While I love the sushi over at Papa Sushi, and it holds the title as my favorite sushi restaurant in Arkansas, I still love trying new things at other places. Using the cool slot machine feature on Urban Spoon's iPhone app, I came across Sashimi Japanese Steakhouse in Maumelle. It had really good reviews, so I decided that we'd eat there for our weekly date night.
Maumelle isn't too far from us, and we got there for dinner at about 7:30 on a Saturday night. The restaurant was full, but we didn't have to wait for a table, which always makes me happy. Our server told us to seat ourselves and then came back to take drink orders. We stuck with water that evening, and he kept our glasses full the whole night.
The restaurant has a huge hibachi area in the back half, but we were on a sushi date. And dumplings for an appetizer. The dumplings were good, but they weren't anything spectacular. They tasted like what we order at every sushi place we go to. But they were very good, and the portion size was generous.
Four our main dish, we ordered four rolls to share:
The Rainbow Roll: California roll with tuna, red snapper, salmon & avocado on top. ($8.50)
The Snow Blossom Roll: Salmon & avocado covered with white tuna and two oriental sauces. ($9.95)
The Oh My Gosh Roll: Spicy salmon avocado, crab stick deep fried with three different sauces. (10.95)
The Harry Potter Roll: Soft shell crab, spicy tuna, asparagus, cucumber, craw fish salad and topped with seared tuna. (12.95)
I think I would have ordered the "Harry Potter" roll if it had been made of fried chicken and mayo (both of which I hate) just because of the name, but it was my favorite. I wish the seared tuna on top had been salted & peppered a little more before being put on the roll, but it was absolutely delicious. The flavors all went together really well, and it was fantastic. It had good heat, excellent crunch and the sauce was not overpowering.
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| The Harry Potter Roll |
My least favorite was the Snow Blossom, which was one of Graham's favorites. I think for me it was a texture thing, because there was no texture to it. It was fish and avocado. One piece I had was nothing but a big chunk of avocado on the inside, another piece I had was nothing but fish. I didn't realize it until I was thinking about why I didn't like that roll, but I love the sushi rolls that have more of a bite to them. My favorites always have cucumber or asparagus. This one just didn't do it for me. Not to mention the sauces were a little too sweet. They overpowered the taste of the fish and the avocado, and you ended up with a sweet, mushy tasting blob.
The Oh My Gosh roll was Graham's other favorite, and my second favorite. It was absolutely delicious. It wasn't as spicy as I typically prefer, but he heat was there and the flavor was incredible.
The Rainbow Roll was good, but it wasn't special. It tasted pretty much like every rainbow roll I've ever had. I probably wouldn't order it again, because they have 51 different rolls to choose from, but it you like the basics, it's definitely a good one to get.
Putting the flavor of each individual roll here aside, the flavor of the fish was very, very good. I'm not sure exactly how fresh it was (seafood here makes me iffy sometimes, since it's a landlocked state), but it was delicious. There was no fishy smell or excess liquid. The fish was dry and firm, and all you could smell were the sauces on each roll.
We will definitely visit Sashimi again!
nice
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