Beyond Sushi: The Raw Truth

I eat quite a lot of sushi. It's a guilty pleasure of mine.

I've been to Matsuri several times and always found their sushi to be quite good. The simplicity and freshness of the tuna sashimi, the creativity of the large combination rolls that combine everything from yellowtail to mango, and the variety of choices on the menu makes this a great local spot for my spicy scallop and avocado and eel indulgence.

Not everybody has acquired a taste for sushi. My dinner companion is one such person.

No problem, I thought. This will be a good opportunity to taste what else is on the menu.

Lively Atmosphere

It's a Tuesday night and the restaurant is hopping. The sushi bar is full (always a good sign) and there's a splattering of deuces (date night?) in the main dining room.

The décor is minimal, with bright yellow light fixtures behind the sushi masters and a sparkling tile wall on the far side of the dining room. A lively bar crowd ensues.

Promising Starters

Our non-sushi excursion began with a fragrant Lemongrass Coconut Chicken Soup. The tangy, milky broth was warm and soothing, with a hint of lime to it. Bits of chicken and corn kernel swam about in the bowl. It was a great way to get our taste buds going and was plenty for two people to share.

Chicken Maki sounded intriguing with carrots, scallion, cheese and crab wrapped in pounded, breaded chicken breast and deep-fried.

The combination of sweet blanched carrot matchsticks and cheese, teamed with the crunch of the chicken, was surprisingly tasty. Alas, the "crab" was the fake stuff, which just made the filling sweeter than it needed to be. Why skimp?

We continued our "cooked food" tour with King Crab Rice Tempura Pizza.

A soft rice cake is deep-fried in tempura batter to create the crust for the pizza. It is then topped with a good amount of crab meat, guacamole, spicy mayonnaise and dollops of tobiko. The rice cake acts like a sponge and holds much of the oil, but it's an extremely tasty dish. The texture contrasts are great and we enjoyed nibbling on this with our hot sake.

Cooked "Sushi" Rolls

Feeling almost guilty for not ordering sushi, we agreed upon some pseudo sushi rolls made with cooked ingredients.

The Spicy Lobster Roll seemed straightforward enough, and who doesn't love lobster? In this particular case, we didn't. The rolls were premade, refrigerated and sliced upon order. Unfortunately the lack of freshness and ice cold temperature left the rice hard on the outside and the lobster salad inside flavorless and congealed.

Not ones to give up, we went for the Crispy Calamari Roll topped with mango. Tender pieces of calamari are flash-fried, rolled in sushi rice, then topped with paper-thin slices of mango and spicy jalapeno relish. The texture is fun, although the calamari itself is bland. However, the mango was not ripe enough, lacking a sweet, creamy flavor. Again, it had the makings of a fun combination roll, but it fell short.

Chocolate Beef Has Potential

Another cooked option that caught our eye was the Chocolate Beef. The owner and chefs are young at Matsuri Sushi and the restaurant is tagged as "Japanese Fusion," leading me to believe that these guys could pull off such a unique preparation.

Slices of beef tenderloin are marinated with garlic and tarragon and quickly seared, leaving the meat mostly raw, which in itself is not a bad thing. The bad thing was serving these tender, flavorful slices of high quality meat ice cold with pieces of fat hanging off, hardened like pieces of wax. The only chocolate component was a dusting of cocoa powder. I would order this again and ask for the beef to be served room temperature, as it has huge potential.

Our "non-sushi" sushi experience was met with a few hits and misses.

I should know better though. I would never go to a steakhouse and order the pasta.