So I was misled by a restaurant...

Today was quite a day.

Let's set the mood here...

There's a reason I like going to small-time, hole-in-the-wall restaurants that are owned by the respective ethnic people representing an ethnic food. Like I prefer Japanese people working in a Japanese sushi bar and restaurant or Italian folks serving my lasagna with tradition in mind. I feel odd walking into a Vietnamese noodle house where the waiters and owners are Caucasian, while the cooking staff his Hispanic. No offense, but it would be like walking into a restaurant that was owned and run by Arabian folks that primarily serves up American grill classics.

A dear friend of mine wanted to catch a bite to eat today at the new sushi and Japanese grill located in the new Asian shopping district in my city. Even though I say it was an Asian shopping district, the majority of the shops and establishments are primarily Chinese in ownership. Well, on the outside the name plate for the restaurant was "[...] Japanese Sushi and Grill". (Zero's note: I will not use the name of the restaurant as I don't feel it's necessary.) Note that I have emphasized the word "Japanese". On walking in... I was greeted in Mandarin Chinese with "Ni hao!" rather than "Irashaimasen!" in addition to an HDTV showing Chinese TV. To me, it felt odd... I was led to believe based on the signing that the restaurant was Japanese in cuisine, not Chinese. I just hoped "Maybe, it's just the owners and wait staff that were Chinese... They probably have Japanese folks on staff" I was welcomed then seated at the table. I figured that I was being too serious to pass judgement so soon, that is, until they brought out the menu. The cuisine listed in the menu had common-place Japanese food and unique Taiwanese food with listings only in English and Chinese. I was slightly confused, as once again, my first impressions were mainly focused on the signing I saw was not reflected within the menu. I would order and so would my friend... We figured and thought "maybe the Japanese food is served and stylized correctly."

The shiroi miso soup was good. It was exact to style. Sliced spring onions, silken tofu, and seaweed were all in there with a good consistency to taste. It wasn't until my sushi & tempura bento box came out where my disappointment would really be realized. On overhearing the itamae (the sushi chef) talk to the rest of the staff, he was speaking Mandarin Chinese. My gut just had a bad feeling... When my bento arrived, it looked good, but looks can be deceiving. The sushi were nigiri styled with a hand-roll of rice and a cut of fish on the top. A simple roll, but one that must be mastered. The nigiri sushi included were an ama ebi (sweet shrimp), maguro (tuna), and sake (salmon, pronounced "sha-ke"). On picking up the ama ebi roll, half of the rice crumbled under very light pressure of my chopsticks. I just let it go as "It was probably just this roll, no big deal". The maguro was the one that disappointed me most. The consistency of the cut was too thick, the rice crumbled again, and a third of the tuna was falling apart! The sake was cut improperly so the taste was poor at best. The tempura was done right, although I thought it was weird to fry up a floret of broccoli and a pod of French green beans. The Japanese salad was just ordinary lettuce with a mustard like sauce. There was no art or soul in it, where my experiences at a few other Japanese restaurants that have made their salads very colorful and the dressing was in no way bitter and runny. The straw that soured my experience was the simple California rolls. I figured "it's the easiest roll to make, there has got to be NO way they can mess this one up." Sadly, I was wrong again. I had one roll, completely unravel in between my chopsticks. It would have been a terrible waste if the roll fell apart in my soy sauce, but I got away lucky. It was of no help that the waiter for my table was terrible, as he just came by only once (about 5 minutes into the food) just to ask if everything was ok and then left.

In retrospect, I should have taken heed to the place as their menu was common place and worst yet... Their sushi bar's white board barely had any interesting but typical cuts of sushi that can be found in almost any sushi bar. My friend actually noticed that the consistency of the rice for the sushi was almost the same as the rice given with the bento box. It is disappointing to see that just about every Asian restaurant is trying to jump the sushi bandwagon to make a buck, because sushi is not just any other food. Sushi is an art form to be respected, much like a piece by Leonardo da Vinci or Michaelangelo. It's not just another commodity.

For those of you who are local to me and are curious to which restaurant it is, just call me or message me. I'll help steer you clear and point you to a far better establishment.