Road Tips

Shakou - Park Ridge, IL

In the Chicago suburbs on a recent trip to the area, I decided that I really needed some sushi one evening.  I wanted to try some place new and a place in Park Ridge caught my eye as I was driving by it a few weeks before - Shakou.  I decided to give the place a try, and then when I got there and got settled in, I realized that I had already eaten at a Shakou location before this.   

I had eaten at the Shakou in St. Charles about about four years ago with a dealer of mine and his wife and I had thought it was very good.  (Click here to see that visit to the St. Charles Shakou.)  The first Shakou opened in far north suburban Libertyville in 2013 by a small group of people who lived there - Ed Hartigan, Aleks Dupor and his wife, Chrissy, and Adam Garvanian.   Aleks Dupor and Garvanian both had extensive histories in the restaurant business and had been friends for over 20 years before going in together - along with Dupor's wife, Chrissy - and coaxing their friend Hartigan out of the investment banking business to start the first Shakou in downtown Libertyville.  The second Shakou opened in St. Charles in April of 2015 and a third location in the far northwestern suburb of Barrington opened in October of that year.  The Park Ridge Shakou opened just over a year ago in late June of 2016.  

The decor is similar to the one out in St. Charles - a distinctive modern style with blue accent lights along the long wall and under that long bar that split from a regular bar to a sushi bar.  Unique lighting arrangements hung from the middle of the room with small Edison-style bulbs inside small glass lamps hanging above the bar.  Contemporary art work also was hung on the walls throughout the place.   

I took a seat at the sushi bar and asked my server for a bottle of Asahi.  They don't have Asahi at Shakou - something that I sort of remembered from my first visit to the St. Charles location.  I ended up getting a bottle of Sapporo instead.  

For starters, I went with a couple rolls each of spicy salmon and spicy tuna.  The rolls were somewhat large, but there were only five thin cut rolls with adequate amounts of ground salmon and tuna in each roll.  The spicy mixture was mixed in with the salmon and tuna rather than using a spicy sauce on top.  Both spicy rolls were very good, but I liked the taste and the consistency of the spicy tuna roll better.  

For sushi, well, I probably went overboard.  I ended up getting two pieces of Blue Fin tuna that they had that evening at a market price.  I also got two pieces each of sake (salmon) and hamachi (yellow tail), and four pieces of the smoked salmon.  Overboard, in that it was a lot of fish - the cuts were very large - and it was also expensive.  The Blue Fin tuna was outstanding with a fatty taste and chewy consistency.  The yellow tail was just all right as it was a bit fishy in taste, but the salmon - and especially the smoked salmon - was very good.  The smoked salmon had a great smoky taste and it was firm and full-bodied.  But I was completely stuffed by the end of the meal.  

Sometimes I forget the names of places I've eaten at in the past, but I wasn't disappointed in finding - and trying - the newest Shakou in Park Ridge.   Like the location I've eaten at in St. Charles, this Shakou had good spicy rolls and very good to outstanding sushi.  The contemporary decor was similar to the St. Charles location, and the service was impeccable.  My only caveat was that it was rather expensive for all that I got.  Other than that, I have no complaints for my visit to Shakou in Park Ridge.  

Wasabi Tao - Des Moines

My wife and I had gone back to the Des Moines area to participate in a surprise significant birthday party for my sister this past fall.  We were going to stay in downtown Des Moines for the evening and we had planned on going to get sushi.  My sister's boyfriend said that we needed to go try Wasabi Tao.  "It's the best," he said.  "Oh, yeah," my sister said agreeing with him. "It's our favorite."  We had planned on going back to Akebono which we thought had great sushi.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Akebono.)  But from the conviction in their voices pretty much convinced us to go to Wasabi Tao that evening.  

Actually, I was somewhat familiar with the Wasabi family of restaurants since the 2011 opening of Wasabi Chi on Des Moines' northwest side.  Jay Wang was born and raised in the Fujian region of China which is known for having some of the finest culinary experiences in that country.  Wang and his friend, Tony He, both went to Japan to learn the art of Japanese cuisine before heading to New York City to work in restaurants there.  

Wang eventually ended up in Philadelphia before he came to Des Moines - how he ended up in Des Moines, I just don't know.  But along with partner Jimmy Zheng, they opened the first Wasabi restaurant with a focus on "New York-style" sushi, as well as variations on Thai and Chinese food.  It was an immediate hit with sushi lovers in Central Iowa and got a number of great reviews in local publications - not only for the food, but for the feng shui decor of the place.   

Things were going so well at Wasabi Chi that Wang was recruiting sushi chefs from both coasts.  His biggest recruit was his friend, Tony He, who was still a sushi chef in New York City.  Making He a partner in his new restaurant, Wang then opened Wasabi Tao in the former Zen - then Centro - spot in the Kirkwood building (home of the former Kirkwood Hotel) in downtown Des Moines.  

Wang expanded the Wasabi empire to open a third location - just named Wasabi - in the northwest Des Moines suburb of Johnston in the spring of 2016, while a fourth location - also called Wasabi - opened in west suburban Waukee about six months ago.  (Wang and his minority partners also own Teriyaki Boys, a fast casual Asian restaurant with locations in downtown Des Moines and at the new Outlets of Des Moines shopping complex near suburban Altoona.)   

It was after 9 p.m. when we pulled up to Wasabi Tao on Walnut Ave. in downtown Des Moines.  (see map) Walking into the place we found a sort of darkened space with a number of booths in the dining area.  Earthtone walls helped keep the brightness down in the space.  Some of the walls actually had fossil shells from the nearby Des Moines River incorporated into the surface.  

The bar area in the center of the restaurant was much more bright and vibrant.  Although there weren't a lot of people in the place at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, they had two bartenders handling drink orders.  But mainly, they were just passing time talking between themselves and a couple people seated at the bar.  There was kind of a weird "we don't really care" vibe going on with the staff as a whole that evening.  Even though they were open until 11 p.m., we just sort of got the idea that we were making somewhat of an imposition on the staff after we walked in.  

Across from the bar was the centerpiece of Wasabi Tao - a large statue of Buddha sitting majestically overseeing the restaurant.  Wang and He found this Buddha in New York City and had it shipped to Des Moines.  It reportedly cost $2000 just to ship it, and when it got to the restaurant they found that it wouldn't fit through any of the doors.  They had to literally pull out a window - as well as some of the wall surrounding the window - just to get the statue inside.  It's big and pretty impressive.  

We took a seat at the small sushi bar off to the side of the bar and we were given menus to look over (even though we pretty much knew what we were going to get).  Since it was a somewhat cold and raw night, my wife ordered a green tea and I ordered a Sapporo (only after finding out they didn't have Asahi). 

My wife also started out by ordering a Kani salad.  We also wanted to try the Salmon Toro tartar - diced salmon toro - the best part of the salmon - along with diced mango mixed with crunch and tobiko (flying fish roe).   It was served with yuzu miso (a citrusy Japanese sauce) along with a spicy momiji pepper sauce that really gave it a quick.  While my wife really enjoyed her Kani salad, I could have eaten four more of the Salmon Toro tartar appetizer - it was that good.  

We didn't think we'd be eating all that much, but we did get one each of the spicy tuna and the spicy salmon rolls.  Quite honestly, they were pretty average - at best.  They were good, but I guess we were thinking that we'd be getting some that that would just pop in our mouths.  But they were big and definitely well-stuffed with both the spicy tuna and spicy salmon.  I think I liked the spicy salmon just a little bit better.  

While I didn't think that I'd had enough, I wanted to try some of their nigiri sushi - the smoked salmon, the be exact.  At Akebono, they have a wonderful Tasmanian salmon on the menu there that is just to die for.  The smoked salmon at Wasabi Tao wasn't in the same ballpark in taste quality with the Tasmanian Salmon at Akebono (about six blocks away).  It was good, but - once again - it didn't knock my socks off, either.  

One thing that I learned after the fact about the Wasabi restaurants in the Des Moines area is that there is a distinct difference in the levels of rice that sushi places use.  Just like how the best Italian restaurants use doppio zero (00) flour in their pastas and breads, there's sort of a top rice in Japan - Tamameshiki - that is a hybrid combination of Koshihikari and Yumegokochi rices. All the Wasabi restaurants in the Des Moines area use Tamameshiki rice, but not a lot of places in the U.S. use that kind of rice.  And to make it even more enjoyable in taste, the Wasabi restaurants cook their rice in a seaweed dashi (broth).  Quite honestly, I'm not certain I could tell any difference, but it would be fun to focus on the rice the next time I make it to a Wasabi restaurant.

And I'll probably go back.  I need to give them another chance, given how my sister and her boyfriend talked up Wasabi Tao, plus all the glowing reviews I've read on their restaurants over the past five years or so.  I did think the Salmon Toro tartar was outstanding and my wife really thought her Kani salad was very good.  But we thought the spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls were pretty average, and we weren't all that impressed with the smoked salmon sushi.  I'd like to go back and try some of their varieties of tuna sushi at some point, but until then let's just say we were oversold on Wasabi Tao after our first visit.  

Sakura Express - Bettendorf, IA

We've run hot and cold on some of our sushi places around the Quad Cities lately.  There seems to be an inconsistency in taste and quality from day-to-day at many of the places.  However, it seems that Friday night is the time to go get sushi as the cuts of fish seem to be the most fresh on that day.  We've eaten at nearly every sushi place in the Quad's over the years, but there was one place that we still hadn't tried - Sakura Express.  On a cold early spring Friday evening, we went over to Bettendorf to give Sakura Express a try.  

The people behind Sakura Express are the same people who opened Fuji Sushi on Davenport's west side.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Fuji Sushi.)   Michelle Zheng and her cousin, Jessie Chen, and other members of their immediate family have a financial stake in a handful of Chinese restaurants in the greater Quad Cities.  Zheng's brother, Jeff, learned to be a sushi chef after the Zheng family relocated to the U.S. from Hong Kong nearly 10 years ago.  The Zheng's eventually moved to the Quad Cities to join up with other family members including Jessie Chen.  Chen, whose cousin Eric owns the Panda Garden in Bettendorf, had moved out to from the East Coast to work with other family members in their restaurants.  

After helping out other family members in their various restaurants around the area, Chen and Zheng opened Great Wall Chinese on Davenport's west side in late 2009.  They opened Sakura Express in the Spring of 2016 and opened Fuji Sushi last year.    

We got into Sakura Express around 6:15 - sort of early for us to eat, but we were glad we got there when we did.  Not more than about 15 minutes after we had gotten there and ordered up our sushi rolls and niguri sushi a couple of larger groups came in for dinner.  The place isn't large and we took a table at a booth off to the side.  They had counter service for to-go orders, but they did have a waitstaff, one of whom came over to drop off menus for us.  They had a limited beer, wine and sake menu and I got a Kirin beer while my wife got some green tea.  After our sushi was presented to us, I ordered up a second Kirin, but the suddenly busy waitress brought me a Sapporo instead.  That was fine - I drank it.  

My wife wanted to start out with a kani salad.  Usually, a kani salad is served in a bowl at other sushi places we've been to.  But Sakura Express served their heaping kani salad on a small indented dish.  My wife thought the kani salad was very good.

We got a couple of sushi rolls - a spicy tuna roll and a spicy salmon roll.  The sushi rolls were just all right in our book - they weren't all that flavorful and sort of mushy in texture.    

For sushi that evening, we got nigiri sushi consisting of smoked salmon, yellowtail and tuna.  The smoked salmon had sort of a petroleum taste to it - it wasn't all that good.  The yellowtail was sort of fishy in taste and was sort of mushy, as well.  The tuna was the best of the three, but it wasn't as good as other tuna nigiri that we've experienced over the years.  The tuna texture and consistency was firm, but, it also had sort of a funky taste that we didn't care for.  It was almost like a medicine taste or a 

Eh, for what we had at Sakura Express, we'd probably pass at going back another time.  We really liked the sushi at its sister restaurant in Davenport - Fuji Sushi.  But the sushi rolls at Sakura Express were a little mushy and the nigiri sushi we experienced had sort of a funky taste to each of the types of fish we had.  Compared to other sushi places around the Quad Cities, Sakura Express is probably on the bottom of the ones we've tried.  

 

Fuji Sushi and Grill - Davenport, IA

In December of 2015, a long-time and locally favorite restaurant closed in Davenport.  Riefe's (pronounced REE-fees) Restaurant was open for 69 years - 66 years in the same location - when brothers Rick and Dan Riefe decided to close down the restaurant that was started by their grandfather and father in Bettendorf in 1946 and moved to Davenport in 1949.  Riefe's was famous for their big breakfasts and great comfort food.  (Click here to read about a Road Tips visit to Riefe's from a few years ago.)  The building sat empty for about a year before another restaurateur came forward to purchase the building for a new restaurant - a sushi place.  We sort of laughed at the irony when we heard that a sushi joint was going into the old Riefe's, but when they finally opened in March of last year we were sort of intrigued about trying the place out.  One Friday evening not long ago, we decided to finally give Fuji Sushi and Grill a try.  (see map)

It took about three months for the transformation of an established family restaurant known for their comfort food into a sleek looking sushi place complete with a dance floor for a late night club scene.  It was actually sort of weird to look around the place when we first walked in, given that the outside of the building hadn't changed much - if any - from when it was Riefe's.  It looked like the booths from the original Riefe's in the front dining area were still there, but they had built a small sushi bar where the wall between the dining room and the kitchen once stood.  

The person who waited on us was Michelle Zheng, the owner of Fuji Sushi and Grill.  Michelle is a native of Hong Kong, but her brother, Jeff, is a sushi chef learning the trade when the Zheng family lived in New York for about 8 years.  Along with her cousin, Jessie Chen, the two have stakes in a number of restaurants around the Quad Cities including the Great Wall Chinese restaurant which is located literally across the street from Fuji Sushi.  They also run Panda Garden in Bettendorf, another Great Wall over in Rock Island, and a Chinese place in nearby Geneseo, IL.  

In addition to the the Chinese restaurants she owns in the area, Zheng also owns a sushi place in Bettendorf - Sakura Express - a small hibachi/sushi joint that opened a little over two years ago.  With the success of the sushi restaurant in Bettendorf, the Zheng was confident that she could maintain a bigger sushi place somewhere in the Quad Cities.  And, so far, they seem to be doing very well considering the place was nearly full when we were there. 

To us - who had been going to Riefe's for nearly 25 years - the transformation from a family restaurant to a sushi restaurant was somewhat strange and remarkable at the same time.  While there were still hints of Riefe's in the front dining room, the transformation to a sushi place just seemed out of place to us.  

The back area of the restaurant was also decidedly different from the days of Riefe's.  Japanese artwork hung from the wall, while Japanese-style lanterns hung over the bar area and the booths.  The back dining area at Riefe's is now the late-night dance club that Michelle Zheng put in.  

We decided to sit at the sushi bar.  However, it was unusually high for a sushi bar, and small, too, with only four seats.  We sat on some high-backed chairs and we were still having trouble getting comfortable at the high bar.  My wife - who is a shortcake - was especially having trouble as the counter for the sushi bar was chest high to her.  I remarked that we could almost stand up to eat and it would be more ergonomically beneficial.  While we could easily see the sushi chefs at work, we could also look back into the kitchen

We ordered up some mai tai's from Michelle to get us started and the sushi chefs surprised us with a chef's special they gave us to try.  They didn't really tell us what it was, but we figured out that it was white tuna and cubed mango on what appeared to be a Pringles potato chip.  But it was actually very good and it went well with the mai tai's.  

After my wife ordered up a Kani salad to start, our first foray into the food at Fuji Sushi was a combination of spicy salmon, spicy tuna and crazy tuna rolls.   The crazy tuna roll had spicy tuna in it, as well, but it also came with some crunchies and topped with an eel sauce.  Quite actually, all three of the rolls were excellent.  And they were also quite filling.   

But not filling enough for me to want to try some of their sushi.  We got (from left) salmon, white tuna and four pieces of the smoked salmon.  The smoked salmon was rather mild in its taste - it didn't seem to have that forward smoky taste I usually find for good smoked salmon sushi.  The white tuna was actually pretty bland, but it was still fine when dipped in the soy sauce and wasabi mixture.   However, the regular salmon was to die for.  It was so tender and flavorful, it literally melted in my mouth.  It was like eating a small stick of butter the way it melted on my tongue.  It was some of the best salmon sushi we've ever had.  

After we got over our initial shock and amazement of a sushi place in the middle of what was the old Riefe's family restaurant, we thought the sushi at Fuji Sushi and Grill was very good.  The mai tai's were also very good, close to the ones we used to enjoy on our trips to Hawaii.  Other than the somewhat uncomfortable sushi bar, we pretty much liked everything about our visit to Fuji Sushi.  We're hoping that a sushi place on the west side of Davenport can sustain business as not a lot of specialty restaurants have flourished on that side of town.  But we're thinking that Fuji Sushi has a good chance of making it.  

Umami Sushi - Chicago

In Chicago on a trip last fall, I was in another "food funk" where I was hungry for something, but I wasn't overly certain what I was hungry for.  Sushi is always my default whenever I get into these "blah" moods when I'm on the road.  I searched for sushi places near my hotel near O'Hare Airport and I found a place on S. Cumberland by the name of Umami Sushi.  

I couldn't find much out about the place which is located in the Shops at Cumberland Court, just south of Lawrence that's part of the far western reaches of Chicago and right next to Norridge.  (see map)  The only thing I could find on Umami Sushi that it opened in December of 2012.  But I did find out that the term "Umami" roughly means "pleasant savory taste" in Japanese.  

When I pulled up to the place that evening, the parking lot was packed.  As I was orbiting the parking lot for the second time thinking that I was going to bag this trip and find someplace else to eat, I found a spot when a car was pulling out of spot.

Going into the restaurant, I found the place was packed.  And it they didn't have a normal sushi bar - it had just one seat.  Since all the tables and booths were full I asked the hostess if I could take the one seat at the sushi bar.  My server for the evening - Milica - came over to great me and to drop off a menu.  I asked if I could get an Asahi beer and she said, "We don't have a liquor license.  But there's a liquor store next door if you'd like to go get something and bring it back."  I thought for a moment that if I got up to go get something to drink from the liquor store, I probably wouldn't come back.  I just had water instead.  

Looking through the menu, I soon found out why the place was packed - Umami Sushi features an "all-you-can-eat" menu for $19.99 at night ($12.99 for lunch).  As I glanced around the place, it was full of 20 and 30-something diners and I realized that I was probably the oldest person in the place.  I thought, "Well, hell.  I'm already here.  I may as well have some sushi."  

I ended up getting some spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls, as well as some tuna, salmon and red snapper sushi.  The rolls had some "crunchies" added to the outer side.  They were just all right - they didn't really have much a spicy taste to them.  

The sushi was, well, just OK, too.  I was sort of watching the 6 or 7 sushi chefs behind the counter and it was a veritable sushi assembly line.  They weren't pulling the fish out of the refrigerated cases - the fish filets seemed to be lined up so they were just cutting fish and forming the sushi to get them out as fast as possible.  It tasted to me like the fish was closer to room temperature than cool.  And because of that, the sushi had somewhat of a fishy taste - especially the red snapper.   Milica asked me if I wanted to order any more sushi, but I decided that I'd had enough.  Even if I was still hungry - and I really wasn't - I wouldn't have ordered up any more sushi.  

I can't say that I was too impressed with Umami Sushi.  The "all-you-can-eat" concept brings in the younger crowd, but the sushi wasn't that great.  It wasn't bad, but I didn't really think the overall taste of the sushi or the rolls that I had was all that it could be.  These type of sushi places don't appeal to me.  They're trying to get the sushi out as soon as possible and it seems to hurt the overall taste and quality.  Umami Sushi probably won't be part of my rotation of sushi restaurants located near O'Hare Airport.  

Kintaro Japanese Restaurant - Kapa'a, HI

On our last night on Kauai, we decided to go find a sushi place for dinner.  It turned out there was a Japanese restaurant just down the road from our hotel - Kintaro Japanese Restaurant - that we had passed many times during our trips up and down the Kuhio Highway.  It appeared to be a very popular place during the evenings and we found out why it was so popular while we were there.  

The restaurant is named after a Japanese folklore hero - Kintarō - which roughly translates into "Golden Boy".  Popular in kabuki dramas in Japan, legend has it that as a boy Kintarō was raised on a mountain and he became friendly with the animals that inhabited the mountain around him.  He had superhuman strength, catching a notorious man who terrorized the citizens on and around the mountain.  Kintarō may have been based on the life of a real man who lived sometime during the 9th to 11th century and his legend has grown with generations who have told his story for years.  It is customary for Japanese households to display a Kintarō doll on Children's Day (May 5) with the hope that boys living in the house will garner the strength of Kintarō.  

Kintaro Japanese Restaurant in Kapa'a has been in business for nearly 20 years and is run by the Kim family. It's located along the Kuhio Highway on a little triangle of land that is bordered by Lanakai St. and Papaloa Rd.  (see map)  It was less than a mile from our hotel to Kintaro and while we could have walked the distance, we decided to make the short drive to try the place out.  

When we pulled into the parking lot, it was full.  We contemplated going somewhere else, but then Cindy saw a car pulling out on the far side of the lot.  We pulled in there and went in.  

We were met at the front hostess stand and we were told that it was a 45 minute wait for a table.  We told her that we preferred sitting at the sushi bar and she said, "Oh!  I can get you seated there much more quickly!"  She has us sit in the bar area while we waited for a couple spots to open at the sushi bar.  

The majority of the bar was packed with 20-somethings having fun on a Friday night.  We took a couple seats at the bar and ordered up a couple of mai tai's.  It took awhile for the drinks to get to us - the bartenders were overwhelmed that evening.  

The dining room just off the bar area had an oriental decor throughout.  There were teppanyaki grills located in the back of the restaurant.  There was also a traditional Japanese dining room in the back for private dining. The dining area was cozy and the atmosphere was laid back.  It was certainly packed the whole time we were there. 

It was less than 20 minutes when the hostess came over to let us know that two spots were open at the sushi bar.  We took our drinks and were shown to two seats at the end of the bar.  It wasn't a large sushi bar and there was only one sushi chef working.  Usually, there's at least two, if not three guys working behind the sushi bar at most sushi restaurants we've been to.  

Now, I have to say something about this sushi chef.  When we realized he was the only one behind the counter making sushi, we thought, "Well, it's going to be awhile until we get our sushi."  But it turned out he was the FASTEST sushi chef I've ever seen work a knife.  He looked to be in his late 40's or early 50's and he was slicing fish, packing rice and rolling sushi out at a feverish pace.  It was evident that he'd been making sushi for years and years.  We were just amazed watching the guy do his work.  

We ordered up some spicy tuna rolls.  Less than 5 minutes after we ordered the rolls, he handed them across the top of the cooler to us.  The pieces of the roll were plump and filled with dark-reddish/purple pieces of tuna. 

The tuna in the spicy tuna rolls was ultra fresh and delicious.  The spiciness in the roll wasn't overpowering, and that was a good thing as the taste of the tuna was absolutely outstanding.  We made short work of the rolls and went on to order some regular sushi.

We ordered up a couple pieces each of the tuna, salmon and smoked salmon sushi.  He gave us the salmon and tuna first, the smoked salmon came a little later.  Both the tuna and salmon were outstanding.  They were generous cuts of fresh fish.  The equally generous cut smoked salmon made it over the cooler moments later and while it was good, we thought the fresh salmon was better.  

When we were at Sansei on Maui earlier during our trip (click here to read about our trip to Sansei in Kihei), the couple seated next to us at the bar were eating something cooked.  Cindy asked them what it was and they told her it was kama.  That roughly means "fish collar".  It's something I've seen a colleague order before at a sushi restaurant and it consists of the cheek of the fish.  Cindy asked our sushi chef if they had kama and he said that they had smoked salmon kama that evening.  She wanted to order some of that and that influenced how much sushi we ordered earlier in the evening.  

The cheek of a fish can be the most desired part.  The cheek meat is usually the most tender and less "fishy" tasting of the fish.   The smoked salmon kama was grilled lightly and served with a soy-based sauce.  At first, Cindy was frustrated because she didn't know how to attack the kama.  She didn't know if she needed a fork or if she could use her chopsticks.  I took the kama and stuck my chopsticks in and pulled the fish from the cheek bone.  It was very tender and flavorful with sort of a charred taste from the grill.  Cindy said that she liked the kama, once she got the hang of figuring out how to eat it.  I liked the kama, but I thought the sushi was better. 

The best thing about Kintaro Japanese Restaurant was that we thought it was super cheap.  With the kama, the spicy tuna rolls and the six pieces of the sushi - along with drinks - it was just under $60 bucks for the meal.  Kintaro is called the most popular sushi place on Kauai and we could see why.   The sushi was delicious, the kama was very good and interesting, and we thought it was a killer value.  We noticed there were a lot of locals in the place, but they were welcoming to the tourists like us.  We're happy we tried Kintaro before we left Kauai the next day. 

Mahé - Dana Point, CA

I was asked - no, more like I somewhat pleaded - to go to an industry conference in Dana Point, CA earlier this year.  Now, Dana Point is one of my all-time favorite places to visit and my wife and I ate at a handful of restaurants in the area when we were there last year.  (Click here to read about the Dana Point restaurants we went to.)   When I found out this conference was going to be held in Dana Point, I immediately began to angle for the trip with one of my colleagues.  So, it was great to make it back to Dana Point and on our first night there we were part of a small group who went down the hill from our hotel to eat some ultra-fresh sushi at Mahé.  

Mahé is a combination steakhouse/seafood restaurant that also has a sushi bar.  The restaurant opened in the Dana Point Harbor area in late 2008 and is run by business partners Toby Reece and Anthony Andrews.  Mahé gets it name from an island in the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean, a place Reece and Andrews had visited in the past on surfing expeditions.  Reece's past restaurant experiences included opening restaurants around the U.S. for celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.  Reece, Andrews and another surfing buddy opened the first Mahé up the Pacific Ocean coast in Seal Beach in 2001 in what was the former Glider Inn, a restaurant that started in the early 1930's that catered to pilots who flew in and out at a nearby airstrip.   

While we were in Dana Point, we stayed at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort where the conference was being held.  Now, I've stayed at the Laguna Cliffs resort two times prior and even took my wife there when we were in Dana Point last year just to show her the place.  The views from the lawn and the deck down to the harbor and beyond were stunning.  It didn't hurt that the weather in the afternoon each day we were there was absolutely gorgeous after the morning marine layer burned off around 11 a.m.   

Mahé is located just down the hill from the Laguna Cliffs resort and it was walking distance from the hotel.  (see map)  My colleague John and I were joined by a new colleague, Matt, who we had hired as a product specialist earlier this year, and a couple of Matt's buddies who were there for the conference.  

Walking into the place, we saw the sushi bar to the right.  We contemplated sitting at the sushi bar, but found that there were only three chairs open.  Our hostess went off to find a table for five that was open.  

The dining room at Mahé was a long and narrow room with contemporary wooden tables and chairs lining the sides of the room. Large windows looked out onto a patio area.  The patio area featured dining spots along with a seating area with a long fire pit.  Mahé also features live musicians on the patio on the weekends.  

Quite frankly, I would have rather eaten out on the patio, but I was overruled.  We ended up at a long table that featured bench seats in a small room off the main dining area.  Asahi beer and sake were quickly ordered up by our group.  

The menu at Mahé features a number of interesting number of starters that include seafood nachos, fried asparagus spears, panko-crusted calamari, and Kobe beef sliders.  Seafood included sashimi-grade seared Hawaiian ahi tuna, pan-blackened swordfish, and a pan-seared salmon that is cooked in a combination of sake and teriyaki.  Steaks such as a baseball-cut filet tenderloin and a bone-in ribeye were on the menu, as well as a couple of chicken entrees.  

But we were there for the sushi.  Matt started to order up a bunch of rolls and sushi - "That's what I do," he told me.  "I just order a bunch of sushi and rolls for the group."  Well, I shut him down pretty quickly and told him that he doesn't order for me.  I wanted to get some salmon and tuna sushi, but I was fine with the rolls that he ordered up.  I couldn't quite tell you what the rolls were - one roll was wrapped in a tempura shell and the other was wrapped in seaweed and char-grilled.  But they were all right.  

The salmon was absolutely fabulous.  It literally melted in my mouth with each piece I had.  The consistency of the salmon was like butter.  It was some of the best salmon I'd ever had.  The maguro tuna sushi, on the other hand, was just all right.  It was a tad fishy in taste and was sort of chewy.  The salmon was the winner between the two.

I was telling everyone at the table how great the salmon was and Matt said, "Have you ever tried top-seared salmon?"  I wasn't familiar with what he was talking about, so he ordered up a plate of 10 seared salmon sushi from our waitress.   The sushi chef takes a hand-held torch burner and sears the top of the fish after it's formed into sushi.  This is called aburi sushi when it's seared on the top.   It was good - a different taste than the raw sushi, which I thought was better in flavor - but it would be something that I'd try again at some point.  

More sushi rolls were brought to the table including the two rolls above right.  One was a double tuna roll with tuna slices on top of the roll.  The other had tuna and some veggies mixed in the roll.  Both were very good, but very rich and filling.  

It was a fine meal at Mahé.  The sushi was very good to excellent - it was tough to beat the salmon sushi they had at Mahé.  The rolls were interesting and I was introduced to aburi salmon sushi that evening.  There was plenty of Asahi, plenty of sake and plenty of laughs all evening long.  By the end of the evening, we were so stuffed it was tough to make it back up the hill to the hotel.  Mahé was a fun and hip place with very good to excellent sushi and a great atmosphere near the harbor in Dana Point.  

Sansei - Kihei, HI

When we got back to Maui on our recent visit, we had a long wait to get our bags at the Kahului Airport, then another long wait to get our rental car at Hertz.  Tired and hungry after a long flight from Chicago, I remembered a sushi place in Kihei that was the sister restaurant to one we ate at on the big island of Hawaii over six years ago - Sansei.  (Click here to see the entry on our visit to Sansei on the big island.)  We got to Sansei around 3:00 p.m. only to find that it didn't open until 4:30.  We were sort of crestfallen that we wouldn't be able to get sushi in the afternoon, but we ended up going back there that evening to sit at the sushi bar and have some food.  

Sansei is part of the D.K. Restaurants group that also features d.k Steak House and Vino - both are highly acclaimed restaurants in the Honolulu area.  "D.K." are the initials of Dave "D.K." Kodama, the founder and owner of the D.K. Restaurants.  Kodama is a native Hawaiian who left the University of Hawaii in 1979 and ended up as a bartender in Seattle.  Kodama fell in love with the restaurant business and thought it would be a more fun profession than being an engineer.  

After 3 years in Seattle, Kodama ended up in Aspen, CO, working at a number of restaurants, learning the business and getting valuable culinary training on the job.  He ended up moving back to Hawaii in 1996 and opened his first Sansei in the Kapalua Resort north of Lahaina on Maui.  Sansei specializes in fresh seafood and serving locally grown foods.  It's sort of a contemporary Pan-asian seafood restaurant that also has sushi.

The Kihei location for Sansei is located in a small strip mall across from Kalama Beach Park along S. Kihei Road.  (see map)  A Foodland grocery store is located in the same strip mall and Sansei is a couple three doors down from Cuatro which was one of the best meals - if not the best meal - we had on Maui when we were there six years ago.   (Click here to see the entry on Cuatro.)   There's a pretty good sized parking lot, but we were having trouble finding parking until someone pulled out of a space indicating that this was a pretty popular spot on a Saturday evening.  

Going inside Sansei, it was a lively atmosphere with most of the tables filled with people.  There was an open kitchen along the north wall of the restaurant.  We were told that it would be a 15 to 20 minute wait since we didn't have a reservation.  But when I inquired about seating at the sushi bar, we were told that it would be an even longer wait.  

I noticed a couple of seats open at the regular bar and I asked if it were all right to have food at the bar.  The hostess said that was no problem.   My wife doesn't like to sit at the bar, but she was hungry and given that we would have been sitting at the bar to wait for a spot to open at the sushi bar, she said it would be all right to have dinner there.  

We were greeted by one of the bartenders that evening, Logan.  He looked like an Asian version of comedian David Koechner, only with hair.  Seated next to us were a dressed up couple who came from a wedding where they decided to bag the food they had and go to Sansei for sushi.  Cindy got a mai tai for her drink, and I started out with a Maui Brewing Company Big Swell IPA before getting a mai tai later on.  

We started off with a couple of spicy tuna rolls.  The rolls were huge with a lot of rice wrapped in seaweed.  Cindy remarked that the sushi chef made it look like it was a little face in the plate.  The tuna rolls were sort of spicy, but not that bad.  They had a lot of flavor and were a good start to the meal.

For our regular nigiri sushi, we had tuna, salmon and smoked salmon.  The cuts were thick and the salmon and tuna were very fresh and tasty.  The smoked salmon was a tad disappointing - it didn't have much of a good smoked salmon flavor - but it was still good with a nice consistency to the bite.  We were thinking of getting some more tuna sushi, but we figured we'd had enough since we had a late lunch and the pieces were large compared to other sushi places we'd been to.  

Even though we missed out on having sushi for our first meal when we returned to Maui, we were able to go back for dinner at Sansei that evening.  The cuts of sushi were large and tasted great, the spicy tuna rolls - although having a lot of rice in the rolls - were also very good.  Our service from Logan was prompt, friendly and he had a great sense of humor.  It was obvious a number of locals like Sansei because the bartenders were welcoming to a number of people on a first name basis.  Sansei was just as good at their Kihei location as what we experienced on the big island over six years ago.

Dotombori - Des Plaines, IL

I get in food funks when I'm on the road and I had been on the road a lot up to this one evening when I was in the Chicago area.  Staying out by O'Hare, I've pretty much hit all of the restaurants in the area and was thinking about trying something new.  But I wasn't really certain what I was hungry for.  I got in the car and took off toward Des Plaines trying to see if anything would jump out at me for dinner that evening.  Nothing that I saw as I was driving around piqued my interest, so I thought about going to a sushi place that was about 3 miles away.  I punched in the address in my GPS and started to head that way.  At a stop light along Miner St. in Des Plaines, I happened to look over and spotted a sushi place - Dotombori.  It was a small place and I thought, "Hmmm...  I was going to get sushi.  Sushi is right there.  And I haven't been to the place before."  I did some maneuvering around and made my way back to have sushi at Dotombori.  

Dōtonbori is the name of a highly popular tourist destination in Osaka, Japan.  (Sometimes the "n" is transposed with an "m" to make it Dotombori.)  It features shops, restaurants and entertainment venues that makes it one of the more lively destinations in Japan.  When Jay and Suzy Park opened their little sushi place in 2010 in what was an old Subway restaurant, they decided to name it after the lively section of Osaka and bring to Des Plaines authentic Kansai regional foods from Japan.  

I was able to maneuver around the streets of Des Plaines to end up parking on Miner Street just past the corner of Pearson Street where Dotombori stands.  (See map)  I went in and found a seat at the sushi bar.  The interior of Dotombori was stylish, sort of a contemporary Asian decor that featured a number of booths along the wall.  It was tough to see that this place was once a Subway.  

I was given a menu and they had a number of specialty rolls available, as well as a number of cooked entrees made in the kitchen.  But I was there for sushi and I got a large Asahi beer to enjoy while I looked through the sushi menu.  

Sitting at the sushi bar, you get to see some interesting things happen.  It so happened that someone ordered a specialty roll that was wrapped into aluminum foil, then was drenched in saké and set on fire.  They were pretty theatrical in the preparation of the specialty roll.  I got a good chuckle out of it.     

They had a number of different types of tuna sushi to choose from at Dotombori.   I ended up getting a spicy tuna roll, some salmon nigiri and a couple pieces each of regular tuna, chi-toro tuna and a peppered tuna nigiri.  The spicy tuna roll had hot chopped jalapeño peppers rolled in with the tuna - usually a sushi joint will use a spicy sauce on the roll to give it the spicy taste.  But the chopped jalapeños were an interesting - and tasty - twist to the spicy tuna roll.

The salmon was very good, but all three of the tuna nigiri sushi were delectable.  The peppered tuna was the most interesting - it looked a little funky compared to the other pieces of sushi, but it had a nice deep black pepper taste with a hint of a spicy bite on the back end of the flavor.   The fatty chi-toro sushi had a wonderful taste and a good consistency, and the regular tuna was flavorful and fresh.  

Had I not been sitting at the light at Miner and Pearson in Des Plaines one evening and happened to look over to my left, I might not have found Dotombori.  And I'm glad I did.  It was a pleasant dining experience, the service was fine, the atmosphere was comfortable, yet fun, and the sushi I had was delicious.  Dotombori is not a big place, but I didn't feel like I was crowded at all.  This was a wonderful dining experience for me and now that I know that Dotombori is where it is, I'll be back when I'm staying near the airport and looking for a sushi fix. 

Shakou Sushi - St. Charles, IL

I met one of my Chicago-area dealers at the new location of his store in the far western suburbs one evening.  He and his wife were showing me their new building, which is actually an old building where the foundation dates back to the late 1800's and was rebuilt after a devastating fire in the early 1900's.  We decided to go out for dinner that evening and I asked them where they'd like to go.  My dealer didn't hesitate - "You like sushi, right?"  Oh, of course!  He suggested we go to a place that has suddenly become their favorite sushi place in the area, Shakou Sushi in downtown St. Charles. 

It turns out that the Shakou Sushi in St. Charles is the second of now three similar sushi restaurants in the north and west Chicago suburbs.  A small group of people who lived in the far northern Chicago suburb of Libertyville - Ed Hartigan, Aleks Dupor and his wife, Chrissy, and Adam Garvanian - partnered up to open the first Shakou in 2013.  Aleks Dupor and Garvanian both had extensive histories in the restaurant business and had been friends for over 20 years before going in together - along with Dupor's wife, Chrissy - and coaxing their friend Hartigan out of the investment banking business to start the first Shakou in downtown Libertyville in March of 2013.  

Pictured at right - (seated) Chef Sang Choi, Chrissy Dupor and Aleks Dupor.  (standing) Ed Hartigan and Adam Garvanian.  Photo courtesy Quintessential Barrington.com

The group was able to convince long-time sushi chef Sang Choi to run the kitchen at Shakou Sushi.  Choi previously worked at a number of upscale Chicago-area sushi places such as BluFish, Blue Ginger and Starfish.  The Libertyville location for Shakou Sushi was an immediate hit and in a little over a year after opening it was named one of the Top 100 Hottest Restaurants in America by OpenTable.com. 

The group opened the second Shakou Sushi in downtown St. Charles - mainly because it reminded them of downtown Libertyville - in April of 2015, while a third Shakou Sushi opened up in the up-and-coming community of Barrington on the far northwest side of Chicagoland in October of 2015.  

I followed my dealer and his wife from their new store location to downtown St. Charles.  Shakou Sushi is located on W. Main (Illinois Highway 64 or North Ave. from Chicago) in St. Charles.  They said that parking is sometimes tough to find on the street in front of the place, so we parked in a public lot a block north of the restaurant.  It turned out that we both could have found a place to park on Main St. in front of Shakou that particular evening.  (see map)

The interior of Shakou Sushi in St. Charles is stunning.  The lighting under both the regular bar and the sushi bar in the back had an elegant purple hue.  The fixtures - lighting and furniture - were modern in their design.  A beautiful chandelier hung from the center of the dining room that was separated from the bar by a short wall.  There was an upstairs to the place - it was very nice, my dealer told me as they had eaten up there before.  Hanging from the ceiling next to the stairs that led to the upstairs was a banner displaying the Japanese character for Shakou (which means "social life" in Japanese).

We took a seat in a high-backed leather booth along the wall.  The wall had an interesting texture to it.  At first glance, it looked like it was made out of metal.  But upon touching it, we found it to be sort of a pre-formed dry wall wave design that was painted with a high gloss gold color.  My dealer said, "Yeah, every time we come in here I look at that wall and think of how cool that would be in a home."  

He was telling me a little bit about the building.  He thought at one time that it used to be a liquor store, but it turns out that the building has housed a little bit of everything since it was originally built back in the 50's.  "This had two levels because it's sort of built on a hill," he told me.  "They had to spend a lot of money to take the higher level out and make the ground floor all on one level.  But what they did in here was absolutely remarkable."  I couldn't agree more.  The space was very elegant, urbane and sleek, but not pretentious in the least.  

Our server for the evening, Christina - a pleasant young woman - came over to greet us and take our drink order as we looked through the menu.  My dealer and his wife were on a 30 day cleansing diet, so alcohol wasn't part of the diet.  I've had meals with them before and they do like their adult beverages, but not that evening.  I was on no sort of cleansing diet and I ordered an Asahi beer.  Christina came back a moment later apologizing that they were out of Asahi.  "We had a big weekend," she explained.  "Our Asahi doesn't get replenished until tomorrow."  I had to settle for a Kirin instead.  

We went big on sushi that evening.  My dealer and his wife had never had otoro before.  I explained to them the different grades of fatty tuna - otoro being the highest fat content in tuna making it the most delectable of the sushi tuna cuts.  It's also a quite different consistency than regular tuna.  Otoro has a more of a mushy consistency and that sort of took my dealer and his wife by surprise.  I don't think they cared much for the nigiri toro all that much.  That was fine with me as it meant I could have more of the fatty tuna.

We also got some Scottish smoked salmon nigiri sushi.  Now, I've had smoked salmon in many sushi places over the years but the stuff they served at Shakou was outstanding.  It literally melted in your mouth and the overall taste was just excellent.  Quite frankly, I would have easily traded the otoro - even as good as it was - for the Scottish smoked salmon.  

My dealer and his wife are big on specialty rolls.  They normally don't do sushi as much as they do the rolls.  We ordered up three different tuna rolls - the Flaming Hamachi consisted of spicy tuna and cucumber topped with fresh yellow tail, jalapeño, tobiko (flying fish roe) and a citrus-based ponzu sauce; the Rainbow roll was spicy tuna with cucumber topped with assorted fish filets and kaiware sprouts (I joked that the assorted fish was probably what they were trying to move that evening); and the Urban Heat specialty roll had - once again - spicy tuna (see a pattern here?) with jalapeño, a spicy mayo sauce, avocado and tempura crunch all wrapped in soy bean paper, topped with a thick sweet unagi soy sauce.  Now THAT was the spiciest of all the rolls!  But they were all so flavorful with a lot of taste sensations going on with each bite.  We couldn't finish all that we had and I let them take what we had left over home for their kids.  My dealer's wife said that they had a growing boy who was at the age where he could have a big meal for dinner and then want to eat an hour later.  "He'll love the sushi rolls for his dessert," she said as she boxed up the remaining pieces on the table.  

I love sushi and I have to say that the nigiri sushi and specialty rolls I had at Shakou Sushi were simply outstanding.  The contemporary design in the restaurant was stylish and cosmopolitan without being pompous and flamboyant.  The service we received from Christina that evening was prompt and professional.  I can't think of anything that I can even complain about other than them being out of Asahi that evening.  But that was far from a deal killer.  Shakou Sushi offered one of the more memorable sushi experiences I've encountered in all my travels.  (Photo courtesy Fox Valley Magazine)    

Hanabi - Brentwood, TN

During our vacation last fall, we stayed out in Brentwood, TN - a nice upscale area of Nashville.  We contemplated going into the city to get something to eat, but we checked with the front desk to see if they had a list of area restaurants.  They did, but it was sparse and a couple of the places on the list we had already tried on visits before.  We did spy a sushi place on the list - Hanabi - and decided to head over there for dinner.  

Hanabi was close to the hotel, but sort of difficult to find.  It was back in an office park area in a small strip mall way off the beaten path.  (see map)  We passed by it once because it was sort of hidden back in a corner.  But we were able to find it and we walked in around 7:00 p.m.

We were greeted by Helen, who identified herself as the owner of the restaurant.  She said that Hanabi had been open for 9 years.  I asked her what Hanabi meant and she said, "Fireworks!  It's the Japanese term for fireworks!"  Ah!  The stuff you learn when you just ask.  The dining area was nice and had contemporary light wood tables and chairs.  

We asked her if we could sit at the sushi bar in the back of the restaurant and she said it was no problem.  Helen gave us a couple of menus to look through.  Cindy ordered up some green tea and I got an Asahi beer.  Later on she got a glass of the house chardonnay.    

Even though they have a kitchen and featured cooked entrees, we were there for the sushi.  The first thing we ordered up is a spicy tuna roll and something that we saw on the sushi menu called the "Parthenon" roll.  Nashville has a replica of the famed Greek ancient temple with a 42-foot tall statue of the Greek goddess Athena inside.  (We went there the next day.)  

The Parthenon was a maki roll with a layer of tuna, white tuna, salmon and yellow tail with rice in between.  We watched the sushi chef make the Parthenon roll.  It was an elaborate production of the sushi chef putting the yellow tail and white tuna on the roll of rice, covering that with another layer of rice before topping it off with the salmon and the regular tuna.  It took him awhile to make it, but it was worth the wait.  

The spicy tuna roll was flavorful with a hint of spiciness to the taste.  But the Parthenon roll was simply outstanding.  I could have ordered up another one just to have all the taste sensations going into it.  The sushi was fresh without a hint of fishy taste.  This was a great start to the dinner.

The sushi chefs knew we were going to spend some money and one of them handed over a barbecued tuna appetizer - for free.  It was seared rare and sliced into three pieces.  It was topped with freshly chopped green onions.  The barbecued tuna was just wonderful.

We ordered up more sushi after that and got six pieces of the smoked salmon.  The smoked salmon had a great smoky taste to it, but it was very salty.  I would have gotten more of the smoked salmon had it not been so salty.  It was some of the saltiest smoked salmon I'd ever had.  

We had ordered up four pieces of the tuna at the same time we ordered the smoked salmon.  Curiously, they made the tuna separate from the smoked salmon sushi.  But that was fine as we found out that the tuna was simply great.  With great texture and a wonderful taste, the tuna was also outstanding.  We wished we would have ordered more of the tuna instead of the smoked salmon.

I was still sort of hungry and I decided to order more of the great tuna sushi and get a couple pieces of the yellow tail.  Yellow tail can be sort of fishy in taste, but the yellow tail they served at Hanabi - as I initially found with the Parthenon roll - was fresh and flavorful.  Cindy just had a couple more pieces of the tuna while I finished off the other two pieces and the two pieces of the yellow tail.  

After we finished, the sushi chef handed over a small bowl with orange slices.  That was a new concept to us. He said it was to refresh the palate after the soy sauce and wasabi.  I like orange juice and the taste of orange flavor, but I'm not too big on just eating a plain ol' orange slice.  But it was an interesting taste after the saltiness of the soy sauce and the spiciness of the wasabi.  

Cindy was thinking about getting ice cream after that and we ventured down the road to downtown Franklin, TN and found a Kilwins ice cream shop.  We've been to a couple Kilwins before up in Michigan, but didn't know they were found outside of the state of Michigan.  Little did I know as there are over 100 Kilwins locations in 20 states!  We got some ice cream and strolled along the main street of the quaint downtown area in Franklin, two owls at night enjoying their ice cream and doing some window shopping.  (Hoo! Hoo!) 

The sushi at Hanabi was very good.  Save for the very salty smoked salmon, all the sushi we had was fresh, savory and delicious.  The Parthenon roll was outstanding and the barbecued tuna was a pleasant surprise.  Helen checked in on us from time to time to make sure we were happy with our sushi.  Our visit to Hanabi was a nice experience.  It's a little tough to find, but it's worth the effort if you're looking for sushi in the southern suburbs of Nashville.   

Nakamori Japanese Bistro - Edina, MN

Getting into my hotel in Bloomington, MN one evening after a long day on the road getting to the Twin Cities, I was in the mood for sushi.  Seeking out a place that I hadn't tried before, I found a place that not far away that had opened in the summer of 2014.  I took off to find Nakamori Japanese Bistro in Edina.  

When owner Meifang Zheng came up with the concept for Nakamori, he envisioned blending traditional Japanese food with French influences.  Dishes such as sea eel and foie gras, as well as lamb chops with a miso anti curbo sauce on the menu.  Nakamori features hibachi favorites as well as a number of cold or hot entrees.  

Nakamori Japanese Bistro is located in an upscale strip mall off S. France on Hazleton Rd., just south of the Galleria of Edina.  (see map)  It sort of looks out of place with the other stores in the strip mall, many of the spaces are home stores and Nakamori is located in between a bank and a Pella Window store.  

Nakamori's contemporary decor was comfortable and inviting with subdued lighting throughout the space.  The long sushi bar was bathed in a deep blue light from panels built into the front of the bar and with lighting from above.  I sat at the sushi bar and ordered up an Asahi beer from one of the young ladies who were working as servers that evening.     

I started off with some spicy tuna rolls that were big and meaty with a sort of crunchy outer layer.  The spicy tuna rolls were very good and a great introduction to Nakamori.  

Since I got in after 8 p.m., it turned out that it was "happy hour" with reduced prices on sushi.  Well, that was a pleasant surprise!  I started off with fatty tuna and some fatty yellowtail.  The fatty tuna was, well, huge.  It was wrapped in seaweed and had some crunchies on top.  It literally melted in my mouth - the seaweed was probably wrapped around it to keep it intact.  The fatty yellowtail - I don't think I've had fatty yellowtail before - was also "melt-in-your-mouth" good without any hint of a fishy taste that you can get from some yellowtail.  The fatty yellowtail was fabulous.  

I ended up getting some smoked salmon and some regular tuna next. The smoked salmon had a great smoky flavor and had a great consistency and texture.  I eagerly devoured the smoked salmon and asked the sushi chef for a couple more pieces because they tasted so good.  Unfortunately, he said that he had just run out of smoked salmon.  Well, actually, when he was cutting some up for me, he found a brown spot on the filet.  He showed it to me and said, "I don't think I want to serve this to you."  It was a pretty good sized brown spot on the smoked salmon.   No, I didn't want that.  I ended up getting two more pieces of the tuna which, on their own, were also excellent. In fact, the tuna was killer - some of the best tasting tuna I've had at a sushi restaurant.  

Thanks to the "happy hour" prices, the meal I had at Nakamori Japanese Bistro was a great value.  The sushi and spicy tuna rolls were excellent and I enjoyed the laid back feeling to the place.  I've eaten at a few sushi places in the Twin Cities over the years and Nakamori would rate among the top of those I've visited.  Nakamori has become my "go-to" for sushi on the south side of Minneapolis. 

akebono - Des Moines, IA

A shout out today to my friend Mike Roederer who is a Front of House Manager at Centro in downtown Des Moines.  I got to know Mikey when he was living in the Quad Cities and he followed his wife Stella to Des Moines when she was accepted to Drake University's Law School.  Mike became a FOH Manager at Centro earlier this year.  He's an avid reader of Road Tips and he told me one time that I really needed to try a new sushi place in downtown Des Moines at some point.  My wife and I went to Des Moines for sort of a short getaway weekend recently and I got hold of Mike to find out the name of the sushi place.  It was called akebono.  

About 13 years ago, a place called Taki opened in the Des Moines suburb of Clive.  It was a combination teppanyaki and sushi restaurant.  Four of the guys who worked at the sushi bar at Taki left there after the place was sold to an interest from Minnesota and looked toward downtown Des Moines to find a location for a sushi restaurant.  The group found a spot in the southwest corner of the stylish Davis Brown Tower at the corner of 10th and Mulberry (see map) and they opened for business in the summer of 2013.  

akebono was possibly named after the great sumo wrestler Akebono Tarō, the first American to reach the pinnacle of sumo wrestling in Japan and who later became a professional wrestler in the U.S. and Japan.  It's an educated guess as the four owners are younger guys that look more like urban hipsters behind the sushi bar rather than full-fledged sushi chefs.  

After parking in the garage attached to the Davis Brown Tower, we found the front door to akebono off of Mulberry.  (We later found that there's a walkway from the lobby along a back corridor that placed us at the same spot without having to go outside.)  It was a busy Saturday night - a large birthday party was going on - and our preferred place to sit at sushi joints - the sushi bar - was full.  They also allowed food at the regular bar at akebono, but Cindy has an aversion to eating at the bar of nice places.  And akebono is a nice place.  

We were told that it could be a 45 minute wait for a seat at the sushi bar and a handful of the tables and booths were empty but reserved for customers.  So we waited.  But we didn't wait any more than about 15 minutes before the hostess came over and told us that she had a booth near the bar that was open until 9 p.m. and we could sit there for dinner until then.  (It was 8:15.)   We decided to take the booth.  

And we're glad we did because our server for the evening - Nick - came over to greet us.  He was outgoing, yet laid-back; funny, yet efficient.  And he gave us a lot of great recommendations.  He took our drink order - an Asahi for me and a house cabernet for Cindy - and we immediately ordered both spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls to start out.   akebono has a dinner menu that consists of many smaller plates - sort of like the Japanese answer to a Spanish tapas bar.  But we were more interested in the sushi menu and some of the interesting stuff they had to offer.  

Both the spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls were very good.  They had great flavor, but weren't overly spicy.  The rolls had wonderful consistency and held together well in the seaweed wrapping.  It was a great start to the meal.  

Our next plate consisted of ahi tuna poke, Hawaiian-style.  They took a thick cut of ahi tuna, seared it at a high temperature, then served it on a bed of greens in a garlic sesame soy sauce.  This was recommended by Nick and this, alone, was worth the price of admission.  The sushi grade tuna was just fabulous.  With a bit of the bitter from the soy sauce and a hint of garlic taste, there were a lot of wonderful taste combinations going on with this dish.  

Our next dish was also recommended by Nick and I believe this was called a Nonsense roll - it was sort of a plethora of different types of fresh sushi rolled around spicy tuna or rice or chopped sushi or whatever.  It isn't listed on the sushi roll menu that is on akebono's website, but I specifically wrote down the name of the roll.  I didn't quite know what what it was all about other than it just tasted great.  Take my word - if you like sushi, you would have LOVED this sushi roll.  

Finally, we got into the sushi.  We were wondering about the Tasmanian salmon and the Hawaiian big-eye tuna that they had on the menu.  Nick said, "Oh, man.  Yeah, I'd say get the Tasmanian salmon.  It has somewhat of a smoky flavor, but it's not smoked.  And the Hawaiian maguro is, well, it's like eating butter.  It almost melts in your mouth."  

And he was correct on both descriptions.  We were both in heaven with the Tasmanian salmon.  If one didn't know - and that could be us - you would have thought that it was truly smoked salmon.  But they said it wasn't.  The taste was just fabulous.   And the big-eye maguro was just as advertised - it literally melted in your mouth.  

After we finished the four pieces each of the Tasmanian salmon and the big-eye maguro, Nick came over and said, "Well?"  We couldn't believe it.   It was getting to be just after 9 p.m. and the hostess said that they had people coming in at 9 for the booth.   But the sushi was so good that we wanted to order up two more pieces each of the Tasmanian salmon and the big-eye maguro.  Nick said, "Hey, don't worry.  We're not going to move you out of here."  He pointed around the dining room and he said, "We've got a lot of tables open.  If they've come in by now, they've been seated."  

After finishing dinner, we walked down the street to have a drink at the bar at Centro.  Mike was working the front and he greeted us as we walked in.  He said, "So, what did you think of akebono?"  We told him that it was just as he said it would be.  The service from Nick was absolutely the best - he gave great recommendations, he had a great sense of humor and he never once made us feel rushed or hurried even though we were initially told by the hostess we'd have until 9 p.m. to eat and give up our space.  In fact, it was close to 10 p.m. before we left, we were having such a good time trying different things on the akebono menu. Not only was it a great experience dining there, this was simply some of the best sushi we'd ever had - and it was in Des Moines, Iowa!

Naked Tchopstix - Fort Wayne, IN

Visiting a couple accounts in the Fort Wayne area this past winter, I decided to stay in the city because of blowing snow and poor visibility across the route I was going to be heading in Northern Indiana.  I like to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn on the city's southwest side and across the parking lot is a sushi place called Naked Tchopstix.  My colleague Simon told me that he had eaten there a couple times and he called it "just all right."  I've eaten at a Naked Tchopstix in Indianapolis and thought it was very good.  (Click here to see my entry on that Naked Tchopstix.)  I walked across the parking lot on that blustery evening to see if I would agree or disagree with Simon's report that their sushi was "just all right".

David and Maggie Lee opened the first Naked Tchopstix in Indianapolis in 2003 featuring sushi and Pan Asian food - primarily Korean food.  In addition to the Fort Wayne location, the Lee's run three Naked Tchopstix in Indianapolis including one at the Indianapolis International Airport, and one in Newport, KY across the Ohio River from Cincinnati in the Newport on the Levee entertainment district.  

A number of other fellow travelers from both the Hilton Garden Inn and the adjoining Homewood Suites were in the restaurant when I walked in around 6:15 in the evening.  There's a bar area to the left as you walk into the place and the sushi bar is part of the main dining area at Naked Tchopstix.  Music played in the dining room were 50's and 60's standards from big band crooners and female jazz singers such as Bobby Darin, Sarah Vaughan, Steve Lawrence and Carmen McRae.   

I parked myself at the sushi bar and my server for the evening, Jaclyn, dropped off a menu for me to look through.  I ordered an Asahi beer to enjoy in the meantime.  The only problem was that it took nearly 10 minutes for Jaclyn to get the beer back to me.  She appeared to be the only server working the half-full dining room.   

Even with all the Pan Asian food on the menu, I was there for the sushi and I immediately ordered up a spicy tuna roll and a spicy salmon roll from the sushi chefs behind the counter.  Both sushi rolls both had a very pronounced cucumber taste.  I don't mind cucumbers but they used rather large pieces of cucumbers in the rolls that overpowered whatever taste of the spicy tuna or salmon that I could discern.  The rolls were "just all right".

I ordered up some sushi pieces - smoked and regular salmon, maguri tuna, and hamachi yellow tail.   The sushi came out on a platter that was adorned by a plastic Bonsai tree.  I kind of laughed at the presentation because the plastic tree took up a 1/3 of the plate.  

And the sushi was, well, it was also "just all right".  The smoked salmon was fine, as was the tuna.  I mean, it wasn't bad sushi, but it didn't knock it out of the park in terms of taste and quality.  And something was really salty in either the rolls or the sushi.  I don't know if it was the wasabi or maybe the soy sauce was extra salty.  But as I don't eat much salt in my diet, I found the salty taste to be very pronounced and somewhat disappointing.  I drank a lot of water that evening thanks to the salty nature of the food.

Sometimes Simon can be very critical when talking about restaurants he's been to.  There have been times when we've eaten together where I thought the meal I've had was pretty good and he would tear apart some aspect of the meal.  But most of the time we're pretty much in cahoots with one another in our assessment of meals.  And I'll have to say that Simon was spot on with his "just all right" observation on the Fort Wayne Naked Tchopstix.  It certainly wasn't as good as the one I was at in Indianapolis and somewhat disappointing overall.  

Umi - Springfield, MO

Springfield, MO is one of my all-time favorite places to travel to.  But a number of stores in the area were in flux over the past three or four years so I didn't have much of a reason to travel there until I got a call from a long-time dealer whom I've wanted to do business with for a number of years.  I signed him up earlier this summer and I've been back a couple times to do training and some business meetings.  Two of the guys working for my new dealer worked for my old dealer that I called on years ago.  After doing training one night, I wanted to take them out to dinner and I suggested that we go back to Haruno, a surprisingly great sushi place that they first took me to about 8 years ago.  (Click here to see my post on Haruno.)  One of the guys said, "Haruno is very good, but there's another place that opened up not long ago that is every bit as good as Haruno, but it won't be packed like Haruno."  The name of that place is Umi Japanese Restaurant.  I was intrigued and we drove over to Umi located in a strip mall just south of Battlefield on S. Kimbrough Ave. (see map)

A gentleman by the name of Spring Park is listed as the owner of Umi which - in addition to sushi - serves a full menu of steaks, seafood and chicken entrees.  The place was very dim on the inside - even with a blazing evening sun, it was very dark inside.  I had trouble adjusting to the level of darkness in the place.  Every picture that I tried to take of the interior of the place didn't come out.  

And the guy was right - Umi wasn't packed at all when we got in there around 7:30.  We were seated right away at a table and greeted by our server, Dillon.  We each got sushi menus and one of the guys suggested getting a plate of some of the various specialty sushi rolls Umi is locally famous for.  He took the lead in ordering up sushi rolls that included the Kiss and Cry Roll, the Ninja Roll and the Touchdown Roll.  I always have to get a spicy tuna roll so we tacked that on, as well.

The plate came to the table and it was filled with a number of rolls in different shapes and colors.  The Kiss and Cry Roll featured spicy crab, red snapper and jalapenos on the inside and layered with chopped avocados, jalapenos, tobikio eggs, and a mix of four different spicy and sweet sauce - including a wasabi sauce - on the outside.  Oh, man - was it delicious.  

The Ninja Roll had spicy tuna, smoked salmon, cream cheese, Sriracha sauce, sliced avocado and crab, then it's deep fried with sweet sauce on top.   The Touchdown Roll was made with fresh spicy crab and topped with green onions on top.  Both of those were very good, as well.  The spicy tuna roll was equally tasty with generous amounts of spicy tuna inside the rice roll.

Even with all we had to eat, a couple of us were still hungry.  I wanted to try their nigiri sushi (with rice) and I asked Dillon to send us out some smoked salmon, red snapper, tuna and regular salmon.  We got six pieces of the smoked salmon, and a couple pieces each of the other sushi.  Like the specialty rolls, the fish was fresh and flavorful without a hint of a fishy taste.  The smoked salmon had a brisk smoky flavor but it wasn't overpowering at all.  With all the specialty rolls we had, it was all I could do to finish a couple pieces of the smoked salmon, one of the tuna nigiri and one of the the red snapper (which one of my guests pointed out may or may not have really been red snapper).  Nevertheless, the sushi was very good.  

I have colleagues who are dead set against having sushi at any place that is more than 100 miles from the nearest ocean.  But I have to say that I have now had sushi at two places in Springfield, MO - 600 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, 1000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean and 1500 miles from the Pacific Ocean - that was very good to outstanding.  Umi was another surprisingly great sushi place in Springfield.  The sushi was fresh, the specialty rolls were interesting and very good, and Dillon's service was also very good. The only quibble I would have with the place was that it was too dark and dank.  Still, they served up some pretty damn good sushi.

Blu Fish Sushi Bistro - Park Ridge, IL

I've eaten at the Blu Fish Sushi Bistro in Glenview, IL many times over the past two or three years, but I've been staying more toward the Des Plaines area around O'Hare Airport over the last year or so.  To the east of Des Plaines is Park Ridge, a small suburb that is probably best known as the hometown of Hillary Clinton.  There's a number of little restaurants in and around Park Ridge and I decided to try the Blu Fish located along Northwest Highway in a combination retail/residence complex. (see map)

This Blu Fish location opened in 2011 and offers pretty much the same menu as the original location.  While they feature steaks and seafood prepared in their kitchen, I always go and hang out at the sushi bar to get some of the most wonderful sushi in the Chicago area.  

It was one of those evenings when I needed sushi and I found that the Blu Fish location in Park Ridge was less than a 10 minute drive from my hotel in Des Plaines.   The entrance to Blu Fish is actually behind the building from Northwest Highway, across a small street from the Trader Joe's in Park Ridge.  Parking is plentiful in the lot in front of the entrance.

The interior of the Park Ridge Blu Fish is similar to the original one in that it had a classy contemporary look.  While both locations look elegant and chic, I've never once gotten an attitude or an ounce of pretension from anyone on my previous visits to the Glenview location.  It turned out to be exactly the same for my visit to the Park Ridge Blu Fish.  

 
I asked to sit at the sushi bar.  Like the Glenview spot, it had a blue under-lit sushi bar that I enjoy immensely.  I was greeted by the sushi chef - Mongo (gotta love the name!) - and soon after a young lady came over to take my drink order and to drop off a sushi order sheet.  I ordered an Asahi - large.  

The sushi in the case in front of me looked fresh and delicious.  I had a small breakfast and no lunch, so I was pretty hungry.  And I always seem to order way too much sushi when I go to Blu Fish.  But it's just so damned good.  I immediately told Mongo that I wanted one each of the spicy tuna and the spicy salmon rolls.  I always get the spicy tuna rolls until one of the chefs at the Blu Fish in Glenview talked me into the spicy salmon on one visit.  Mongo began to make them for me as I filled out what I wanted for nigiri sushi. 

For sushi, I ordered some pieces of smoked salmon, yellow tail, albacore tuna and, as a treat for myself, I also ordered up some blue fin tuna they had available at market price that evening.  I doubled up on the smoked salmon - which is some of the best I've ever had - to make it 10 pieces in all.  

The spicy rolls came up first.  And I have to say that I thought the salmon rolls weren't as good as the ones I've had up at the original Blu Fish.  They didn't have the forward spicy taste like I found with the spicy tuna roll, but they were still very good.  The spicy tuna was out-of-this-world delicious.  And the other thing I like about Blu Fish - their sushi rolls are big, easily the size of a silver dollar.   

 
I had just finished up the last of the spicy tuna and salmon rolls when Mongo handed the sushi plate over the counter to me.  He also included a piece of seared o-toro tuna nigiri that he said was on the house.  That was certainly nice!  

The sushi at Blu Fish in Park Ridge was just as good as the sushi I've had at the Glenview location. The albacore tuna was melt-in-your-mouth smooth and the smoked salmon was superb.  Even the seared o-toro was fabulous.  I was sitting there savoring the taste of the sushi and I got to thinking, "Why go anyplace else?  Blu Fish is great!"  

And it is great.  The only drawback is that it's a little expensive.  Well, sushi, in general, can be pretty expensive.  But if you go into Blu Fish knowing that you're probably going to spend some coin on sushi, you won't be disappointed in the least.  I've never had anything close to a bad experience at the Glenview location, and I'm looking forward to return trips to the Park Ridge location in the future.

Ichiban Sushi and Steakhouse - Davenport, IA

A Christmas Eve tradition in our household is to go out to eat sushi and to take in a movie.  We didn't do it last year, primarily because there weren't any movies that we really wanted to see.  This year, we wanted to go see Anchorman 2 (a funny film for about 3/4's of the way through, then they realized they didn't know how to end the movie) so it meant an early dinner at a new sushi place in Davenport - Ichiban Sushi and Steakhouse. 

Actually, Ichiban is the upgraded version of the old Shogun Sushi and Steakhouse, the first place we went to years ago to start our Christmas Eve tradition of sushi and a movie.  The two owners, I've only known them as Henry and Tim, ended up selling Shogun a couple three years ago and I'd heard that it had gone downhill.  Quite honestly, we hadn't eaten at Shogun for the past couple of years because Red Ginger, a sushi place near our house, had opened up (click here to read about Red Ginger); and Osaka in Bettendorf - before their service began to suffer - had been our "go-to" sushi place in the Quad Cities (click here to read about Osaka).  In the summer of 2013, Shogun shut down and on trips by the building we noticed that they were gutting the place.  When they reopened in the fall of 2013, we heard that Henry and Tim had taken back the ownership of the business.  Probably wanting a fresh start after the bad press the old Shogun received after they sold it, they named their new and improved business Ichiban, which means "Number One" in Japanese.  

It was around 6 p.m. when we pulled into the parking lot of Ichiban at the busy corner of Brady and Kimberly, the two main thoroughfares in Davenport (see map - but you can only get into Ichiban's parking lot by either going northbound on Brady or eastbound on Kimberly).  They share their parking lot with Griggs Music, but there was only one other car in the lot when we pulled in.  Cindy was a little leery of going in even though the "Open" sign was on in the window.  She thought no cars in the parking lot in front of the building was not a good sign.  To me, it was a good sign because I knew we'd get our sushi fast.  

They had certainly upgraded the interior of Ichiban over the old Shogun, keeping the Japanese-style decor, dark velor wall covering with royal blue trim, and the large hibachi table in the middle of a side dining area.  The place was empty and we took a seat at the six-seater sushi bar.  As we were taking off our coats, we were greeted by the sushi chefs behind the counter - Lin was the main guy that night - and I immediately ordered up a spicy tuna roll.  A waitress came out and Cindy got a hot green tea while I ordered a tall bottle of Asahi.  She said they only had the 12 ounce bottles and that was fine with me.  (Picture below left courtesy QC Life.com)

 
It didn't take Lin very long to hand the spicy tuna roll over the counter to us.  I was ready to give it a try.  In fact, I took the picture above right after I'd scarfed down the first piece of the spicy tuna roll and then realized that I'd forgotten to take a picture of it.  While the roll wasn't big, it was packed with a savory and somewhat spicy tuna wrapped in a seaweed sheath and rolled in rice.  It was a great start to the meal.  

From there, we ordered up Maguro (tuna), smoked salmon and regular salmon, yellow tail and red snapper. I noticed on the menu that they had toro - the high grade fatty tuna.  I asked the sushi chefs behind the counter if they had toro that evening - some places show it on the menu, but many times they don't have it - and Lin immediately said, "Yes, toro! Yes!"  We got a couple pieces of that type of sushi.  

We soon realized that we weren't the only ones wanting sushi that evening as a few other people had wandered in by the time Lin handed the plate over the counter to us.  First of all the presentation was tremendous - the maguro was nestled on a bed of ornamental twigs sitting atop two small bowls that had alternating LED light embedded within.  A small orchid laid on top of the sushi.  Cindy said, "Oh my God!  This looks too good to eat!"  I made sure I took a number of pictures to make sure that I got a good picture of the presentation.  

The first thing we had to try was the toro.  And it was fresh, flavorful and literally melted in our mouths.  The price - $7.95 a piece - precluded us from ordering more, so we just let it savor in our mouths before we moved on.  

I like smoked salmon, but I'll have to say the smoked salmon at Ichiban was a little tough.  It had a good smoked flavor and all, but the consistency was stiff.  It was all right, but I'd had better smoked salmon.  The regular salmon, however, was absolutely killer.  It, too, sort of melted in our mouths yielding both a wonderful taste and a pleasing texture.  I immediately ordered up four more pieces of the salmon for us.  

I tried the hamachi (yellow tail) next and I was pleasantly surprised that the fish was fresh with no fishy aftertaste.  Same with the red snapper - if it really was red snapper.  I've been told that most red snapper sushi is usually some other type of sea fish that is similar to the red snapper.  But both were very good, great taste with the right amount of firmness.  The fish was all very, very fresh.  

Cindy was getting full and she didn't want to have any of the yellow tail or red snapper.  I told her that it was some of the best yellow tail I've had and she didn't want any more, citing that she was full.  However, she suddenly wasn't full when the waitress came back and asked if we wanted any dessert.  Dessert?  At a sushi joint?  Well, they also do hibachi, so I suppose dessert after grilled meat would be nice.  Cindy asked to see the dessert menu and the girl said, "Oh, we have a tiramisu..."

Cindy stopped her there.  She said, "Do you guys make it here?"  The waitress said that they did.  I was a little incredulous, but Cindy went ahead and ordered up some of their tiramisu.  

First of all, I thought we didn't need any more food. Secondly, I sort of wondered what kind of tiramisu they would have at a Japanese restaurant.  It turned out that it was more of an ice cream-based tiramisu with round patties of flavored ice cream sandwiched in between a bed or lady fingers.  The presentation looked great, but it wasn't very good.  I told Cindy afterward, "OK, new rule - no tiramisu at a Japanese restaurant."  She quickly agreed.

But that was the only black mark on what, otherwise, was a great experience at Ichiban Sushi and Steakhouse.  We always seem to go overboard when we do sushi and this was no exception.  The bill ended up at $90 bucks with a tip.  But we don't do sushi together all that much and Christmas Eve is a nice time to splurge a little on ourselves.  While we like the close proximity of Red Ginger, we've sort of fallen out of favor with Osaka because it has gotten too busy and the service has fallen off.  We were very pleased with both the sushi and overall scene of the new and improved Ichiban.  I think we'll be going there more often in the future.  (Photo courtesy Trip Advisor)

Wok 'n Fire - Addison, IL

Along the Lake Street "restaurant row" in the west Chicago suburb of Addison is a Pan-Asian restaurant by the name of Wok 'n Fire.  I've eaten there a couple times before, but I haven't written about the place until now.  It was a cool and rainy evening when I decided to make the short trip from my hotel across Lake Street to get some sushi at Wok 'n Fire. 

The Addison location of Wok 'n Fire is one of six locations in the far western suburbs owned by Siri Lanpouthakoun and his wife, Julie.  There are also Wok 'n Fire locations in Burr Ridge, Wheaton, South Barrington, Elmhurst, and St. Charles.  Prior to opening the Wok 'n Fire restaurants, Siri Lanpouthakoun was involved with his brother, Rod, in the Siri Thai Cuisine restaurant in Hanover Park.  (I understand that place is very good and I've definitely got it on my radar to try at some point.)  

The Wok 'n Fire in Addison is located off of Lake Street behind Zaza's Italian Restaurant (click here to see my entry on Zaza's). (see map)  You can't see it very well from Lake, but if you see Zaza's, then Wok 'n Fire is located in the building directly behind Zaza's.  There's ample parking outside of Wok 'n Fire and there's a corner front door that brings you into a very relaxing and cozy restaurant with Asian accents in the decor.  The dining area is separated from the bar area by a low wall with ornamental oval wood spheres suspended on rods.   

 
The bar area doubles as the alcohol bar and sushi preperation area at Wok 'n Fire.  I decided to have a seat at the bar and I was greeted with a menu by my server for the evening, Sara.  She had a bubbly personality, calling everyone "Hon", but not in the "old lady waitress at the truck stop" kind of way.  She reminded me of the comedic actress and author Amy Sedaris.  I ordered a bottle of Asahi beer and Sara asked me if I wanted a tall bottle.  When I told her that was fine, she said, "Sure, hon.  I'll get it for ya right away."

Looking through the menu, Wok 'n Fire features both sashimi sushi - without the rice; and nigiri - with the rice.  I like getting the nigiri when I get sushi as it's a little more filling and I don't spend as much on sushi as I would if I were getting it without the rice.  When Sara came back with my beer, I began to order up some smoked salmon, regular salmon, sweet shrimp, tuna, yellowtail, and red snapper.  I also got a spicy tuna roll for good measure.  She cheerfully said, "We'll get this right out for ya, hon!"  She was funny and I liked her attitude.  

The sushi chef eventually handed the platter of my sushi and spicy tuna rolls over the counter to me.  It wasn't busy in Wok 'n Fire at that time of the evening, so it didn't take long to prepare my sushi.  It was going to be more than enough to satiate my appetite that evening.

I always start off with a couple pieces of the spicy tuna rolls and the Wok 'n Fire version of spicy tuna rolls were very good.  The spicy sauce had a nice little bite to it.  However, I found out later that the spicy sauce hid some of a bit of fishy taste I got in the regular tuna sushi I ate a little later on.  

But the tuna was the only thing that slightly disappointed me that evening.  Everything else was very good to excellent.  It was some of the best smoked salmon that I've had at any sushi place that I've eaten at over the years.  Yellowtail tends to be a little fishy in taste, but it was not that way on my visit to Wok 'n Fire.  It had been a while since I'd had red snapper sushi and it had a very good taste to it, as well.  The combination of the taste of wasabi and soy sauce with the red snapper made it very wonderful.  Actually, even with the slight fishiness of the tuna, the overall taste of the different types of sushi I had at Wok 'n Fire was was very good.   

When Sara handed me my tab for the evening, she asked me if I had been in before.  I said that I'd eaten there a couple three times before and it was as good that night as it had been in the past.  She asked if I was from out of town and I told her that I was.  She said, "You look like that kind of guy who is staying over at the Hampton Inn looking to get a bite to eat."  She couldn't have been more spot on.  It was like having Kreskin waiting on me. 

I'm hoping Siri Lanpouthakoun is a baseball fan with the name of Wok 'n Fire making a play on the old-time baseball cry heard from dugouts when I was growing up, "Rock 'n Fire!"  The sushi I've had at Wok 'n Fire over the years has always been very good.  Sara was a great waitress, fun and effervescent with a cuteness that helped her get a good tip.  With all the restaurant choices up and down Lake Street, Wok 'n Fire is a good bet for good to great sushi and Pan-Asian cuisine.  

Blue Sushi - Omaha, NE

During our long weekend trip to Omaha a few weeks ago, we decided to have a late lunch after doing some traveling around in the area.  Cindy had seen a sushi place - Blue Sushi - on one of our walks around the Old Market and wanted to go there.  Quite actually, I've had Blue Sushi on my "Restaurants to Visit" list on my computer for a long time.  I had no problem with her suggestion for lunch.

The Blue Sushi location in the Old Market is one of three locations around the Omaha area.  There is also a Blue Sushi in Fort Worth, TX and another location in the LoDo section of downtown Denver.  All are under the corporate umbrella of Flagship Restaurant Group headed by CEO Nick Hogan.  In addition to the Blue Sushi restaurants, Flagship Restaurant Group also oversees the operations of Roja Mexican Grill with two locations in Omaha, Blatt Beer and Table, a craft brew/restaurant in downtown Omaha, and the new Plank Seafood Restaurant that opened in the Old Market earlier this year.  

The first Blue Sushi opened in Omaha in 2002 and I want to say that I had eaten at a location out in the western part of Omaha a number of years ago.  But I'm not overly certain if that was the case or if I had actually eaten at another sushi place thinking it may have been a Blue Sushi location.  The Old Market location also has an upstairs watering hole - Sake Bombers Lounge - that appears to be a pretty happening place during the nighttime hours.  

We walked into the Blue Sushi in the Old Market a little after 2 p.m. (see map) We'd had a big breakfast and we were just looking for something light to tide us over until dinner.  We were greeted by a hostess and I said we were just going to get a quick snack and if it was all right if we sat at the sushi bar.  She had no problem with that.  

Now, I'm not the most metro-sexual guy out there, and my wife is a pretty laid back lady when it comes to casual fashion.  I was dressed in a polo shirt and a pair of khaki shorts.  Cindy had a pair of chino jeans on with a cotton top.  After we sat down, a young lady who was going to be our server came over to greet us.  We may have looked like hayseeds to her because she asked us in what I deemed a very condescending fashion, "Have you guys ever had sushi before?"

Cindy and I sort of looked at one another and Cindy finally said, "Well, yeah!"  The girl gave a little surprised "Oh!" for her reply and dropped off a couple of menus.  I told her that we were going to just get some sushi for a light lunch.  She left and came back with the sushi order menu and a couple pencils, silently dropping them off next to me.  Cindy said, "She seems to have a little bit of an attitude."  

I said to Cindy, "We might not be trendy or 'beautiful' enough for her tastes, dear."  

The sushi menu at Blue Sushi features either 3 pieces of sashimi (without the rice) or 2 pieces of the nigiri (with the rice).  It also had a number of specialty rolls on the menu.  In addition to sushi, Blue Sushi also has a ahi tuna tacos, ceviche, steamed mussels, shrimp tempura and entrees such as a peppercorn ahi tuna steak and a Shishito pepper filet consisting of a pan-seared beef tenderloin filet with Shishito peppers (a sweet Japanese pepper).  

Our server came back and asked us if we wanted any edamane, the snap beans that some sushi restaurants serve as a free appetizer, but Blue Sushi charges $5 bucks for.  We declined, but I did ask her if they had Asahi beer.  She said they did in both the 12 ounce and 21 ounce bottles.  I took one of the big bottles of Asahi. Cindy asked for some green tea.  The girl went back into the back for a moment, then came back out to inform Cindy that they were out of the green tea.  A Japanese restaurant out of green tea?  OK...

She then gave Cindy a verbal list of a number of teas that they had to offer that day.  When she got to "Moroccan Mint", Cindy stopped her.  "Oh, yeah.  I've had the Moroccan Mint tea.  I'll do that one."

The menu that we used to jot down our sushi choices had pretty small print.  Even though it was sunny out and there was some light coming in the large east-facing windows, I was having trouble reading the menu.  I didn't have my glasses with me and I thought I had ordered up a couple pieces of tuna nigiri, four pieces of smoked salmon nigiri and a spicy tuna roll.  When our server came back to pick up the order, she looked it over and she said, "Do you really want the spicy octopus?"

I sort of looked at her funny and she pointed out that I had ordered the spicy tako - spicy octopus - instead of the spicy tekka - spicy tuna.  I said, "I couldn't make out the 'tako' vs. 'tekka'."  She took the menu and gave me a glance that told me she was silently thinking, "You rube..."  

After she walked away, Cindy exclaimed, "What kind of look did she give YOU?  I don't think I like this place.  Too much attitude."

The place didn't seem to be all that busy and they had three sushi chefs working behind the counter.  Cindy and were talking back and forth, and she finally stopped and said, "Do you notice anything different about the sushi chefs?"  

I looked at them and sort of sized them up.  Nothing really jumped out at me, but that's not surprising as my wife says I'm not very observant.  She said, "None of the chefs are Japanese.  They're all Hispanic."  

Sure enough they were all speaking Spanish back and forth amongst themselves.  I guess sushi chefs are sushi chefs, and not that there's anything bad about it, but I will say it is the first time I'd had Hispanic sushi chefs at a Japanese sushi restaurant.

As I said, it didn't appear to be all that busy in the restaurant, but our sushi - six pieces and a spicy tuna roll - was taking an extraordinary amount of time, especially for having three sushi chefs behind the bar.  They were having "happy hour" at the Sake Bomb Lounge upstairs and we wondered if they were serving food up there because there was less than a dozen people in the dining area of Blue Sushi and the sushi chefs were all working feverishly.  Over 20 minutes after we had given our order to our server, one of the sushi chefs handed over the platter across the cooling case to us with a quick apology for it taking so long.

The nigiri sushi featured thick pieces of fresh smoked salmon and tuna.  The spicy tuna roll, however, seemed to be somewhat small in both circumference and in quantity of the tuna.  Wrapped in seaweed, the individual pieces of the spicy tuna roll were not much larger than a U.S. quarter coin.  

I will say that the smoked salmon was very good.  It had a good smoked flavor to it and the fish had a wonderful body texture consistency when you bit into it.  

The tuna was good, but not as good as the smoked salmon.  It, too, had a good texture to the bite in the fish.  The only problem was that when we dipped the nigiri into the soy sauce, the rice would fall apart.  I learned awhile back from a sushi chef at a place I was eating at that if the rice falls apart when you dip it in the soy sauce, the rice didn't have enough white vinegar in it to help keep it moist.   It was a minor hassle for us and certainly not a deal breaker.  

With the long wait for our sushi, the small nature of the spicy tuna roll, and the somewhat condescending nature of our server, the taste of the very good sushi couldn't overpower our unhappiness with our experience at Blue Sushi.  Maybe we caught them on a bad day and I just don't care for servers with attitudes.  But it doesn't mean that I won't give Blue Sushi a try at some other point during a visit to Omaha - that is, if I'm in the mood for sushi instead of a great steak.     

Nobori Sushi - Glenview, IL

Whenever I get into a "food funk" on the road, I've found that sushi usually pulls me out of it.  One evening in the northern Chicago suburbs, I wasn't certain what I wanted for dinner.  I didn't want pizza since I knew I was going to go out for pizza the next evening.  A burger was out of the question.  I thought about Thai food or a steak, but those ideas just didn't trip my trigger.  I did a quick Urbanspoon search to see what was in the area and found a place called Nobori Sushi on Waukegan Ave. in Glenview.  (see map)  I set my GPS and took off for Nobori Sushi.

Noburu Nakamura is the man behind Nobori Sushi.  He grew up in the Kanto region of Japan and immigrated to the U.S. over 30 years ago to work in a sushi restaurant in New York City.  There are dozens of sushi restaurants in Greenwich Village and Noburu found work at one such restaurant.  About 25 years ago, he moved to Chicago and began to work in a number of sushi places around the area.  

In 2010, Noburu decided to open his own sushi restaurant suburban Glenview in a strip mall along busy Waukegan Ave.  The name "Nobori" means "sun rising in the morning" and Nakamura believed the restaurant would also rise to greatness.  

It was around 7:30 when I entered Nobori Sushi.  The place was half full of patrons, so seating was no problem.  I looked to sit at the sushi bar as I'm want to do when I eat sushi by myself, but there were curiously no chairs in front of the small sushi case.  I was ushered toward the back of the restaurant and given a menu by, I believe, Mr. Noburu Nakamura himself. 

The restaurant is not large and has your typical contemporary Japanese restaurant decor.  A number of tables and chairs hug the wall and it has a number of can lights that helped keep the ambiance to the restaurant warm and inviting.  

I was there for the sushi even though Nobori Sushi has a number of teriyaki entrees including chicken teriyaki, beef and asparagus teriyaki, and tuna or salmon teriyaki.  They also had a number of noodle-based dishes to choose from on the menu including ramen noodles and yakisoba with chicken, vegetables and noodles.  

When Noburu came back to ask me what I wanted to drink I asked for an Asahi beer, then told him that I was ready to order up some sushi.   I ordered a spicy tuna roll, some smoked salmon sushi, as well as tuna, yellowtail and shrimp sushi.  He said he'd have it right out.  

And less than 10 minutes later he came over with the sushi platter.  The spicy tuna rolls were wrapped with seaweed and weren't exactly the largest spicy tuna rolls I've ever had.  But they were very good and had a nice kick to the flavor.  The smoked salmon sushi was also very good with a nice forward smoke flavor to the bite.  I liked the shrimp sushi, as well.  It had a nice sweet taste and the shrimp meat was firm, not soggy.  While the tuna was also pretty good, I'll have to say the yellowtail was a little mushy and had a hint of a fishy taste to it.  It was probably at the end of its cycle in the sushi case, but it was far from bad.  

Noburu came over after I finished and asked if I wanted another Asahi or more sushi.  I contemplated getting a couple more pieces of either the tuna or the smoked salmon, but decided I'd had enough.  I was full enough from what I had just eaten.

 

Nobori Sushi was fine - a pleasant find of a good sushi meal.  The service was fine, the food was above average and the place was comfortable.  Not being able to sit at the sushi bar to watch the chefs prepare the meal was a little disheartening, but I was comfortable at the table.   There's a number of good to great sushi places in the Glenview/Northbrook area and Nobori Sushi can be added to that list.  

Yokohama Japanese Cuisine & Sushi Bar - Greenwood, IN

I had to do a training for a dealer in the south Indianapolis suburb of Greenwood one morning, so I got into the hotel the night before and decided to find someplace to eat that evening.  A quick look through Urbanspoon of area restaurants showed me a number of places to eat.  I found an interesting place - a sushi restaurant by the name of Yokohama Japanese Cuisine and Sushi Bar.  I decided that sushi wouldn't be too bad for dinner that evening, so I headed over to Yokohama for dinner.

Yokohama has been in business since 2008, but has suffered from a somewhat checkered past.  The original owners were an older couple who garnered a foul reputation with people who visited the place.  The only saving grace was the sushi chef - Debbie - who was outgoing, friendly and personable.  

Debbie is a native of Taiwan and had begun to work at Yokohama not long after it opened.  She had owned a Chinese restaurant previously and ended up selling it to take care of her ailing parents.  The owners of Yokohama knew Debbie and asked her to come to work for them right after they opened the doors in 2008.  After working at Yokohama for awhile, she decided she wanted to be a sushi chef.   Reviews of the place were overwhelmingly negative except for Debbie and her sushi.  

In early 2011, the couple who owned Yokohama decided they wanted to retire.  Debbie had an idea that she would like to buy the place.  Her husband, Scott, was retired from Chrysler with a work place disability and she asked him one day, "What do you think if I buy the restaurant?"  He said he wanted to think about it for awhile and she replied, "Well, you better hurry up because we bought it yesterday."  Two days later, using their savings and getting loans from family members, the couple closed on the property and they were the new owners of Yokohama.  The couple knew it was far from a sure thing and they had to repair a damaged reputation the restaurant had garnered.  

Debbie and Scott Bennett - owners of Yokohama 

The Bennett's put up a sign out front "Under New Management" and tried to gain back some of the customers who said they'd never go back.  Scott Bennett used social media to get the news out that there were new owners at Yokohama and went on restaurant review web sites to reply to those who had trashed the restaurant after previous visits.  Within a couple three months, Scott Bennett estimated that they had won back about 60 percent of their previous customers.  A lot of it had to do with the fact that it was Debbie running the place.   

Family members make up the bulk of the staff at Yokohama. Everyone on the staff can do any job in the restaurant - from making sushi, to cooking in the kitchen, to waiting tables, to maintanence work.  But Debbie continues to be the main sushi chef and the friendly face of Yokohama.  

Going from the Central time zone to the Eastern time zone, I always end up eating late when I get to Indianapolis.  It was 7:00 p.m. body-time and 8:00 p.m. real time when I started out toward Yokohama.  I was surprised to find that Yokohama was actually in a house on Madison Avenue in Greenwood, just north of Main St. (see map)  I parked in the small parking lot behind the restaurant and went in.

Yokohama is not large - it seats about 40 people and it can get pretty crowded on the weekends.  There's a small seating area as you walk in the front door and two small dining rooms on the main floor.  Yokohama also has a private dining area for more traditional Japanese dining in an upstairs room.  Two young ladies were seated in the dining area to the left as you come in the main part of the restaurant.  Other than those two and me, that was it.  But it was 8:30 on a weeknight and Yokohama closes at 9 p.m.  

 

The sushi bar is in the back corner of the building and I walked in to sit there.  Debbie Bennett greeted me with a big smile and a boisterous personality.  She was immediately likable.  I believe it was Debbie's sister who came over and gave me a menu and asked what I wanted to drink.  I asked if they had Asahi beer and she enthusiastically replied, "Sure!"  

I was just going to get sushi, so I filled out a sushi roll/nigiri sheet.  I always love getting a spicy tuna roll, but I was having trouble finding it on the sheet.  I asked Debbie if she had a spicy tuna roll and she said, "Oh, yes!  It's right here!"  And she pointed it out on the sheet.  She said, "You want a spicy tuna roll?"  I told her that I did and a few other things.  She said, "I'll get started on the spicy tuna, OK?"  

I also ordered up some smoked salmon, regular salmon, regular tuna and yellowtail.  Debbie handed the spicy tuna roll over the refrigerated case.  It was a bigger roll - 8 pieces total.  And it was very good.  The spicy tuna roll had a wonderful taste.  

After finishing my tuna roll, Debbie handed me my nigiri plate.  I got four pieces of smoked salmon - my favorite type of sushi - and two each regular of the salmon, tuna and yellowtail.  The smoked salmon was very good as it had a nice smoked flavor that wasn't overwhelming.  The regular salmon was also good, but the tuna and especially the yellowtail were a little fishy in taste.  They were still edible, but not the best tuna or yellowtail I've had.  

The only quibble I had was that Yokohama was a little pricey.  It was just under $50 bucks before the tip.  But with Debbie's fun and infectious personality, it was fine with me.  I can't imagine what Yokohama was like before the Bennett's owned the place, but the sushi was certainly good and it was a fun time.  I love finding little sushi places while I'm on the road and now that Yokohama is on my radar, I'm sure I'll be back at some point.

Osaka Seafood Steakhouse - Bloomington, MN

Not far from the hotel I like to stay at in suburban Bloomington, MN is a restaurant called Osaka Seafood Steakhouse.  Sort of burned out on all different types of food, I thought maybe some sushi would be a good meal one particular evening.  I had seen Osaka from the freeway a number of times and decided to make the short run from the hotel to see what they had to offer.

Osaka Seafood Steakhouse is a hibachi/sushi restaurant with six locations in and around the Twin Cities, a location in Rochester, MN, and a location up in Fargo, ND.  Actually, most of the locations have "Osaka Sushi & Hibachi" on the outside of their buildings, but I guess their official name now includes the Seafood and Steakhouse, something they added after they opened locations in Bloomington, Fargo and Rochester. 

The Osaka location in Bloomington is located off American Blvd. on Southtown Boulevard, next to I-494 and just west of the Southtown Center shopping complex.  (see map)   It's located in the north end of a parking lot they share with Rainbow Foods, a local Twin Cities-area chain of grocery stores.  

It was around 8 p.m. when I walked in and was greeted by a hostess at the stand inside the front door.  She asked me if I wanted to sit at a table or booth in the dining area (below left), or at the hibachi grill.  I asked if I could just sit at the sushi bar and it sort of startled her.  "Oh, sure!  Of course!  You want sushi!"

The sushi bar at Osaka isn't all that large.  It seats, maybe, a dozen people and there were two couples already seated there when I got in.  It's opposite a regular bar where no one was seated.  The hostess had a menu in her hands, but when I told her that I was just going to get sushi, she took that away.   

Another young girl came over and took my drink order.  I ordered a tall bottle of Asahi and looked at the sushi check list while I waited.  I'm pretty predictable when it come to sushi - spicy tuna roll, smoked salmon, regular salmon, tuna and usually some yellowtail or fluke.  I ordered a couple pieces of the yellowtail as well as some spicy tuna sushi that evening in addition to the other stuff when she came back with my beer.  

Not long after I ordered my sushi, one of the sushi chefs handed me a platter over the top of the refrigerated case.  The spicy tuna rolls featured a generous 8 pieces.  The other sushi had nice big chunks of fish on the hand-rolled rice.  The spicy tuna sushi had a crunch topping to it.  It was a lot of sushi.

The spicy tuna rolls were all right, nothing real special.  The smoked salmon had a nice smoked flavor to it, and the tuna was very fresh in taste.  The spicy tuna, well, I didn't think it was all that spicy.  The rest of the sushi was basically average, at best.  It wasn't bad, but far from the best sushi I've had.  

Halfway through my meal, I was out of beer.  I asked for another bottle of Asahi and the girl brought me back a large bottle of Kirin.  She said, "We are out of Asahi, sir.  Would you like Kirin instead?"  It was already opened, but I asked if they had Sapporo.  She said they didn't.  I took the bottle of Kirin and the first drink reminded me why I didn't order Kirin.  Its bitter taste was a complete contrast to the smooth taste of the Asahi that I had.  Wait a minute - a sushi place that is out of Asahi and doesn't carry Sapporo?  It was the middle of the week, but that's no excuse.  I don't care for Kirin and I only drank about half before I gave up.  To her credit, she did comp me on the bottle of Kirin because I told her I didn't like it.  

All in all, the sushi at Osaka was good, but not the best, as I said.  For being close to the hotel, it was fine.  But I'm sure I probably could have found better sushi with a little bit of a drive.  Still, for what it was, the sushi at Osaka was acceptable.  Compared to other sushi places, it was a good value.  Osaka has nine locations so they must be pretty popular with the locals.  To me, it was all right for what it was.  

Kamehachi - Northbrook, IL

I had been on the road for a few days and ended up in the northern suburbs of Chicago one evening.  I was tired of burgers, didn't want a pizza, thought about going to find a steak, but I soon lost interest in that.  I realized that I hadn't had seafood for a while, but didn't feel like finding a seafood restaurant.  However, sushi came into my mind and while I was tempted to go back to one of my all-time favorite sushi places - Blu Fish - I decided to seek out another place for sushi.  (Click here to see my entry on Blu Fish.) Looking through Urbanspoon, I found a sushi place in Northbrook - Kamehachi.  I got the address and put it into the GPS.  In less than 10 minutes from my hotel, I pulled up in front of Kamehachi.

The original Kamehachi has a long history in the city of Chicago.  It is recognized as being the first place to get sushi in the Chicagoland area.  In the mid-60's, Marion Konishi, a young Japanese-American mother of two from San Diego who grew up in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, moved to Chicago with the help of relatives who ran restaurants in New York.  She opened Kamehachi in 1967 - the name roughly means "8 turtles" in Japanese.  Turtles and the number 8 are considered a sign of luck and longevity in Japanese culture.  Trying to make a go of a cuisine that was completely foriegn to the meat and potatoes crowd in Chicago in the 60's, Konishi worked as a server, greeter, sushi chef and cook at the restaurant.  Working with Japanese men whose upbringing viewed women as subserviant, Konishi's firm and forward manner in her restaurant garnered her the moniker of "The Dragon Lady".  

Kamehachi's first location was on N. Wells St. in an area that was sort of a hippie/Bohemian enclave in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.  Kamehachi's unique cuisine caught on with the laid back neighborhood and was a favorite of many of the young and rising stars who graced the stage at the famed Second City theater just across the street.  Notable actors such as John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis all dined at Kamehachi in Old Town before they became famous.   

Marion Konishi passed away in 1990 and her daughter, Sharon Perazzoli, took over Kamehachi.  Four years later, she moved the original restaurant from the small building they had been in for nearly 25 years to a larger location two blocks south to the corner of Wells and Schiller. (see map)  In 1999, the Northbrook location opened and three years later, Kamehachi opened a location in the Streeterville neighborhood in Chicago.  Perazzoli and her daughter, Giulia Sindler, (pictured right) oversee five Kamehachi locations across the greater Chicagoland area.

The Northbrook location is in a shopping/restaurant area along Shermer Road across from Village Green park in what would be downtown Northbrook. (see map)  I had never been in that part of Northbrook before and was surprised to see a number of other restaurants in the immediate area. I made notes of what I saw while I was driving around so I could go back and try some of the places at a later time.  I was able to find a parking spot right in front of Kamehachi on Shermer Road. 

I went in the front door and soon found out that it even though it faced the road, the front door of Kamehachi is actually on the opposite end of the restaurant facing the parking lot behind the building.  However, a young server saw me come in and asked where I'd like to sit.  There was a sushi bar and a small bar opposite the sushi chefs.  I took a seat at the sushi bar and she dropped off a menu for me.  

The restaurant, itself, featured a contemporary decor with recessed can lighting in the ceiling.  A series of Japanese-inspired prints hung on the wall on the east side of the restaurant.  The dining room was large and comfortable.

The sushi bar was pretty big and they had five sushi chefs working that evening.  A waterwall bubbled behind the sushi chefs.  It was sort of a nice and soothing touch as you sit at the sushi bar.  

A young man came by to ask me what I wanted to drink.  I asked for an Asahi beer, but they only had Sapporo.  That's fine with me.  Asahi is usually No. 1 with me for Japanese beers while Sapporo is No. 1A.  

Other than sushi, Kamehachi has a number of cooked entrees including chicken or steak teriyaki, Chilean sea bass, and sukiyaki - slices of tender beef simmered with cabbage, tofu, onions and mushrooms and served with Japanese noodles.  Speaking noodle dishes, Kamehachi features a number of entrees with all types of noodles - thick noodles, thin noodles, tea noodles and some others - many of which can have beef, chicken or seafood added.

But I was there for the sushi and I was hungry.  I had only had a breakfast bar during the course of the day and I started out by ordering two of the Spicy Tuna Roll Deluxe - a regular spicy tuna roll with cucumber and avacado added.  It's like a California roll, only with tuna and the spicy mayo added.  I was surprised when it came out so soon - less than five minutes after I ordered and the restaurant was pretty busy.  The Spicy Tuna Rolls were, well, sort of bland.  They didn't have quite the zip in taste that I've had in other tuna rolls at other places.  I will say, however, that the wasabi was pungent and very forward when mixed with the soy sauce, and the ginger was some of the freshest and best tasting that I've ever had.

I then ordered up some of the Chu Toro (medium fatty tuna), smoked salmon, regular tuna and yellow tail.  The order of sushi also came up rather fast.  I tried the Chu Toro first and found it to be nice and chewy, but it had a hint of a fishy taste, sort of like it was getting toward the end of its shelf life in the sushi bar case.  The smoked salmon didn't have much of a smoked taste to it, which was very disappointing.  I love a good smoked salmon and Kamehachi's was not that great.  The yellow tail and regular tuna were all right.  They weren't anything special in taste.  I thought the whole meal was sort of average, at best.

The sushi I had at Kamehachi was all right - it wasn't the best I've ever had, nor was it the worst.  I also thought it was a little expensive for what I got.  I didn't think the sushi had the great taste sensation that I look for in sushi, but the wasabi did help and the ginger was probably the most fresh ginger I'd ever had at a sushi restaurant.  Still, I was good and full after the meal and I wasn't sorry that I found Kamehachi.  If anything, finding Kamehachi opened up other possibilites of eating establishments in the immediate area.  (Photo courtesy Michelle Reitman)

Fuji Sushi and Steakhouse - Waite Park, MN

Over the years, I've found that sushi in the Midwest, especially in smaller cities, is usually a hit or miss kind of thing.  That's why when I agreed to meet with the co-owners who run an audio/video dealership we sell to in St. Cloud, MN over sushi last year, I was a little less than eager to meet up with them at the place - Fuji Sushi and Steakhouse.  However, the sushi was surprisingly excellent, as was the hibachi steak that we had, as well.  When I was in the St. Cloud area earlier this summer, I set up another lunch appointment at Fuji Sushi and Steakhouse.   This time, I was actually looking forward to the meal.  

In May of 2010 when a lot of restaurants were closing up due to the downturn in the economy, Fuji Sushi and Steakhouse opened their doors on the corner of S. 2nd St. and S. 2nd Ave. in Waite Park, a small connected suburb to St. Cloud's Southwest side (see map).  Pat Rogosheske is the managing partner in the place.  Rogosheske was born and raised in Japan and had about 25 years of restaurant experience before opening the doors to Fuji Sushi and Steakhouse.  The restaurant has thrived on the strength of great food at a good price.  Rogosheske does a lot of promoting of the restaurant through in-house specials and discounts.  

The entry way of the restaurant features a cozy waiting area and hostess stand.  The bar is off to the left as you walk down the hall to the main dining room.  There's a sushi bar opposite the regular bar with a number of booths in a lounge nearby.

The main dining room features six hibachi stations where the chefs give diners a "Benihana"-type experiece, complete with all the hibachi chef's food tricks.  As I said, we had both sushi and hibachi last year and it was very, very good.  On this visit, we opted to sit at the sushi bar, conduct some business and have some lunch.

We took a look through the menu, but one of the guys told me they had some killer lunch specials.  As I said, one of Pat Rogosheske's marketing plans is offer discounts and specials - especially during lunch.  One of the daily lunch specials that is your choice of two sushi rolls with a cup of the miso soup for $9.95.  Now, that's a killer deal.  I remembered their spicy tuna rolls were very good from the year before, so I ordered two of those with the miso soup.  One of the guys from my dealer ordered a couple rolls on his own with the soup while the other guy ordered a the sushi roll and five pieces of sushi special.  The time to make the rolls and sushi gave us ample time to go over programs, numbers and get caught up with what was what.

The sushi/sushi roll was the first thing to come out.  The presentation was very nice with the roll in the middle with the five pieces of sushi spoked out from the center.  Remarkably, the sushi is as fresh as fresh can be for a sushi place in St. Cloud, MN.  It doesn't have a fishy taste to it - something I've run into in much larger cities.  

After finishing the miso soup, our sushi rolls came out.  The spicy tuna rolls were, once again, outstanding.  They had a nice texture to the bite and a nice little spicy zip to the taste.  I was overly happy with the rolls, but I was thinking I wanted to try something else.

The other guy who got the same special as me also thought he needed a couple pieces of sushi, so we ordered up about 8 more pieces that we shared between the two of us.  The smoked salmon was delicious, as was the maguro tuna.  I remarked, "This is so unbelievable that you guys can have this good of sushi in St. Cloud.  I'd put this place up against sushi places in much larger cities."  

One of the guys said, "Oh, yeah.  We've had sushi in a lot of places and we think this place is one of the best we've ever had.  I'll tell you, it blows away most of the sushi places in the Twin Cities."  

Thanks to these guys, I've had some pretty good and memorable meals in St. Cloud over the past few years, but it's tough to beat Fuji Sushi and Steakhouse for great sushi.   The lunch specials are a bargain, but the sushi can be a little high priced.  But, still, to get sushi that good in a small market is worth the extra price.  After two visits to Fuji Sushi and Steakhouse, I can't say enough good things about the sushi at the place.  It's truly remarkable and - surprisingly - very good.  

Blufish Sushi Bistro - Glenview, IL

I happened upon Blufish Sushi Bistro one evening when I was in the northern suburbs of Chicago. The on-line description of the place was sort of vague, but it got a number of glowing user reviews on Google. I thought I'd check the place out to see if it was really worthy of the five stars everyone seemed to be giving the place.

Blufish Sushi Bistro is located in the Playa del Prado shopping center at the corner of Willow Road and Pfingsten in the Glenview/Northbrook area. (see map) The main store in the L-shaped strip mall is a Jewel-Osco store on the east side, and Blufish Sushi Bistro is located on the south side of the strip mall, just to the west of a McDonald's and a Starbucks. Blufish has a second location that opened in the summer of 2011 in Park Ridge, about five miles south of the Glenview location. (see map)

Blufish Sushi Bistro is a contemporary Japanese restaurant that features, of course, sushi, as well as steaks, seafood, and eclectic food fare such as Beef Tataki - thin slices of seared beef served with a Ponzu sauce; Gyoza - pan fried and steamed pork-wasabi dumplings; and shumai - steamed shrimp dumplings served with a spicy sauce.

Blufish features a pleasant and cozy dining area with a small lounge in the front. Contemporary fixtures and lighting are found throughout the place. One side of the dining room has banquette bench seating. I'm not a big fan of this type of seating in a restaurant. It's like you're sharing a seat with the person next to you, often someone you don't know. I was greeted by a pleasant hostess and I asked if there was room at the sushi bar. There happened to be one seat left. Yes, yes - I know. I don't like to sit in banquette seats because it's like sharing a seat with a stranger. But I'll sit right next to a person I don't know at a sushi bar, sharing the table top. I'm weird about that.

The hostess guided me to a seat at the far end of the rather unique sushi bar and she gave me a menu to look through. The table top of the bar was underlit with a soothing aqua blue light. It was like nothing I've ever come across before. Vota candles were lined up along the top of sushi bar.

Quite actually, the sushi menu at Blufish was immense. Not only did they have the individual nigiri sushi, they had a number of interesting rolls and featured sushi entrees. One that jumped out at me was the Dragon Fire -it featured soft-shell crab, asparagus, & eel all wrapped with thin slices of tuna. It's then topped with black tobiko (which is flying fish roe - I had to ask) then topped with a chili sauce. It's then covered with Bacardi 151 rum and set on fire. It sort of sounded like the Playboy roll at Naked Tchopstix in Indianapolis. That's the kind of sushi roll you want to share with more than one person because the lighting of the flame is good entertainment.

Blufish also had the Tuna Flight - a sampling of all the tunas available that evening. And they had 7 different types of tuna on the menu and I thought that would be a great starter. I ordered one of the Tuna Flights and a large bottle of Asahi beer. The waitress came back and apologetically said that they had sold out of the O-toro and Chu-toro tuna - the two fattiest grades (and the best tasting) of all sushi tuna cuts. I picked up the menu again and quickly ordered a spicy tuna roll as well as a spicy salmon roll (something I don't see very often in sushi restaurants). I also ordered a couple pieces each of the tuna, smoked salmon and the yellowtail.

Even though Blufish was busy, my sushi platter showed up in front of me in less than 10 minutes. The presentation was absolutely stunning. I just sort of sat there and looked at the platter for a minute before I dug in.

The first thing I tried was the spicy tuna roll. It was great - it had a sneaky spicy taste to it. But the better of the two spicy rolls was the salmon roll. It was even a little more spicy and had a wonderful sushi flavor to it. Both the spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls were wrapped in seaweed, another nice little touch you don't often find at other sushi places.

The tuna sushi was outstanding, as was the yellowtail. The yellowtail had absolutely no hint of fishy taste to it, something that I encounter from time to time at other sushi restaurants. The smoked salmon was a little disappointing - it didn't have that good smoky flavor I like in my smoked salmon sushi. But, still, it was excellent in quality and taste. I was far from disappointed in my sushi at Blufish.

Blufish Sushi Bistro has just gone to the top of my list for sushi restaurants in the north suburbs of Chicago. The atmosphere was excellent, the interior of the place was interesting and the food - and service - was top-notch. Blufish was absolutely fabulous. There's a lot of very good to great sushi places in the Chicagoland region and Blufish is definitely one of them.

Red Ginger - Bettendorf, IA

It's been somewhat of a Christmas time tradition for Cindy and I to go out for sushi and then take in a movie on Christmas Eve.  Later this week will probably no exception as there's a couple movies I would like to see and there's some pretty good sushi in the area.  One place that we like going to from time to time is a newer sushi place about a mile from where we live - Red Ginger. 

Red Ginger opened up in the summer of 2010 and we've been there about four or five times since it opened up.  It's housed in a small strip mall on the spot where Duck Creek Tire used to be before they moved further out in Bettendorf, behind Bruegger's Bagels and right across the parking lot from the Burlington Coat Factory store (see map). 

The interior decor of Red Ginger is a very contemporary theme with a nice bar area, a medium-sized dining room and a couple sunken booth tables off to the side for somewhat authentic Japanese dining.  (They even ask you to take your shoes off when dining.)  

We like to sit at the sushi bar when we go to Red Ginger.  It only seats six or seven people and it can get kind of crowded if it's full.  But one of the good things about the sushi bar is that the sushi chefs will give you a treat right off the bat.  This particular night, we both got an appetizer that consisted of broiled eel strips topped with a tangy sauce, some bamboo chutes and parsley.  It was actually pretty good.  

The menu at Red Ginger is just more than sushi.  You can get teriyaki and tempura dishes, chicken or pork tonkatsu (cutlets that are deep fried), as well as soups and salads.  Cindy especially likes the miso soup at Red Ginger.  Not that it's much different from anyplace else, she likes the taste of it.

They have a number of specialty rolls at Red Ginger including their Crazy Tuna rolls.  They take spicy tuna, and avacado and other things and roll them all together, then top them off with some more spicy tuna and breaded crunchies (foreground, picture below left).  Oh, boy, is it good.  It's expensive ($12.75), but it's a wonderful treat when we go there.  We started off with a Crazy Tuna roll as well as a Spicy Tuna roll.  The Spicy Tuna roll is actually a pretty good value at $4.75.  Most other sushi places charge upward of $6 to $7 bucks for a similar sushi roll.

We also ordered up pieces of tuna, yellowtail, salmon, smoked salmon and red snapper sushi (above right).  The fish has always been fresh tasting at Red Ginger and this visit was absolutely no exception.  I especially love the smoked salmon at Red Ginger.  It literally melts in your mouth and has a great taste to the fish.  Sometimes, I'll find yellowtail to be a little fishy in taste from some sushi places, but I've never run into that with the yellowtail at Red Ginger.  Along with a couple of Asahi beers for me and green tea for Cindy, it's a great meal.  But at $1.99 to $2.50 a piece, it adds up quick.

Because of the price of sushi - and the fact that we usually pig out when do eat sushi - we don't go to Red Ginger as often as I'd like.  It's usually a $75 dollar bill with tip each time we go out for sushi, so our sushi adventures are few and far between.  But they do have a very reasonably priced lunch menu where you can get four pieces of sushi, six pieces of sashimi (sushi with no rice) and a chef's choice roll for $11.95.  Red Ginger has been a wonderful addition to the rotation of restaurants we like to go to in the Quad Cities.  And we're happy that it's close to home.  

 

 

Wakaba - Deerfield, IL

On a recent trip to Chicago, I got into my hotel in Lincolnshire, IL one evening pretty late.  I was tired and just wanted to get something to eat.  I didn't want bar food and a steak would have been too much.  I remembered a sushi restaurant that I'd driven by a number of times that was just down the road a mile or so by the name of Wakaba.  I decided to throw my bags in my room and head down the road for some sushi. 

The name "Wakaba" is Japanese for "young leaves".  But I really don't know what that has to do with the Wakaba sushi restaurant located in the River Run Shopping Center on Milwaukee Ave. in Deerfield.  (see map)   The restaurant has been open since 1997 and is owned by Midong and Haeyoung Choi.  Even though the Choi's are natives of Seoul, Korea, they claim the restaurant is 100 percent Japanese.   By day, Midong Choi's main vocation is as an attorney.  At night, he trades in his coat and tie for a traditional sushi chef robe and headband.  His wife runs the kitchen full time at the restaurant. 

 

 
The interior of Wakaba is typical of most Japanese/sushi restaurants.  It's well-lit and filled with oriental-style furniture for the tables and chairs, as well as numerous oriental pieces of artwork on the wall.  A number of plants are throughout the place giving it sort of a Japanese garden vibe.  I'm guessing that must be the reason for the "Wakaba" name.  On one wall, they have a flat screen television playing a continuous loop of a tank full of tropical fish.  They must figure that it's a lot cheaper to maintain a flat screen and a DVD player than it is to futz with actually having a tropical fish aquarium. 

I sat at the sushi bar and they appeared to have a lot of good fresh fish to choose from in the glass cooler (above right).  I got a menu from the waitress and ordered an Asahi beer.  It had been a long day and I needed a cold beer. 

Wakaba offers much more than just your standard sushi on their menu.  They have a number of Japanese entrees that Haeyoung Choi makes up in the kitchen just off to the side of the sushi bar.  But I was interested in sushi that evening and that's what I got.

The first thing I noticed was that they had toro (fatty tuna).  I got a piece of that to go along with a spicy tuna roll, a couple pieces each of sweet shrimp, yellow tail, regular salmon and smoked salmon. 

Being that it was only me and two other gentlemen in the restaurant, the sushi chef (I'm guessing it was Midong Choi) took care of me pretty quickly.   He also threw in a couple of the deep-fried shrimp heads that I'll take if they're free and leave if they're not.

The spicy tuna rolls were not very good.  I can't say they were all that spicy and the tuna was like mush.  They had a seaweed wrapping around them and I only got five pieces (most places will give you six).

The toro was fine, but the yellow tail was very fishy in taste.  The smoked salmon wasn't all that smoky and the regular salmon, too, had a heavy fishiness to its taste.  The sweet shrimp were the best of the tastes that I had that evening and even they weren't much to write home about.

I finished quickly and just wanted to get back to the hotel as I had some e-mails to return and needed to go to bed rather early.  I finished up and the sushi chef said, "You eat so fast!  You want more?"

I begged off and told him that I was tired and needed to get back to the hotel.  The whole time I was thinking, "Geez, I may need to get back to the hotel in case I get sick!"  Thankfully, I didn't get sick from the sushi at Wakaba.

 

Wakaba wasn't very good that evening.  I don't think they've been able to stay in business for 14 years by having sushi that was as bad as what I had that night.  I'm hoping it was just an anomaly, but I'm not certain I'm willing to give Wakaba a second chance.  Not with a number of other sushi restaurants in the area.

Naked Tchopstix - Indianapolis

 
I'm doing a lot more business with a company out in Indianapolis - Ovation Audio Video - and I had to go out to Indy to do some training for some of their salespeople a few weeks ago.  Since I only get out to Indy about two or three times a year, I always treat the guys to a nice meal somewhere.  They know that I don't like chains or restaurants that I can eat at back home in Iowa, so they always do a great job in coming up with unique restaurants to the Indianapolis area for us to go.  This particular evening, they picked out Naked Tchopstix - a Pan-Asian/Sushi Bar with two locations in Indianapolis and one up in Fort Wayne (see locations here).  We went to the location at 96th and Keystone on the North side of Indy (see map).

David and Maggie Lee opened the first Naked Tchopstix restaurant back in 2003.  Since then, they've won numerous local awards for having some of the best Asian food in the Indianapolis area.  Many of the items on their dinner menu feature twists on Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Southeast Asian cuisine.  They also have an extensive and eclectic sushi menu that the guys from Ovation were saying is one of the best in the city.   One of the guys was telling me their Korean-style food was just excellent, as well. 

We sat at a large table toward the back corner of the restaurant, too large for the six of us who went out to dinner, but large enough where we weren't on top of one another.  Actually, the table was a little to large for the little riser deck that it was on and I can see where some people have probably slid their chairs backward and fallen off the 9 inch deck.  The restaurant, itself, was full of large sturdy tables and oriental style wooden chairs.  Oriental lamps hung from the ceilings and small bamboo trees were interspersed around the dining room.

I was set on getting some sushi, but I was sort of intrigued by a Korean dish they had on the menu, the spicy pork - grilled pork that is sliced, then seasoned in a spicy red pepper marinade and served with rice and a vegetable medley.  I got that and a little bit of sushi to go along with it. 

While most of the others got sushi, one of the guys got the General Tso's chicken - basically breaded chicken nuggets, deep-fried and then served in a tangy orange sauce.  He told me, "I've had General Tso's chicken at a lot of places in my life, but these guys do it the absolute best."

 A lot of people were getting sushi at Naked Tchopstix that evening, so our entrees showed up before the sushi did.  The spicy pork dish lived up to its billing.  The pork was succulent and tender, and the red pepper marinade that they put the pork into gave it a nice spicy bite, but not enough that it was burn your face off hot.  It wasn't a large plate so it was just enough food to go along with the sushi that I got.

I got a five piece spicy tuna roll along with two pieces each of the maguro (tuna), sake (salmon), tai (red snapper) and some smoked salmon.  I had made a significant dent in the spicy pork entree when the sushi showed up at that table.

And the sushi was very good.  While we all agreed that Mikado in downtown Indianapolis could very well be the best sushi in all of Indianapolis, Naked Tchopstix did a very good job with their sushi.  The sushi was very fresh and tasty, although the spicy tuna roll could have been a little more spicy.

The guys ordered up a ton of sushi to share among themselves.  And they got some pretty eclectic stuff.  Naked Tchopstix has a special roll called the Corona Roll that a couple of the guys ordered up.  It featured white tuna, spicy tuna, avocado, tempura chips and a slice of lime on top (below left).  There was also the Rainbow roll (pictured below on the far right) that consisted of tuna, salmon, red snapper, white tuna, avocado, and sweet shrimp on the outside with avocado, crab meat and cucumber on the inside.   I had a bite of both of them and they were just outstanding. 

 

But the most interesting food of the night was the Playboy roll.  First of all, it comes to your table wrapped in foil and the waiter poured a little cognac around the base of the foil and set it on fire.  When the cognac burned out, he unfoiled the sushi roll and set it on the table.  What's in a Playboy roll is just unbelievable - it's an inside/outside roll with shrimp tempura, asparagus, tempura chips and spicy tuna on the inside and cooked shrimp with a spicy and sweet sauce on the outside.  Oh man!  Was it good.  I had a piece and the charred taste from the ritualistic table side torching of the foiled sushi roll was a taste sensation that I'd had before with the chargrilled octopus from Estiatorios Milos in Montreal.  The Playboy roll was so good that it was quickly gobbled up by all of us at the table.  I didn't hesitate when the waiter came back to order up another one.  And no one complained when I did.  The second Playboy roll was just as good as the first one. 

 

The guys at Ovation do a great job of turning me on to some great restaurants in the Indianapolis area and Naked Tchopstix was no exception.   With the CEDIA Expo coming back to Indianapolis later this year, there's no doubt that I'll be called upon to come up with some suggestions of great places to eat when we're in town that week in September.  Brugge Brasserie is one place that will be high on the list - a place that the Ovation guys took me to last year and I enjoyed thoroughly.  But Naked Tchopstix is also a good option as we all like to go out for sushi at least once during our time together as a company.  Naked Tchopstix is more than just basic sushi - it's eclectic sushi with a number of fascinating pan-Asian items on the menu.  I hope to be doing a lot more business with the Ovation Audio Video guys as I'll have to go back out to Indianapolis and enjoy more of what the area has to offer in great restaurants.   

Little Sushi on the Prairie - Eden Prairie, MN

I had to break one of my cardinal rules in traveling this winter - never drive above the Minnesota/Iowa border between Dec. 1 and Feb. 28.  With business prospects beginning to wake up in the Twin Cities, I had to go up for a couple meetings in late January.  Actually, other than it being cold and the ground covered with a ton of snow from a huge snowfall they received in December, the weather wasn't that overly bad.  I got into my hotel in Eden Prairie about 7 p.m. and I was ready to go get something to eat.  I ended up at a little place with a unique name - Little Sushi on the Prairie (see map). 

Actually, I wanted to go next door to Punch Neapolitan Pizza on the recommendation of a good friend in the Twin Cities area.  However, Punch was packed with a full dining room and a line nearly out the door.  I had mentioned that Punch was packed to someone the next day and they were incredulous that it would have been that busy on a Tuesday night.  It turned out that Punch had been named one of "The Best Places I Have Been" by Twin Cities native Andrew Zimmern who hosts "Bizarre Foods" on The Travel Channel.  They were offering a one night only special of $3 dollar pizzas - no matter how many toppings you wanted on a pizza, it was $3 bucks.  So it was no wonder the place was so packed. 

As I was getting ready to drive out of the parking lot to go someplace else, I caught the "Little Sushi on the Prairie" sign.  I thought, "Whoa!  Kind of an interesting name for a sushi joint.  Sushi!  That doesn't sound half-bad."  I was able to find a parking spot tucked in at the far end of the lot and went inside to the place. 

Tom Thoj is the owner of Little Sushi on the Prairie, a combination sushi/tempura restaurant.  But everyone thinks the owner is Monzong Thao - or better known as "Mo" - who is the likable and highly visible sushi chef at Little Sushi.  Mo was in that evening, doing his magic with the nigiri sushi and he was assisted by - I believe he was introduced as - Billy.  I took a seat at the small sushi bar and an older lady came over to see if I wanted a menu.  I told her that I was going to just get sushi and that I wanted a large bottle of Asahi to start me out.  

 

Little Sushi on the Prairie is not an overly large place and there was only two other people in the very vibrant looking dining room that evening.  The walls on the south and west side of the dining room are painted in pastel colors with fish and sea life the prominent features in the picture.  The chairs all are sturdy, high-backed wood with a nice leather seat to them.  Even though it's hidden back in a strip mall, it probably gets a lot of business from shoppers and business people in the area.  In fact, the Minnesota Vikings training facility is not far from Little Sushi on the Prairie and I understand that a number of players will come in and get sushi from the place during the season. 

I looked over the sushi menu and immediately ordered a spicy tuna roll.  Mo asked me if I liked it spicy and I said, "Of course!"  When the lady got back with my Asahi, I was ready to order some more - I ordered salmon, tuna, yellow tail, red snapper and the sweet shrimp.  The lady asked me, "Do you want us to cut the head and deep fry it?  We'll do that for no extra charge."

I found that to be sort of repulsive the first time I had it at a sushi place in Davenport.  It was given to Cindy and I to try for free and Cindy couldn't get past the eyes looking at her.  After a couple bites of the deep-fried, battered shrimp head I just had to tell myself to not dwell on what I was eating - sort of the same ritual I did when I first started to eat sushi some years ago.  But now, it doesn't bug me.  Sure, if you're gonna offer it for no extra charge, go for it!

 
The spicy tuna roll (above left) was very, very good.  It had a nice kick to the spiciness and was a great start to the meal.  By the time my tuna roll was finished, Billy handed over the plate of the nigiri sushi to me (top right).  The fish was fresh - especially the tuna and the salmon.  It was just wonderful.  I was almost finished with my sushi plate and Mo handed over the sweet shrimp, which was also good.  As I was waiting on the shrimp heads, I ordered up a couple more pieces of the tuna nigiri, which was the highlight of the meal.  And about the time Billy handed me my two new pieces of tuna, the lady brought out the shrimp heads.  And they were just GREAT!  I don't know what kind of tempura batter they use on them, but the taste was out of this world.  I just had to mentally get past the crunchiness of the head.   

I was talking to a friend of mine, Bob Boyd, the next day and I told him that I had ended up at Little Sushi on the Prairie.  He exclaimed, "Little Sushi!  That's my place, man!  Isn't that place great?"

It certainly was.  I'm always looking to be pleasantly surprised when I find a hidden gem of a restaurant in my travels and Little Sushi on the Prairie certainly didn't disappoint.  The sushi was great, I had a good time with the sushi chefs and the service was pretty good.  It's sort of a hard place to find in Eden Prairie, but now that I've found it, I'll be back. 

(Update - I got this note in March of 2013 from Jenny who lives in Eden Prairie.  "My husband and I went to Little Sushi on the Prairie based on your wholehearted recommendation.  However, we found that the place had closed.  We went for pizza instead.")

Mirai Sushi - Chicago

I've been meaning to take the guys from Decibel Audio out for dinner at some point.  They're one of my largest dealers and great guys, to boot.  I made a point to schedule my meeting with them late in the day and then go out to dinner afterward.  The only problem is that there are many, many great restaurants in the vicinity near Decibel Audio, so the choices were overwhelming.  One of the guys said, "Well, we could do Japanese."

I asked, "What kind of Japanese?"

He said, "Sushi.  There's a great place called Mirai Sushi over on Division Street, but it's a little pricey." 

I replied, "Let's go.  You guys deserve it." 

Now, if the name Decibel Audio rings a bell for some of you movie buffs, it's because the name was featured prominently in the John Cusack film, High Fidelity.  Many of the scenes were filmed in the same neighborhood on N. Milwaukee where Decibel Audio is located and Cusack wore a Decibel Audio t-shirt during a number of scenes.  I never put the two together until a couple years after I began to call on Decibel Audio and I happened to see the movie.  The guys at Decibel Audio said they got inundated by requests for the same t-shirt, so they ended up printing tons of them.  "It was our best selling unit of sale," Adam, the general manager, told me at one time.  They continue to sell them on their web site and while sales aren't as brisk as they once were, they still sell a handful of them each month.

 

But, as I'm prone to do with this blog, I digress...

 

Mirai Sushi is a hip, upscale urban sushi restaurant that is part of a number of hip urban restaurants, clubs, galleries and shops that permeate the Division at Damon area in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago (see map).  Former club owner and Korean native Miae Lim (left) opened Mirai Sushi in 1998 and it immediately became the critics choice for the best sushi in Chicago. 

Five years later with partners Jonathan Segal, Jeffrey Beers and Rick Wahlstedt, the group opened Japonais in Chicago.  The group - minus Segal - opened Japonais locations in New York City and Las Vegas.  I've eaten at the Japonais in Las Vegas three times (click here to see the entry of my last visit to Japonais in Las Vegas).  I was highly disappointed during my last visit to Japonais with both the food and the service.  I related my experience to the guys at Decibel when they told me that Mirai Sushi was the incubator for Japonais and I said, "I think Japonais is highly overrated." 

One of the guys said, "I think the same thing about the one in Chicago.  It's gone down hill over the past couple of years."  I was hoping the same wouldn't be said about Mirai Sushi.

One of the problems with the Wicker Park neighborhood around Mirai is that there is little to no parking available, especially at night when the clubs and restaurants warm up.  Thankfully, Mirai did offer valet parking for $10 bucks (plus a two dollar tip for the valet).  It was cheaper than taking a cab to and from the restaurant, though.

We didn't have reservations at Mirai, but we were able to get in and get a table when we got there around 8:15 that evening.  We each got a menu and ordered up Asahi beers for the table.  The place was hopping with a number of people in the dining area.  There is a sake lounge upstairs in Mirai, but I didn't really notice a lot of people coming or going from the stairway.  I understand that Mirai can get a little crazy on the weekends - I thought it was sort of loud for a Tuesday night. 

Boy, where to start.  First of all, I didn't think the prices for Mirai's sushi was all that expensive, at least compared to other sushi places I've been to.  Their selection of hot Japanese dishes, specialty rolls and nigiri sushi was rather light - it was definitely not a long list of items to choose from.  But most of what they had sounded great and were what I'd end up ordering at most sushi places.  I did have to get some help from the guys on some of the specialty rolls they had. 

One of those specialty rolls - the spicy octopus - came highly recommended.  They put spicy octopus inside a rice roll and then top it with a small piece of tuna sashimi.  The guys said it was "outstanding".  We signed up for one of those along with what Mirai called "tuna tuna salmon" - poached salmon with double helpings of tuna in a roll.  We also picked out a spicy tuna roll for starters. 

Surprisingly, two of the specialty rolls - the spicy tuna and the spicy octopus - came out very quickly.  It was one of the quickest servings after I've ordered I've ever had at a sushi restaurant.  I remarked, "I hope this isn't fast food sushi where they make it up in advance." 

But from the first taste, I didn't have to worry whether when it was made.  The spicy octopus with the tuna on top was just outstanding.  And the spicy tuna rolls were also excellent.  We had just finished up the two specialty rolls and the "tuna tuna salmon" showed up at the table.  It took a little longer because of the poaching of the salmon.  That roll, too, was just outstanding.  Not as good as the spicy octopus, but still a very good roll.

We wanted to order up some nigiri sushi along with another spicy octopus roll.  This time we also ordered a harime roll - fluke and ponzu fish with soft shell crab off to the side.  I ordered a couple pieces each of the smoked Scottish salmon, the hamachi (Japanese yellow tail), the ebi (black tiger shrimp), and the toro (fatty tuna).  The other guys ordered stuff like eel, soy marinated salmon, regular tuna and squid.  I was up for a sushi feast that evening.  And the guys from Decibel deserved a nice meal from me. 

While we waited for the nigirl to show up, we talked about other restaurants they liked in the area.  The new 2011 Michelin Guide for Chicago had just come out and we were talking about having to pick one up just to see what they said about restaurants we were familiar with and what new restaurants we could find in the book.  Since this is the first ever Michelin Guide for Chicago, it was making quite a stir with "foodies" in and around the Chicago area.

Our waitress, who was very good, came over to inform me that they were out of the toro that evening.  "We just ran out," she said.  Somewhat crestfallen, I changed my order to the chutoro, or the medium fatty tuna.  She went away, but a minute later she came back and excitedly said, "Guess what?  We have two pieces of the toro left!  Would you still like them?"

Absolutely!  And I'm glad they had them because they were some of the best fatty tuna that I've ever had.  And the smoked Scottish salmon was "melt-in-your-mouth" great, as well.  Some yellow tail that I've had in the past gets to be sort of mushy and sort of fishy in taste, but the yellow tail at Mirai was very fresh and flavorful with a nice texture with the bite.  Of course, we made short work of the spicy Octopus roll.  And the hirame roll with the soft shell crab on the side was just outstanding, too.  Quite seriously, I could have gotten another one of those, but I knew I'd hit my limit on sushi for the evening. 

It's amazing that a land-locked city like Chicago can get such great sushi.  But fresh fish is flown into the city on a daily basis from all over the world.  One of the guys from Decibel was telling me that rumor has it that the Hare Krishna's control the distribution of fish to 90% of the sushi restaurants in Chicago.  I don't know if that's true, but there's a lot of great sushi places in Chicago.  Sometimes I take Chicago for granted just because we live close enough and I'm in there quite a bit.  But Mirai Sushi was one of the best sushi restaurants I've ever visited.  It was much better than its sister restaurant, Japonais.  I'm looking forward to trying some new places with the guys from Decibel Audio. 

Sushi Bar Yu-Ka - Atlanta

While it's tough for me to write about sushi bars and restaurants, it's even more difficult to write about the ones that stick out in my travels.  For a sushi place to get a mention on Road Tips, it has to be outstanding in both selection, menu ingenuity, service and taste.  On my recent trip to Atlanta, I found a place that hits all those marks in credentials - Sushi Bar Yu-Ka, located in the Buckhead section of Atlanta (see map). 

Actually, my colleague, Chris, found this place last year during one of his walking trips near our hotel.  He stopped in to get a taste and said that it was surprisingly good.  Chris is a sushi connoisseur, so when he says sushi is surprisingly good, it's got to be damn good. 

Sushi Bar Yu-Ka is located the southeast corner of a strip mall just off of Piedmont in the Buckhead Triangle bordered by Piedmont, Roswell and Peachtree streets.  (I have long gotten over my aversion to eating at restaurants in strip malls.)  It was a five minute walk from our hotel, the Doubletree Buckhead.   There was a large group of us that evening - 12 of us in total, including a couple guys from Focal Loudspeakers.  Nearly everyone in our company likes sushi with the notable exception of my colleague Ian who views sushi as "fish bait".  But he was assured that Sushi Bar Yu-Ka did have "real food" that could be ordered. 

The decor of Sushi Bar Yu-Ka has sort of a contemporary look with bright walls with minimal artwork and pictures - nothing garish, to say the least.  The only thing that looked out of place were the flat panel televisions that were found in a couple corners.  The light oak tables are overly sturdy and the chairs have comfortable cloth-padded seats.  The place is well lit and features a three-sided sushi bar with three or four sushi chefs working feverously over the chopping boards.  We had made reservations and our large table in the corner was waiting for us when we arrived.

I immediately ordered an Asahi beer and opened the menu to see what they had to offer.  Of course, they had the regular sushi (with the vinegar rice), as well as sashimi (just the fish alone).  And they had a number of interesting sushi rolls to choose from including the Oishi roll which featured tuna, shrimp, rice and a spicy mustard sauce; the Lotus roll which was tuna, yellowtail, and a dash of aioli sauce wrapped in a seaweed ring; and the Volcano - spicy tuna with fried crawfish.  I thought about getting the Volcano, but I'd rather have fresh crawfish versus the fried stuff. 

I ordered up a plate of the spicy tuna roll, some toro (fatty tuna), sake (salmon) and a spicy tuna roll.  And that was just to start off.  After a small bowl of miso soup there was quite a wait before our sushi began to show up at the table.  Actually, Ian had ordered a teriyaki steak with some steamed vegetables.  His steak showed up well before the sushi came out.  (To Sushi Bar Yu-Ka's defense - it was about 3/4's full when we were in there.  And we ordered a LOT of sushi at our table.)  I was able to down the first large bottle of Asahi and a good portion of a second bottle before my sushi plate showed up.

The wait was well worth it.  The toro was very, very good - fresh and flavorful.  It was a little chewy, but I've learned the more chewy toro is, the better it tastes.  The sake was also very good - flavorful, tender, very fresh.  But the spicy tuna rolls were absolutely great.  They had a wonderful taste sensation and combined with soy sauce and the very good wasabi, the taste sensation just knocked my socks off. 

Round two saw me order another spicy tuna roll, some ebi (shrimp sushi), smoked sake (smoked salmon), and some maguro (regular tuna).  While it didn't take as long to get that plate, it was still about 15 minutes before it arrived in front of me.  The smoked salmon was excellent, the maguro was just outstanding, but the ebi was just sort of "eh!".  By the time I was down to about five pieces of sushi/spicy tuna roll left, I had hit the proverbial sushi wall.  I had experienced sushi overload - a very pleasant place to be. 

The guys from Focal picked up the check that night - and I understood that the bill was pretty reasonable for 12 people.  Sushi Bar Yu-ka also features a number of lunchtime specials for the people who work in the Buckhead area. 

Chris was right - Sushi Bar Yu-Ka was surprisingly good.  Just be prepared to wait for your food if it's busy, however.   It's still too bad I was only able to experience it just once. 

Okinawa - Le Gardeur, QC

I work with a group of guys who seem to have a ravenous taste for sushi.  One of my colleagues is so weird about fish that he loves sushi, but hates any cooked fish.  One of the guys in our office outside of Montreal was telling us about this little sushi place that wasn't far from our headquarters.  He said, "You wouldn't think by looking at this place that they have some great sushi, but they do."  He handed me a take-out menu from Okinawa, the little sushi place.  I was pretty impressed by the amount of different types of sushi they had to offer.  I told him it looked good.  Then he said, "Maybe we should go there for lunch today."  I certainly couldn't say no.

During our lunch break from training on the Siltech and Crystal cable lines, a group of 10 of us went over to Okinawa to have some sushi.  My colleague was right - from the outside, Okinawa didn't look like much.  It wasn't anything more than a hole in the wall in the middle of a strip mall less than a mile - or for our Canadian friends - about a kilometer from our office (see map).  But if anything is more constant, I've found that some of the best restaurants aren't all that inviting from the outside, while some bad places to eat are spic and span on the facade. 

They tried their best to make the inside of Okinawa reminiscent of a traditional Japanese restaurant.  There was a lot of bamboo fixtures and three private dining rooms where people would sit at a low table with their shoes off in the tradition of fine Japanese cuisine.  While the menu had some beef, chicken and pork dishes, we were there for the sushi.  There was a small sushi station toward the back of the restaurant. 

Now, going to a sushi restaurant with a big group is sort of confusing to me.  I don't know if I need to order for myself, if we're ordering for the group or whatever.  We finally decided to team up in twos to order the sushi, I was paired with my colleague, Chris - the guy who loves sushi, but hates cooked fish.  I know, it's weird. 

I had a big breakfast earlier in the day back at the hotel, so I wasn't overly hungry.  I decided not to get sushi but go with the sashimi - basically sushi without rice.  I didn't want the rice to get me stuffed in a hurry.  Chris ordered up sushi when we filled out the order form that we shared.  I got a spicy tuna roll, however, as a start, then I picked out tuna, yellowtail, salmon, smoked salmon, sweet shrimp and something I don't see very often on a sushi menu, halibut.   Given Montreal's proximity to the North Atlantic, I figured the halibut would be very good.

I really wanted to go with a Japanese beer with my sushi - they had both Asahi or Sapporo in bottles at Okinawa.  But I was afraid of getting tired for the afternoon session.  The husband and wife couple from Siltech/Crystal, Edwin and Gabi, had a 6 p.m. flight schedule to go back to the Netherlands, so they didn't have any problem ordering up beers to go with their massive amounts of sushi that they ordered.  Edwin said, "We'll need to eat a lot of food now because we probably won't eat again until tomorrow after we get home." 

The only problem with sushi places is the anticipation and the wait of getting good sushi.  They usually bring the specialty rolls out first, but at Okinawa, they didn't.  It was about 20 minutes before sushi and sashimi began to show up at the table.  And by that time I was ready.

There was a time that I thought that sushi was nothing more than cut bait.  I didn't really begin to like sushi until about 15 years ago.  Since then, I've become somewhat of a sushi connoisseur - or as my wife and I like to joke, we're sushi whores.  I immediately know when the sushi isn't that great - it doesn't have the wholesome taste or chewy texture that good sushi should have.  From the first bite of my tuna sashimi, I knew that the sushi at Okinawa was outstanding. 

My colleagues, Jon and Chris, eat a lot more sushi on the road than I do (they cover the west coast for our company).  Both thought the sushi was great.  One of my Montreal colleagues, Todd, who also eats a lot of sushi, yelled down the table to me, "Isn't this great?  And it's cheap!"  He and some other guys from the office go to Okinawa all the time.  

My boss, Daniel, was seated next to me.  He leaned over and said, "We have some very good sushi places in Montreal.  But this is one of the best we've found." 

A couple three of the guys had sushi for appetizers, but ended up getting teriyaki-marinated strip steaks for their lunch.  Each steak wasn't very thick, less than a half-inch thick, but my colleague, Ian, said that it was "pretty damn good."  The steaks smelled great when they brought them out to the table.   

We had some fun at Edwin and Gabi's expense when they brought out a huge bamboo boat filled with sushi that covered our end of the table.  It was so huge that they couldn't maneuver it to get to the multitudes of sushi they'd ordered.  Gabi was gingerly trying to move it around and she ended up knocking over Chris' water glass which emptied into our much smaller sushi platter.  She felt so bad that she immediately ordered up more sushi and sashimi for Chris and I.  Quite honestly, it was no big deal for me.  Since I was having sashimi with no rice, I was fine.  But Chris' sushi got pretty soggy. 

Anytime we get together to eat sushi, it's just a free-for-all with people offering samples of what they are having, or people jumping up with a pair of chop sticks to scrounge something off of someone else's plate.  Todd offered me a bite of his unagi - which was fresh eel sushi.  I declined, saying that eel wasn't quite a delicacy for me.  He said, "No, no!  You've got to try this.  This is the best eel I've ever had!"  

I tried it and, yeah, it was pretty good.  Not good enough for me to order the next time we go to Okinawa - or at any other sushi restaurant, for that matter.  But it was pretty tasty.  Todd popped another one in his mouth and made a satiated "Mmmmmmmm....." sound with his mouth full of unagi sushi.

I was overly impressed with the sushi at Okinawa.  As they say, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover and you shouldn't judge restaurants by their outside appearance.  I trust the judgment and the expertise of my colleagues when they tell me Okinawa is one of the best places for sushi in the greater Montreal area.  It was very, very good.     

Isana - Kihei, HI

On the recommendation of our bartender at the Bistro Molokini at the Grand Wailea, we had sushi at Isana on our first night on Maui.  We had told her that we were thinking about going to the Sansei location up the way in Kihei.  She told us, "Sansei is very good, but I sort of like the atmosphere at Isana better.  And for me, it's difficult to choose between the two as to which has better sushi.  They're both very good."  So it was off to Isana that evening.

Isana bills itself as the largest Korean restaurant on Maui.  Hmmm...  A Korean restaurant that serves sushi?  I guess I didn't know that sushi was served in Korea.  But, then again, I don't make it to Korean restaurants all that much, as in ever.  So what did I know?  Our bartender did tell us that Isana was a little more funky in its decor.  "Sansei is definitely upscale compared to Isana, but it has a great funky vibe to the place." 

We found Isana on South Kihei Road (see map) and walked in around 7:30.  We went to the small sushi bar and took the last two seats that were open.  Cindy ordered up a green tea right off the bat and I got a large bottle of Sapporo.  That was a good sign - they had Japanese beer.  Our waitress offered us a regular menu, but we declined and looked over the sushi menu.  In addition to sushi and traditional Korean food, Isana also has a Korean Barbecue menu.

We immediately ordered a couple of spicy tuna roll to get things started.  The bartender at the Grand Wailea was right - Isana had a funky kind of vibe to the place.  There were a lot of neon signs throughout the place.  There was a second floor to the restaurant and on the landing heading up to the upper floor there was a wall-mounted carving of two humpback whales.  I don't believe anyone was dining upstairs that evening as it looked pretty dark up there.  

By the time the spicy tuna rolls showed up, we were ready to order up regular sushi.  We tried their maguro (tuna), hamachi (yellow tail), shake (salmon), shiromi (red snapper) and both ebi (sushi) and amaebi (sweet shrimp).  I asked our sushi chef if they had any smoked salmon and he gruffly said, "Only fresh fish."  Oh, OK.  That's fine with me.   

The area around the sushi bar was rather festive with a lot of laughing and drinking going on.  We were having a good time and I was getting a little plowed on the Sapporo.  I only had two, but I think the effects of the mai tais and the previous beers I had back at the hotel, along with the lack of any substantive food since breakfast was starting to get the best of me.  When our large tray of sushi showed up, I was ready to quit drinking and start eating. 

And the sushi was very good, as advertised.  I was very impressed with the maguro tuna, so much that I ordered four more pieces along with four more of the shake salmon.  The tuna was very fresh and it melted in our mouths.  The red snapper was OK, but the yellow tail had great flavor to it and was easy to chew.  The sweet shrimp was not as good as the regular shrimp.  The waitress kept checking on us for drinks and the sushi chef was pleasant enough when we were eating to see how we were doing. 

 

 

Isana was a little expensive - total cost of the sushi and drinks were well over $100 bucks.  I thought it to be a little higher priced than Sansei, but the quality of the food was on par.  I don't know if the tuna at Isana was as good as Sansei, and I was a little disappointed they didn't have smoked salmon, but sushi purists point out that sushi should be fresh fish only.  So Isana was more of a purists type of place.  

A few days later, we saw the bartender at the Bistro Molokini back at the hotel and thanked her for steering us toward Isana.  She said, "It is a funky place, but it has some great sushi, doesn't it?"

It sure does... 

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Sansei - Waikoloa Village, HI

A guy who works for one of my dealers in the Chicago area spent some time in Hawaii a few years ago and he gave me some good suggestions of where to go and where to eat.  One of the places he told us to visit while in/on Hawaii was Sansei Seafood and Sushi Restaurant.  There are four Sansei's in Hawaii - one on Oahu, two on Maui and one on the Big Island.  It turned out the one on the Big Island was in the Queen's Marketplace shops near our hotel in the Wiakoloa Beach Resort area.   We had hoped to be able to get to Sansei the night we arrived in Hawaii, but a delay at the rental car agency (thanks to a very stupid person in line ahead of us) and a long detour to our hotel pretty much ruled out getting there before they closed.  So our first full night on Hawaii we went to Sansei.

Sansei is part of the D.K. Restaurants group that also features d.k Steak House, Hiroshi and Vino - all highly acclaimed restaurants throughout the Hawaiian Islands.  "D.K." are the initials of Dave "D.K." Kodama, the founder and owner of the D.K. restaurants.  Kodama is a native Hawaiian who left the University of Hawaii in 1979 and ended up as a bartender in Seattle.  Kodama fell in love with the restaurant business and thought it would be a more fun profession than being an engineer.  

After 3 years in Seattle, Kodama ended up in Aspen, CO, working at a number of restaurants, learning the business and getting valuable culinary training on the job.  He ended up moving back to Hawaii in 1996 and opened his first Sansei in the Kapalua Resort north of Lahaina on Maui.  Sansei specializes in fresh seafood and serving locally grown foods.  It's sort of a contemporary Pan-asian seafood restaurant that also has sushi.

It was about a three minute drive from the Hilton Waikoloa Village hotel to the Queen's Marketplace shopping center (see map).  Sansei is located on the far east end of the open air shops.  We had a short wait while the hostess took a phone call, but we were in no hurry.  We asked if we could just sit at the sushi bar and she happily took us over to the bar, seated us and gave us menus.

The restaurant, itself, was a nice mix of contemporary Hawaiian and Asian themes.  It wasn't a huge place, but there was a dining area off to the side of the main room.  The main dining room featured the sushi bar.  The atmosphere was relaxed, upscale casual and sort of romantic. It wasn't overly busy at the restaurant, which was sort of nice. 

 

We figured we'd just do sushi for our visit, so I asked for a sushi menu.  Our sushi chef was a native mainlander who had been in Hawaii for about 15 years.  During our trip to Hawaii, we talked to a lot of restaurant workers, waiters, hotel valets, salespeople, etc. who were obviously not native Hawaiians just to see what their story was and how they ended up in Hawaii.  We heard all different types of stories from guys who followed girls out to Hawaii, guys who came out for a couple months and just stayed for the past 19 years, and from people who needed to start their lives over.  As one waiter told us one evening, "Hawaii is really full of misfits, people who may not have fit in back home on the mainland, or who are getting away from whatever problems they faced in their past.  This is the ultimate "misfit island." 

The sushi chef at Sansei was no exception.  He had worked at the original Sansei on Maui after coming out from the mainland "to drink and stay tan".  He moved to this location three years ago when it first opened.  He said, "My life is pretty simple here.  If I'm not at work, I'm usually in a bar somewhere.  And if I'm not at work or at a bar, I'm sleeping.  That's my life."  While some people may think that was sort of sad, I secretly envied the guy.  No concerns, no worries, no responsibilities. 

We immediately ordered up a spicy tuna roll and something that Cindy wanted to try something called the "69 Roll".  It's a California roll (crab, avocado, cucumber) rolled inside out and topped with unagi (fresh water eel) and salmon roe.  It was interesting, to say the least.  The spicy tuna rolls were much better. 

We had regular salmon and smoked salmon sushi, along with tuna and sweet shrimp sushi.  The prices weren't bad - averaging around $3.50 to $4.00 for two pieces of sushi.  The tuna was a little more expensive - I believe it was $8.00 for two pieces of sushi.  But that was still cheaper than many mainland sushi restaurants. 

And the fish was so fresh that...  Well, I have to say that I'd never had tuna - any type of tuna sushi - that tasted that good.  It was like they had caught the fish, filet'ed it out on the boat and served it - all within 15 minutes.  It literally melted in our mouths.  And the smoked salmon was - by far - the best smoked salmon I'd ever had.  We ended up ordering two more pieces of the tuna and smoked salmon, along with another spicy tuna roll for good measure.

We figured we'd eat at Sansei a couple more times when we were on both Hawaii and on Maui, but for multiple reasons - such as too many good choices of restaurants - we never did.  But the place certainly served our sushi craving needs.  It was some of the best sushi I've ever had.  No, I'll go even further and say it was the best sushi I ever had.  And it wasn't all that expensive.  With a generous tip for the sushi chef and our waitress that served us our drinks, it still came to under $100 bucks.  It was just excellent.

Osaka Steak House - Davenport

One of the things Cindy and I do on an annual basis - no matter if we're in Chicago or home in the Quad Cities - is take in a movie on Christmas Eve. This past Christmas Eve was no exception, but we decided to go out to dinner before the movie. We both were thinking sushi, so we went to the Osaka Steak House on Utica Ridge in northeast Davenport (see map).

Osaka used to be just across the street from Southpark Mall in Moline and moved to their present location in the fall of 2008. They also maintain a sushi bar at Northpark Mall. Their Utica Ridge location was formally a local rib joint called R.J. Boar's. Actually, I thought R.J. Boar's was much better at their old location in downtown Bettendorf. And, evidently, a lot of other people felt the same way. It didn't stay in business for very long after their move to Utica Ridge.

When Osaka moved in, they substantially changed the decor to an elegant Japanese theme. There's a large bar area on the right when you move in and the dining area featured a number of grill tables where people can watch one of Osaka's hibachi chef's do their little shtick. And in the far back of the restaurant, through the bar and past the dining area, is the sushi bar. As we like to do, we sat right at the bar and were given a menu. While Osaka has a lot of different styles of Japanese/American food to offer, we were in the mood for sushi.

It didn't take long for us to figure out that we wanted a spicy tuna roll along with a California roll. And then we ordered some other pieces of sushi to go along with it - spicy tuna, spicy yellowtail, red snapper, sweet shrimp, red snapper, salmon. We went to town with the order, really hoping to have a seafood overload for our pre-Christmas dinner.

In addition to all the sushi we ordered, we also got a bowl of miso soup to start out. There's not really much to miso soup - it's basically chunks of tofu, some scallions and some edible seaweed in a seasoned broth. Think chicken and noodle soup, only without the chicken and the noodles and with tofu, scallions and seaweed. But Osaka's miso soup was very good. Some of the best we'd ever tried.

When the spicy tuna roll and California roll came out, we were ready. And the spicy tuna roll was just outstanding. It certainly didn't last very long. In fact, both rolls were devoured within about two minutes of them being served to us. But the good thing is that they weren't overly busy at the sushi bar so our sushi order came up soon after we finished the rolls.

I have to say the sushi at Osaka was very, very good. It's amazing that you can get such fresh tasting fish in the middle of the country. We were wolfing the sushi back like it was the last meal for us.

Now, sushi is not appetizing to a lot of people. Actually, it took me a few times of having sushi to really appreciate the taste sensations and to get past the idea that I was eating "bait". It really can be an acquired taste.

My first trip to a sushi place was out in Las Vegas about 14 years ago. The guys in the company I was working with at the time decided they wanted sushi that evening. And as our sales manager at the time said, "Willie, we're going to go get sushi tonight. Now, you're more than welcome to come with us, but I don't think they have hamburgers on the menu, if you know what I mean."

Although I did find myself wanting to gag during my first couple of encounters with sushi, I learned to really love sushi. Later on, I took Cindy to a sushi place in Madison, WI for a snack one afternoon. She loved it immediately. And she turned her kids on to sushi, too. Her son will do stupid human tricks for sushi, he loves it so much.

One of the decadent pleasures we have in eating sushi is ordering the fatty tuna - or nigiri - from time to time. Usually, fatty tuna is pretty expensive per piece - about three to four times the price of regular sushi. But, man, is it good! We were first introduced to fatty tuna about 12 years ago at a sushi place called Sushi to Dai For in San Rafael, CA (see map). We were the only people at the sushi bar that evening and the sushi chef explained to us the different grades of tuna, cutting chunks of tuna for us to try. Fatty tuna is more marbled than regular chunk tuna and has a wonderful flavor.

It turned out that Osaka had fatty tuna that evening (some places only get it part of the time). We each got a couple pieces of the nigiri - at $7.95 a piece. Yow! But, man! Was it good.

I was still hungry after eating all that sushi, so I ordered up a Crazy Tuna Roll - basically, it's a tuna roll with spicy tuna wrapped around the outside. By the time we finished that, we'd hit the coveted seafood overload level.

But I don't know what it is about sushi. I can gorge myself on the stuff, getting to the point that I'm starting to grow gills on my neck. But an hour to 90 minutes later, I'm craving White Castle hamburgers. Yep, I don't quite know why, but for some reason I get hungry for the taste of a White Castle "slider". I think it has something to do with Cindy and me having sushi in West Lafayette, IN a number of years ago, stuffing ourselves and making our way back to our hotel. Then about two hours later, I was hungry again. It just happened that there was a White Castle near our hotel. We walked over and got a couple "sliders". It was the perfect complement to the sushi we'd had earlier in the evening.

Our sushi-fest at Osaka wasn't cheap - the bill came to over $100 bucks with tip. It was mainly sushi as I had a couple of beers and Cindy had hot tea with our food. But the fatty tuna helped push it over a "c-note". But it was worth it as a nice little Christmas present to us both.

Before we left, I ran into a good friend, Mike Weindruch, who was having a hibachi dinner with his family at Osaka. He said they had just gone to a movie and then decided to have dinner. Mike said, "A movie, then sushi. This is what Jews do on Christmas Eve."

I said, "Hey, we're not Jewish and we're doing the same thing, except we're heading to the movie right now."

We agreed that sushi is definitely a non-denominational treat. And Osaka's sushi was a definite spot-hitter.

Japonais - Las Vegas

After our Cirque du Soleil experience at The Mirage, we decided we'd better get something to eat.  Given that it was around 9 p.m., we didn't figure we'd have that big of a problem getting seated at any one of the fine restaurants in The Mirage.  Well, actually, the only problem was that there were nine of us, and that turned out to be a problem. 

We found a little contemporary Japanese restaurant called Japonais.  They tried to seat us in the bar, but we would have had to take three tables.  So we decided to go to Plan B.  What Plan B was, we didn't quite know.  But as we were standing there going over our options, the hostess from Japonais came up and said, "We can seat you in the dining room if you're still interested." 

It was late and we were hungry.  The guys from the East Coast and Montreal were working on east coast time which meant it was midnight body-time for them.  We turned around and went in.

Now, it turns out that Japonais in Las Vegas is an off-shoot of the original Japonais in Chicago.  The original Japonais was started in 2002 by the world-renowned sushi chef Jun Ichikawa, and Gene Kato, an up-and-coming contemporary Japanese cuisine chef.  In 2006, Kato and Ichikawa opened a New York location in Union Square, and three months later they opened the Las Vegas location.  The food can be described as traditional Japanese with a bent toward contemporary Pan-Asian and European cuisine.  It's pretty classy stuff. 

We were seated and our waiter - who was of Japanese heritage - came over to greet us.  He was a little tough to understand, given his accent and the loudness in the restaurant.  The decor is very contemporary and chic with a lot of teak wood throughout.  From what I got from what he was trying to say is that they offered a menu similar to Spanish tapas where they bring out little bits of everything from sushi, to beef, to veggies, to whatever.  He said it worked good with big groups because everyone got to try a little bit of everything.  We all sort of agreed to that and away he went.

The first thing he brought out was a bunch of sushi that we munched on.  It was very good.  The fresh sushi was some of the finest I've ever tasted.  Given that all of us in the company are sushi whores, the plate didn't last long.    

They then brought plates of Kobe beef carpaccio, thin rare slices of Kobe beef; spicy tuna and salmon rolls; something called Hawaiian Hamachi, thin slices of yellow tail; and something they called the Japonais cocktail - a dozen oysters and a half dozen shrimp in a horseradish mango sauce.  Now that was great!

Then they started to bring out the good stuff.  They had a marinated Kobe beef chunk on a skewer.  Now, I've never had Kobe beef before - other than the carpaccio slices I had earlier.  I always wanted to try it.  And I have to tell you, it was absolutely fabulous.  It was unbelievably fabulous.  It was so tender and moist.  And, OH!  So flavorful.  Daniel and Simon were seated across the table from me and were getting a kick out of the expressions on my face when I'd bite into one of the Kobe beef chunks.

They also had skewers of marinated chicken that were pretty good.  They also brought out skewers of ground Kobe beef - basically Kobe beef burgers on a skewer.  They were OK, but they didn't have the same taste and texture of the beef skewers.  But we quickly ordered another round of the Kobe beef skewers.  And a couple guys opted for more sushi.

Next, they set two square "rocks" on the table.  These rocks were heated to 500 degrees (F) and we were told to be very careful around them.  Then they brought out plates of thinly sliced and marinated raw New York strip steak chunks.  The waiter showed us that you place the raw beef on the hot rock and it sizzles and cooks.  20 to 30 seconds later, you turn it over to cook the other side and - voila!  You've got your own "grill it yourself" steak chunks!  And - OH!  Were they great. 

Those didn't last long at the table and by the time the second round of Kobe beef skewers showed up, we were all getting stuffed.  But the Kobe beef skewers were quickly gobbled up.  It was a dining experience to say the least.

Daniel was presented with the bill and Simon looked over to see what it was.  He yelled, "Geez!!"

One of my other colleagues said, "What's the matter?  Bill a little too high?"

Simon said, "I think we just bought a whole side of Kobe beef!"

The bill - with tip included - came to just shy of $2000 bucks.  Daniel was laughing about it the next day.  He said, "I couldn't understand the guy.  Between his accent and the loudness of the restaurant, I just kept nodding my head when he would say something."

I said, "So, you basically nodded your head into a $2000 bill."

He laughed and said, "I guess so!"

So, yes, Japonais isn't cheap.  But, man, was it good.  Definitely a top ten dining experience for me.      

Mikado - Indianapolis

It's a treat to eat sushi on the road and I treated myself after a long day of traveling recently by having sushi at one of my favorite places in Indianapolis - Mikado.  Owned by master sushi chef Umay Kubokawa, the upscale Mikado is a great place to eat seafood in greater Indy. 

Mikado is located downtown in the heart of the entertainment and restaurant district of Indianapolis (see map).  I first went there about nine years ago and fell in love with the place.  I've eaten at sushi restaurants on both coasts and I have to say that Mikado rivals the fresh and flavorful sushi I've had in those restaurants. 

I had just driven from the Quad Cities to St. Louis, then from St. Louis to Indianapolis one day recently.  I was tired and just drug out from the road when I made it into Indianapolis about 9 p.m. local time.  I decided to get something lighter since it was late in the day and Mikado came to mind.  There's plentiful parking in the parking ramp across from Circle Center Mall in downtown Indianapolis.  Go down the stairs of the parking ramp and come out on Illinois Ave. and take a short walk to the south to Mikado.

Mikado has a nice sushi bar as well as tables and booths.  They also have some private rooms for larger groups.  I ate in one of those rooms one time a long time ago, but I prefer sitting at the sushi bar at any sushi place I go to. 

It was just me and another couple at the sushi bar that Wednesday evening.  Mikado closes at 10 p.m thru the week, so it wasn't all that busy.  I ordered up a tall Asahi beer and ordered some smoked salmon, shrimp, salmon and tuna sushi and a spicy tuna roll.  It came to me pretty quickly and I eagerly dug in.

Now, Indianapolis is a long way from the ocean, but I have to say Mikado's sushi is the freshest in the Midwest.  The only place I have to say rivals the freshness and full-flavored taste of their sushi in the region is at Haruno in Springfield, MO - a town that is also very far from oceans.  I really liked the spicy tuna roll and the smoked salmon sushi from Mikado.  I had to get two more pieces of the smoked salmon.

The only problem with Mikado is that it is not cheap.  For ten pieces of sushi, a spicy tuna roll and a couple Asahi's, the bill came to $45 dollars before tip.  And I wasn't even stuffed.  That's the biggest complaint I've heard about Mikado is the steep prices.  But it's damn good. 

I'm sure there are good sushi places in Indianapolis that are significantly cheaper than Mikado, but I don't think any of them could rival the flavor.  Mikado is a nice place with very good seafood in addition to their sushi.  And it remains one of my all-time favorite sushi places.   (Photo courtesy Indianapolis Fun City Finder. com)

Esashi - New York

Our first night in Manhattan, we were invited to go out to dinner with the two owners of Dangerous Music, a company that manufactures control devices for the professional music industry.  They wanted to go to Esashi, a little sushi place in the East Village area of Manhattan.  Oh, man!  Sushi in New York!  I couldn't wait!

Esashi is owned by Yukihiro Ishiyama and his wife, Minako.  They have been in business on Ave A. in the East Village since 1991 (see map).  Esashi is named after Mr. Ishiyama's home town of Esashi, Japan (see map).  Esashi is right on the coast and as a little boy Mr. Ishiyama and his friends used to catch incredibly fresh seafood and their families would have the catch that night for dinner.  Mr. Ishiyama opened Esashi with the plan to make sushi the same way he remembers having it as a little boy.

There were five of us who met up at Esashi around 7 p.m.  The two guys from Dangerous Music - Bob and Chris - used to run a recording studio around the corner from Esashi and they frequented the place before they got into making control components.  Bob lives in upstate New York and every time he comes back to New York, he always takes in Esashi.

And there's a big reason why - it was some of the best sushi I'd ever had in my life.  The spicy tuna rolls were very good, but the salmon and the toro, or fatty tuna, were unbelievably great.  I also had a couple shrimp, just for good measure.  I was devouring the sushi, it was so good.  And I washed it all back with a couple tall and ice cold Asahi beers. 

We went for a second round and I ordered exactly the same thing I ordered the first time.  My colleague, Simon, decided to go exclusively with the toro sashimi style.  The chunks of toro were huge.  I should have gone that direction. 

For those of you who don't like sushi, Esashi has a full menu of cooked items, as well.  My colleague, Todd, who grew up on Prince Edward Island, and who loves seafood, has an allergic reaction to raw seafood.  He had to go with the salmon teriyaki - a marinated salmon, broiled and served on a plate with assorted vegetables.  He said it was outstanding.

Esashi was very good.  And expensive.  With tip, the bill came to just over $500 bucks.  But it was well worth it.  The fish was very fresh, the restaurant had a great atmosphere, and the service was exquisite.  Esashi would be a place I'd highly recommend for sushi in New York City.      

(Update October 2011 - Before my recent trip to New York, I suggested to my colleague Simon that we go back to Esashi as it remained one of the more awesome sushi places I'd been to.  Simon quickly told me, "It's closed."  I asked him when it closed and he said, "Dunno, but's it's closed."  Bummer...)

Haruno - Springfield

Recently, while in Springfield, MO doing a training session for my dealer down there, I wanted to take them out for dinner after the meeting.  Actually, there's a number of good places to go for dinner in Springfield - but we decided to go out and have some sushi at Haruno Sushi Bar and Grill.

Haruno is located in a small strip mall not far from my dealer's store (see map).  Now, I used to be death on restaurants located in a strip mall; and I also used to run away screaming from a sushi place that is more than 500 miles from an ocean.  I'm glad I don't have those standards in place any longer or I wouldn't have eaten at Haruno that evening.

Haruno, which opened in 1999, is owned and run by the stylish Young Jung (right).  Dressed in a leather mini-skirt, fishnet hose and boots, she looked like she would be more at home in Los Angeles or New York rather than Springfield, MO. 

Local residents took a while to warm up to the hip little Japanese restaurant that served what many in these parts refer to as "bait". However, Haruno garnered a reputation for being edgy, having good martini's and good live jazz, and the clientele began to grow.  A couple of years ago they expanded into a space next to the original restaurant and called it Haruno's Next Door.  There, you'll find an extension of the restaurant with a regular sushi bar that seats six. 

We had a small wait to get a table for five around 7:30 the night we were there.  They had a small two-piece jazz combo playing in the bar area (the old original space) and it was pretty packed in there with people of all ages.  But there did seem to be a larger presence of younger people who were definitely styling for the night. 

Ms. Jung seated us in the new section and we immediately ordered a round of Asahi beers.  One of the guys had never had sushi before and we were sort of wondering what kind of reaction he'd have.  He's a good ol' Missouri boy, one of those who joked about the "bait" he was getting ready to eat.  But he was up for the challenge.

Our waiter was certainly indicative of the style of Haruno - he had an edge, but was very hip and cool.  He suggested we start off with their house specialty which was sort of a Japanese carpaccio - thinly sliced rare beef which was marinated in a soy mixture.  It was very, very good.

We went hog wild with the sushi - ordering tons of sushi rolls and nigiri sushi.  One of the guys said, "We've got to order this roll they call 'Oh, My God!' "

I asked, "Is it spicy?"

He said, "Well, not really, but there are so many great taste sensations that after the first bite you're saying, 'Oh, my God!' "

We definitely went with one of those.  And I had to have a spicy tuna roll, as well as a couple others that sounded sort of funky.  The names for the sushi rolls they had - such as a Philly roll, a Miami roll, a TNT roll - were as interesting as the place itself. 

We began to get our sushi and I had to try the "Oh, My God!"  It was a piece of white fish wrapped in a number of things including a spicy mayonnaise.  I didn't exactly say, "Oh, My God!" when I took the first bite.  But it was good.  However, I wasn't too big on the mayo on the sushi.

But the spicy tuna roll - WOW!!  I have to say it was one of the best - if not THE best - spicy tuna roll I'd ever had.  The taste sensation was out of this world.  In fact, all the sushi choices we had were very good. 

I was bummed that they were out of the chutoro - the very flavorful fatty tuna sushi.  The guys had never had it before (it's sort of expensive - about $8.00 for two pieces), so I thought I'd give them a taste of it.  That's OK, though - we had more than enough of some very good sushi to eat.   

The guy in the group who had never had sushi before was equally impressed.  He said, "I've always wanted to try sushi, but I know my wife wouldn't like it; and there's no way I could bring her and the kids to a place like this."

Our bill came to just over $200 bucks - which I thought was pretty reasonable for the amount of sushi we ate and beer we drank.  One of the interesting things was that he put an 18% tip on the bill, a little under $37 bucks, but didn't add it into the total.  I sort of wondered about this and I had to flag him down to find out what that was all about.

I asked, "Is this a mandatory tip?"

He said, "No, this is just a suggestion.  We do that so people can figure out how much 18% is.  You can put down anything you want." 

He walked away and I said, "The guy is leaving money on the table doing that.  I was going to give him a 20% tip."  And I did. 

But as one of the guys explained to me, "This IS Springfield and people are used to having a big meal and leaving a couple bucks on the table for a tip.  It's the world's largest small town." 

Actually, since then, I've seen a couple other restaurants that have tip amount suggestions of 15, 18 or 20 percent printed on the credit card voucher.  I usually over tip, especially if the service is good; or when I'm eating alone and the person waiting on me has been overly attentive.  The guy definitely earned his 20% that evening.

The bottom line - Haruno was one of the very best sushi restaurants I've ever eaten at.  I was pleasantly surprised at how good the sushi was for as land-locked that Springfield is. The service was very good, and the atmosphere was as interesting and hip as any restaurant I've been to in places like L.A. or Chicago.   I'm hoping my dealer in Springfield does very well so I can keep going back to Haruno when I go to see them.