date: 8/15/06
location: st. paul
grade: c+

there are two people at a podium paying for take-out. naturally they want to use 3 or 4 credit cards (not kidding). i stand at podium for five minutes, and i did get the 'i'll help you when i'm done here' glance, i.e., i was acknowledged.

well, i think i was, as the payment wrapped up and the food handed over, the phone rang. and yes, the call was answered. and yes, the person was of course not put on hold. so i waited even more.

afterwards, the theory was posited that i have the ability to become completely invisible unless people i know are in proximity.

you make the call.

of course throughout the course of the evening, everyone had better service than me, naturally. i waited through the whole round of appitizers/soup/salad to get my water glass filled. oddly, at the end of the meal they finally started coming around frequently, not sure what initiated the change.

i ordered the sushi imperial plate, which is a selection of maki and nigri sushi. what it was, beyond the kinds i've had before (tuna, shrimp, etc.) i don't know, as the server didn't explain to me what was on it. the other person who ordered a similar meal got a tour of theirs. they left the area before i could flag them down.

so what i had for dinner- a bunch of kinds of sushi. wasn't great, wasn't bad. it tasted a lot like the stuff you pick up in upscale grocerers, which was kind of disappointing. not that the stuff is bad, but i expect more in a restaurant. most of the difference in the pieces were texture variation, i expected a bit more flavor. for all eleven pieces there were chewy bits and kind of smooth bits and some were better than others. the nori was the chewiest i've ever had, so unless you popped the whole of the piece in your mouth, there was a bit of trouble.

there was some weird happenings with the bill, which was technically my fault. sorry.

it came with a decent miso soup, and an odd salad (standard restaurant dinner salad, tomato, cuke, iceberg lettuce, giant carrot slice). odd for the context, anyway. also odd is the desert menu. well, not the plum truffles, but the tiramisu and cheesecake.

of course the menu you get in the restaurant is different than the one they put online. i hate it when that happens.

i will say here i am grading on my experience alone, as everyone else had better food and service at the same table . i wasn't really impressed with anything, thus the a slightly above average grade. the appetizers were good, including the ginger chicken wings, gyoza (someone commented they were the best they ever had), and teriyaki steak on a skewer. the fried tofu was ok. you get a lot of food in each appetizer. the tempura dinner was also good, as was the yaki niku bento (barbequed beef).

the saki tasting flight is a good deal, and it was half-priced wine night, though no one indulged. a very good dessert saki, which smelled of caramel and chocolate. they also have some nice girly drinks, i was told.

apparently the place used to have a river running through it, and was arranged differently, but it's still a bit on the mellow, quiet side (especially compared to next-door dixie's). the sushi bar part was crowded, as was the teppanyaki area upstairs (what we could see of it), fewer people were at the tables.

bonus pointless fact- in japan, they now have sushi making robots.