Am I qualified?

Photo of Sushi Plate off Kid's Menu at a Restaurant in Kanagawa, Japan

"Am I qualified"

Qualified for what?

Would I be a qualified critique for a restaurant that SEEMs to indicate that they would like to be known to serve the best Sushi and best Thai cuisine in town?

Too much expectation is exactly what I have learned not to have when I walk into any restaurants any more; simply because I struggle to bounce back from dissatisfying experiences. So, I doubt that my expectation was overly high, but you can be the judge.

This restaurant, "R" is actually not the first restaurant that serves sushi in this town. My son tried "the dragon roll" at another "hot" establishment in the downtown business district but I never had the courage to try their Sushi. SO, this time, after hearing about this new place, I went ready to be pampered by good service and to enjoy some authentic and non authentic rolls. The inside interior was eclectic, modern, sophisticated and comfortable at the same time with unique blend of bold architectural statement and very simple but practical seating area arrangement. The simple lines of the seating and table design was contrasted by the intricacy of the detailed/curvy lines incorporated into the interior decor design. The extremely long and narrow shape of the establishment is unusual here but very common style in large cities or in Nagoya or Tokyo. Much effort is behind this place, I thought, to present the sophistication of the cuisine to satisfy the customers. I loved the feel of the place the first moment I stepped in.

I decided to take a leisurely look at the entire sushi menu while I sip the green tea. I love the aroma carried in the steam as well as the flavor of green tea that soothes my palate. I asked the attending, "do you have green tea? ". (feeling that , it was a dumb question) She said "Yes". My husband ordered coke. She said, "I will be right back" and stepped away from our table. While I was glancing at the menu, I realized that it seemed to be missing my absolute favorite, Salmon roe, IKURA.

I was dying to enjoy the combination of steaming hot green tea and IKURA along with some other odds and ends. OK, I thought, I can live without Ikura, not-so-fresh ones are bad, maybe they can't get that around here...??? That is understandable if they can't. IT is OK. There are others to choose from.

I like authentic stuff (sushi) that does not have the sweet sauce smeared on the roll or mayonnaise based creamy dressing drizzled over it. When "NETA" (ingredients) are not so excellent, you may need all the heavy sauce to cover the lack of flavor? I just like it with soy sauce and WASABI. Maybe I am the boring one.

The waitress returned in a few minutes. "I am sorry, we don't have any green tea".

I doubted my ear but she was serious. You mean no GREEN TEA at a sushi restaurant?

Wow, was what I thought. Then, I had to tell her, "Really? wow, that is kind of sad. I honestly can't enjoy Sushi as much without green tea! Give me a few more minutes to look at the menu". I was probably visibly disappointed but I smiled at the young lady. She apologized, of course it was not her fault.

My next plan was to go for Thai cuisine instead. In my vast experience with Thai restaurants in many other cities, I tend to always order the combination of red or green curry and a small bowl of soup. Curry is already a bit of saucy thing that comes with rice so a small cup or bowl of soup on the menu is perfect to compliment just in case you want one more some thing. So, I asked for red curry and asked if they could make me a small cup of soup. The waitress returned to say, "we only serve the one size of large bowl of soup and we can't give you a small bowl". So, I decided not to order the soup to enjoy with the curry. I could have paid the full 5 dollars for the large bowl of soup and not eat or drink the whole serving. But it seemed strange that they did not offer small bowl since I have always ordered this combination else where. So far, I had not gotten exactly what I wanted yet. OK, what I decided to order was just curry, with Tofu. But there are different preparations for Tofu. I had to ask if it is fried tofu or the soft tofu. The waitress was visibly nervous by then. She went back inside to ask the question and returned in a minute to say, "they can do with any tofu you would like". So I selected the fried tofu with brown coating outside. My husband ordered a plate of fried rice with chicken. Simple order for him.

While waiting for our food, all I could think of was the green tea. How strange that sounded to me that no one thought it essential to serve tea especially with current trend. OF course, my husband said, "get over it, you are not in Tokyo". I knew that! He was probably right but was he? Oh well. It was an adventure, so I decided to take it all in. I looked around the restaurant to notice so many young men dressed in black shirts standing around talking to each other. Maybe they were expecting a lot of people in a little while. This was not just my observation, my husband agreed. I do not enjoy feeling like we were animals in the cage when I go to restaurants. Several on the back wall were standing and chatting looking around at the customers, and three more at the end of the bar counter visiting and two or three others at the entrance. Just a lot of standing around talking amongst each other. Well, a few were moving about serving water. I like trained servers who remain slightly invisible to you while you enjoy the meal but seem to appear at your side when you need assistance. No, they were constantly so visible and all over the place. Can't help it but noticing them. That is exactly what I did not enjoy about other "hot" place in town. It takes the sophistication grade down by a few grade points in my book. The other "hot" place was actually even worse. A few of the servers or table assistants stood really close to one of our tables once, and stood and exchanged local conversation about certain people they knew for the longest time. It is as unpleasant as having to listen to the nurses' gossip while being hospitalized.

I did enjoy the red curry with rice thoroughly. It was delicious like I have had it before. Sipping the cold water instead of hot tea was not all that bad either.

My husband was satisfied with the full plate of fried rice. He was puzzled a bit because it came with a side, which was a bowl of steamed white rice. Usually, if a plate of fried rice comes with a side dish, what they typically serve is a salad or a bowl of soup, not another bowl of rice. He sat there with a large plate of rice next to another bowl of rice; it looked very strange, funny, even comical as if they played a trick on him. But we refrained from asking another question let alone making any suggestions.

Our stomach felt comfortably full and my palate was spiced just right. But I did not get what I wanted. Yeh, there is always the next time. Plus, didn't my mom teach me that we don't always get what we want in life? Hmmmm. We told the lady that we were ready for our check.

My husband picked up the bill and he said, "You might find this interesting".

Green Tea $ 3.00

Oh, I got charged for begging too much!

Well, I did not get to check out the SUSHI after all.

Maybe I am not qualified to comment on Asian Cuisine establishment,

I have lived in the south way too long?

P.S. 3$ for a cup of green tea in my opinion is high. Especially if they are going to charge 3 per cup like another Sushi place does in the big town east of here. I am enjoying my cup of green tea at home as I write this. I might pick up some take out sushi next week.