Cuisine type: Japanese, sushi bar
Atmosphere: authentic, intimate
Meal: dinner (takeout)
Overall score:
Nina
After a tiring day at work and yoga, I was not feeling up to cooking dinner, so I stopped by for a pickup on my way home. First place that popped in my way was Mitsuwa Marketplace, where I found this small sushi restaurant. At first glance it looked like a very small and modest place, but the atmosphere was actually quite pleasant and intimate, and the wood lining the walls gave it a rustic feel. There was a line of seats around the sushi bar, and the rest of the dining room consisted of small wooden tables.
I ordered takeout, and took a seat by the sushi bar while I waited for the food to be prepared. A waitress offered me a drink while I waited, though that green tea never showed up, which was a bit disappointing. After a 15-20 minute wait, I got a large bag with neatly stacked boxes comprising our dinner.
First of all, I ordered one of their daily specials for an appetizers, the seared spicy scallop appetizer. I was impressed by the presentation, the one single large scallop was well seared on both sides, then put back into a half shell as a plate. The spicy factor, however, came from an all-too-familiar spicy mayo, which was nicely garnished but a bit too heavy and greasy to be fully enjoyable. The miso soup and salad that seem to accompany every Japanese meal ever were mediocre, but I don’t really count on them very much unless I order them off a menu a la carte.
The first dinner combo we enjoyed was a tempura mix with salmon sashimi on the side. The tempura involved potatoes, red potatoes, zucchini and shrimp - it was a bit plain and not as crispy as I would like (though the latter could be attributed to takeout vs fresh). The salmon sashimi was fresh, tender and creamy - it wasn’t outstanding but it was tasty and enjoyable. The second entree was pork and egg; when I ordered it, I was imagining something of a breaded tenderloin with a runny yolk egg on top, not that it was based on an actual detailed description, I suppose it was just wishful thinking. The reality was closer to a plain old pork stir-fry with scrambled eggs, which was not particularly exciting or flavorful, but good enough for what it was.
Overall, I found this place tasty, but not extraordinary - a little overpriced for the food I got, and the dishes were largely hit or miss with no big surprises. For the short time I was in the actual restaurant, service was courteous but not well followed through and prices seemed generally higher than in other similar caliber sushi places.
I ordered takeout, and took a seat by the sushi bar while I waited for the food to be prepared. A waitress offered me a drink while I waited, though that green tea never showed up, which was a bit disappointing. After a 15-20 minute wait, I got a large bag with neatly stacked boxes comprising our dinner.
First of all, I ordered one of their daily specials for an appetizers, the seared spicy scallop appetizer. I was impressed by the presentation, the one single large scallop was well seared on both sides, then put back into a half shell as a plate. The spicy factor, however, came from an all-too-familiar spicy mayo, which was nicely garnished but a bit too heavy and greasy to be fully enjoyable. The miso soup and salad that seem to accompany every Japanese meal ever were mediocre, but I don’t really count on them very much unless I order them off a menu a la carte.
The first dinner combo we enjoyed was a tempura mix with salmon sashimi on the side. The tempura involved potatoes, red potatoes, zucchini and shrimp - it was a bit plain and not as crispy as I would like (though the latter could be attributed to takeout vs fresh). The salmon sashimi was fresh, tender and creamy - it wasn’t outstanding but it was tasty and enjoyable. The second entree was pork and egg; when I ordered it, I was imagining something of a breaded tenderloin with a runny yolk egg on top, not that it was based on an actual detailed description, I suppose it was just wishful thinking. The reality was closer to a plain old pork stir-fry with scrambled eggs, which was not particularly exciting or flavorful, but good enough for what it was.
Overall, I found this place tasty, but not extraordinary - a little overpriced for the food I got, and the dishes were largely hit or miss with no big surprises. For the short time I was in the actual restaurant, service was courteous but not well followed through and prices seemed generally higher than in other similar caliber sushi places.
| Food | 7 |
| Drinks | n/a |
| Atmosphere | 8 |
| Service | 7 |
| Value | 6 |
No comments:
Post a Comment