Tuesday Lunch Date

The cutest soy sauce dispenser I have ever seen in my life.

This week we decided to try out a new to us sushi place over on Patterson Drive in the plaza with the Beanery, Volcano Japanese Restaurant. The place is really nice inside (much nicer than I expected with it being in a strip mall and all), there is a sushi bar with tall stool seating on one side and a bench running all the way down the other side so each table has 2 bench spots and two chairs. I don't usually like sitting that close to other people but I got over it. We were lucky to get a table because it filled up quickly during the lunch hour. There was a little bit of a communication breakdown with our waitress when Keith attempted to order a can of Sapporo, but after a couple of tries he got his ice cold beer. She was a very nice and attentive server, but someone should probably show her how to pour beer into a glass or maybe just leave well enough alone.

We didn't even crack open the menu because the lunch bento box was what we were after. You can pick any two items from a list a mile long including all kinds of rolls, sushi, sashimi, or hot entrees from the kitchen. Keith ordered a Spicy Tuna Roll with his and I ordered a Spicy Salmon Roll. We both got Vegetable Tempura too. It comes with a bowl of miso soup, a salad, rice, and two little fried thingies - I have no idea what they were but they were tasty.

The miso soup was really good. The salad was bright and crisp and delicious. I am a sucker for that kind of ginger dressing anyway, it really makes a handfull of iceberg lettuce and some carrot shavings into something awesome. Neither of us was impressed with the tempura. The veggies were just a little on the raw side of crisp tender, and the coating was slightly soggy and tasted strongly of oil. Eh, I ate it and was nourished, but was hoping for something better. Our rolls were both disappointing as well. Instead of the solid piece of fish rolled up in the middle that I am used to, it was filled with a really mushy paste made of minced fish. They weren't spicy at all either. I wasn't inclined to eat all of mine, but Keith said his were edible.
For desert they brought us an orange on this lovely little dish. I did enjoy the lunch date as a whole, but next time we want sushi we are going to try our luck somewhere else. We'll probably be back sometime though, it wasn't awful by any stretch of the imagination, and it was a good value at around $10 per person.