerel, lightly salted to give this small fish lots of flavor. Squeeze the lemon on top and this dish rocks!! This fish can have little bones, so watch out, but definitely worth the effort. Also included was a cone-shaped daikon, which I didn't care for much since it was fairly bland and tasteless.
- King crab California Roll ($10.00) - King crab meat? Artificial crab meat? You could barely tell the difference besides the small subleties from the more firm texture of king crab meat. Other than that, I didn't really care much for this roll as it was boring and didn't really scream "King crabmeat" but just "crabmeat".
- Shrimp Tempura Roll ($9.00) - Another roll that was fairly average. The shrimp was cooked perfectly, but it just really didn't do any justice for me. Shrimp tempura in a roll, that's all it really was.
- Eel Avocado Roll ($10.00) - This was probably my favorite of the three rolls. This freshly broiled eel made a world of difference along with fresh avocado. I was glad to know that there was at least one Japanese restaurant who doesn't try to cheat customers and use the frozen eel that you find at many Asian supermarkets.
Service was superb. The waitress and I believe the manager/owner (a bigger set lady) would come over with very big smiles and check up on us quite frequently but not obtrusively. They'd clean dishes from the table just as delicately as they placed them down on the table.
The seafood was fairly fresh but I'm still contemplating if the higher prices justify the quality of their food. The food was good, especially the Chawanmushi, but it didn't blow me out of the water. I've spent a lot less and have had better Japanese food. For a party of 3, we wound up spending about $160 on the food and 4 beers, so you can be the judge of that. Worth checking out? I think so, but just prepared to spend some money here. Oh, and they have the Chopsticks magazine publication here. Grab a free copy on your way out!!! read more