Restaurant experiment: Sushi Itto

Sushi Itto

2173 Briarcliff Road at Lavista Road

Atlanta, GA 30329

404-633-3400

http://www.sushiittoatlanta.com/

Part of the reason Dave and I ended up at Sushi Itto was because they offered a Scoutmob deal.  And they weren’t too far away.  And they were open late-ish on a Saturday night.  And we had a hankering for raw fish.  So it all worked out.

Our waitress, Angela, stood out to me since she was wearing a pair of zany large Hello Kitty eyeglasses.  She was chipper and polite.  The place wasn’t that full, but then again, it was getting rather late for dinner, though Broadway Cafe next door was hopping.

I was in the mood for classic sushi and went with the chirashi; Dave followed suit.  This comes with both soup and salad.  I think you have a choice of soup: either clear soup or miso.  Since I love miso soup, this was a no-brainer.  The salad came with ginger dressing.  I foolishly assumed this was the carrot ginger dressing practically standard at nearly all sushi joints.  How wrong was I.  What topped the leaves of lettuce was essentially grated ginger with a bit of moisture added.  I don’t really like ginger, especially not a massive quantity like this, so I choked down as much as I could.  The miso soup was fine, standard issue.

The chriashi looked lovely, with a violet orchid and wasabi shaped into a leaf.  The slices of fish were large and generous.  What was odd to me, and not evident in the photo above is that furikake was added to the the rice.  I’d like to think I’ve had a fair amount of chirashi at various restaurants, and I had never seen this before.  It was okay, but I guess I like my rice plain.  Or have the furikake on the side or something.

Overall, Sushi Itto was a good pick, and saving a chuck off the bill thanks to Scoutmob definitely helped!

Restaurant experiment: Strip Steaks and Sushi

Strip Steaks and Sushi

245 18th Street in Atlantic Station

Atlanta, GA 30363

404-385-2005

http://www.h2sr.com/strip

So I’m not sure if the restaurant’s name is just “Strip” or “Strip Steaks and Sushi.”  The website is giving me mixed messages.  It’s easier to just say Strip so I’ll go with that.  Strip’s slogan is “Meat. Drink. Eat” but what this slogan neglects to mention is the availability of sushi.  I went here with Dave to meet some folks for dinner.  The vibe at Strip is more of the trendy variety…I’d guess there were a lot of post-shoppers and post-workers in attendance.

Since the creative [makimono] sushi rolls were on sale (50% off), Dave and I decided to get those, and that’s what most of the people at our table went with.  Between us, we shared the Jimmy’s Special ($16.50 originally), the California rolls ($4.95 originally), the salmon roll ($11.95 originally), and the volcano roll ($12.95) originally.

The Jimmy’s Special was fine.  Billed as assorted slices, there were a couple of slices of tuna, salmon, and possibly what could be hamachi.  The salmon rolls (“salmon, cucumber, avocado, topped with salmon”) were good, and the volcano rolls (“tuna tartar, cucumber topped with tuna, mango, avocado, Jimmy’s sauce, teriyaki”) had a bit of a kick to them.  Presentation was nice.  Low sodium soy sauce was available on the tables though not regular sodium soy sauce for some reason.

Who is this Jimmy character?  He has specials and his own sauce after all.  The menu doesn’t reveal any clues.

No pictures.

Our waiter was bad.  I don’t know if he had too many tables or what, but he was not on the ball.  Apparently this may be an isolated incident, since Dave said the waiter last time was fine.  Regardless, you shouldn’t have to deal with poor waiters.  And the bad thing was that since it was a large party, gratuity was included.  Water was not refilled, he put miso soup on the wrong person’s tab, he rarely checked on us, dessert never appeared, etc.

Strip definitely probably wouldn’t be my first choice in the future, but it’s fine for groups and all.  If you can score a decent server, that is.

Restaurant experiment: Chimi Sushi

Chimi Sushi

207 East 26^th Street between Second and Third Avenues

New York, NY 10010

212-532-8788

Liz picked out this restaurant as a Friday workday lunch, to escape the office.  Chimi Sushi had a sandwichboard outside declaring it to be the grand opening with some specials.  I usually do not walk down this block, so I hadn’t noticed the new eatery.  Chimi is tiny; it has maybe 8-10 tables in the dining area.  You can sit wherever you like.

The lunch menu is pretty standard.  Liz and I elected for the bento boxes, at $8.50.  She opted for the chicken katsu and I took the sushi option for a whirl.  Liz ordered green tea, and I didn’t see it on the bill, so either it was free, included with lunch, or the waiter forgot to tack it on.  I just had water.  Our waiter wasn’t totally with it because he took our orders and came back to ask what they were again.  I thought I saw him write it down, but guess not.

The boxes emerged in good time, after bowls of miso soup.  The two pieces of shumai were microscopic both in size and taste.  The pieces of fish were fine, along with the salad.  Rice was also okay but it’s tough to mess that up.

Chimi Sushi was all right, but it certainly didn’t carve out a niche in my mind or establish a unique selling proposition.  Out of all the restaurants in the shuffle of Gramercy/Murray Hill, it might just get lost.

Restaurant experiment: Tokyo Japanese Restaurant

Tokyo Japanese Restaurant

342 Lexington Avenue between East 39th and 40th Streets

New York, NY 10016

212-697-8330

http://tokyorestaurant.net/

My mom picked out this place since it was supposed to be authentic.  That was certainly the case: the waitresses are decked out in kimonos, and they have menus written solely in Japanese, as well as English versions.   The website states that Tokyo has been around 35 years which has to say something.  It was still pretty early when we arrived, not really needing the reservation that we made.

Hot towels were brought over, and we perused the menu.  An appetizer we ordered was fried chicken legs with scallions and fish eggs.  That sounds like a mish mash, but it was actually delicious.  Sipping green tea, my dad and I decided to chow on the cheaper sushi morawase option and my mom went for the chirashi.  I stole some of her avocado and purpled pickled cucumber and tobiko.  The miso soup came out prior, and it was strongly flavored which I dig.  I had requested no wasabi on my platter, though somehow they put wasabi on the maki.  Huh.  And I was a little disappointed that ikura was not available a la carte, or at least it wasn’t on the menu.  Mmm, fresh sushi.  I was surprised the rolls were a little messy instead of made with Japanese precision, but no huge deal.

As it happens often, the service grew less attentive as more guests wafted into the restaurant.  This would have bothered me less except for the fact that I was racing against a deadline.  I did order dessert because I thought it would be faster.  My father’s dessert seemed to take more time (mochi) than mine (green tea ice cream).  I know Tokyo doesn’t make their own green tea ice cream, but it’s still good stuff.  Tokyo: uncreative name, but darn good sushi and authentic!

Restaurant experiment: Kiku Sushi III

Kiku Sushi III

121 East 27th Street between Park Avenue South and Lexington Avenue

New York, NY 10016

212-213-9888

Three cheers for expense account dinners!  Wait, is there a difference between expense account dinners and business dinners?  Okay, Kiku Sushi III is not Jean-Georges, but I never turn down a comped meal.  And you shouldn’t either.

No clients involved, thank goodness.  Kiku Sushi III was chosen due to its proximity to our workplace and due to Kathy’s desire for sushi.  I’d walked by Kiku several times and always assumed it was more upscale than it was really; perhaps it was due to the kanji characters on the door and the generous use of dark wood.  I heard it’s quite the popular lunch locale though.  But this Wednesday evening, it was only our table and one more (a tutor and his tutee who were later replaced by a man and a woman).

AmyW, Kathy, and I shared an order of pork gyoza and the Philly roll as appetizers.  These two were fine but not particularly memorable.  Deep down, I’m a purist so the idea of smoked salmon and cream cheese being proffered as sushi still strikes me as odd.  Though I do adore salmon+cream cheese in other forms, bagels anyone?  Gyoza could have come out of a frozen bag. 

I got the sushi deluxe for my main course, along with a miso soup.  The soup was pretty decent, not too strong and not with those microscopic tofu cubes which remind me of powdered soup mixes.  The sushi deluxe certainly did contain a lot of sushi: ten pieces and then tuna rolls.  I liked the inclusion of tobiko though this particular roll had somewhat of a chemical aftertaste.  The fish slices were nearly 2x the size of the rice balls, creating a bit of a messy look.  But hey, more fish!

Dessert time!  Us three shared fried banana and green tea ice cream.  I should say here that Kiku Sushi III also has a Thai food menu.  So the fried banana is off that side of the restaurant.  Usually I love green tea ice cream, but this version was droll.  Guess I’ll stick to pints from Maeda-en or Haagen Dazs.  The friend banana was actually the highlight of the meal.  Sweet, sugary crust on the hot fruits cut up into eights, perfect for sharing.

Kiku Sushi III was your run-of-the-mill sushi place.  Not a dump, not a palace.  Somewhere comfortably in the middle.  Here’s hoping for more expense account dinners!