Matsuri, I Heart You

Patience, patience, patience.

That is what I had for many of months in my attempts to eat at Matsuri. I run on cravings (who doesn't) and it happens that when I want to patronize this restaurant, I have the worst timing ever. Basically, my stomach forgets that Matsuri is pretty darn good, okay, not just "good", but one of the best sushi places in town. Plus its a petite restaurant. So when it is spilling out customers left and right, I throw up my white flag and find a new place to pacify the hunger.

Before I begin, my hiatus from blogging for the Patch was due to many of weeks of showing my place for my landlord and moving. Benicia eats had to be placed on pause for a moment before I could collect myself. Plus with limited access to the Internet, I am challenging myself to no end to serve my readers some insight to the Benicia restaurants.

If I was to describe Matsuri in one word, it would be: fresh. I have never had a disappointing sushi roll or combo plate. Everything is on point and delicious. The service is as attentive as it can be, but with it being so busy, you have to give the servers here credit for giving all they got whilst keeping the food, drinks, and service consistent.

On this particular visit to Matsuri, I chose their dinner combination bento box oppose to sushi rolls. Chicken Katsu is Japanese style deep fried chicken, but to me better and tastier. Generally served with a thick-based sauce, katsu is by far my favorite dish as I gravitate towards it majority of the time when I want a hardy meal at a Japanese restaurant.

Mind you, their combination bento boxes are quite filling. With salads; sashimi; tempura; and rice. Well you have to be quite hungry when you order this plate. And of course I was. And if you want to know if if I ate everything, well sure I did!

Now if have not been here, let me share some of my favorite sushi roll picks:

• Oshinko: Pickled radish which I eat as a appetizer
• Spicy Tuna: Fresh flavors and quite simple if you do not want to get too adventurous
• Pink Lady
• Rainbow Roll

The last two I cannot for the life of me know what is exactly on/in them, but they are the fellow rolls we get with the top two. I would highly recommend Matsuri for anyone. Just remember they are a petite restaurant, so for large groups, I recommend you keep it to six people. The sushi bar is very popular for parties of two or three. And make sure its about visiting for fun and socializing, I do not recommend eating and leaving, its just not how you do it.

Enjoy!