Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Satsuma

Location: Mountain View, CA
Cuisine type: Japanese, sushi
Atmosphere: plain decor, booth seating
Meal: dinner
Overall score: 7.6



Nina

On Valentine’s Day it was my treat to name my restaurant preference for dinner, and more often than not I choose sushi :) We planned on a late dinner to accommodate my cake decorating class, and picked a restaurant close enough to my class to save us time. That brought us to Satsuma Sushi close to 9 pm, when most of the dinner crowd was already gone and activity at the restaurant was dwindling.
The atmosphere was fairly standard, with a small sushi bar in the corner and basic tables and booths scattered along the restaurant floor. We had to wait for a few minutes before we were seated even though there were no other customers in line, and once we sat down it took much longer to place our order, get water and drinks, etc. We finally ordered the Satsuma Special, a large platter with an assortment of sashimi, nigiri and a classic California roll, the usual suspects. Unlike previous mixed selections I’ve tried, the nice surprise about this one was that the nigiri sushi came in pairs, so it avoided the tough decisions on who gets which types of fish, and allowed us both to try each type. The sashimi came in generous, thick chunks which tasted very fresh and light. The one part of the platter that we were not excited about was the California roll - I find it to be an overused and overrated item, and odds are it is made with flavorless fake crab instead of the real stuff. In order to correct that, we asked for an upgrade, which the server allowed us to order after checking with the sushi chef (we paid part of the cost of the upgraded roll to make up for the difference). I picked the Lion King roll, which was quite a bit more spectacular than the California roll we gave up on - it was a generous shrimp tempura roll, topped with scallop and salmon in alternating strips, and fish roe sprinkled on top.
Service quality aside, this Mountain View sushi restaurants definitely ranks among my favorites due to the freshness and flavor of the raw fish, and the creativity of combinations in their rolls.

Food 9
Drinks 8
Atmosphere 6
Service 7
Value 7


Ben

This is one of the nicer sushi places we've been to in the bay area, though a little pricier than many. The server was a little awkward in her impatience to get an order placed or answer any question about the menu. We ended up ordering a sake and sushi special, replacing the california roll with a "lion king roll" of shrimp tempura with scallop and salmon. The sushi special was an attractively plated large variety of food, and the flavor on the nigiri and roll were good. The fish was all delicious and fresh tasting, and overall the food was very good.

Food 9
Drinks 7
Atmosphere 8
Service 6
Value 6

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