Salt City Girl

Raves and rants about the Salty City's food, film and alcohol.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Tsuanmi Restaurant and Sushi Bar

This semester I have been writing for my college paper, The Forum. Last week, I pitched the idea of writing review pieces of ethnic restaurants and guess what? My editor gave me the go ahead. So tomorrow stop by Westminster College and check out my review of O'Falafel and Tsunami. But for a preview keep reading...

Tsuanmi
2223 South Highland Dr.
Monday--Saturday
Open for lunch and dinner
Sunday
5:30 p.m.--9:30 p.m.

This little place can sometimes be forgotten. It resides in a red brick building next to the dollar theatre and the interior seems to suffer from an identity crisis. The restaurant is decorated in a host of neutral colors that I find visually boring. The apprearance seems to say, "Look, we're high class," but the location says, "we're a neighborhood place where anyone can enjoy good food." According to my resident Japanese expert the decor is too busy for traditional Japanese style. I think it would be nice to have some more color. Maybe they could repaint the tan walls a nice shade of green.

Aside, from the identity crisis of Tsunami, there are some wonderful things to be found there. First, there is Albert. Albert is a friend from school and he loves to make people happy. So if you're lucky enough to have him be your waiter, you are in for a great night. Second, is the sushi. Tsunami flies in their fish fresh every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Last week, Ianto and I chose to sit at the sushi bar. It was a new experience for me since I had only previously eaten at a table in Tsunami. So here's what I like about the bar. 1. it's a bar. 2. Brian the sushi chef. 3. it's a bar and 4. the other people sitting at the bar. The guy next to us joined in on making fun of my non-existent chopstick abilities. He even sided with Ianto and encouraged me to eat sushi with my hands.

We ordered the Samurai and Tokyo Cowboy sushi roles. They were phenomenal. Everything in the roll was very fresh. The yellow tail was sweet and delicious and the flying fish eggs were great. I love how they pop in your mouth. The presentation was beautiful. Brian even managed to make the wasabi and pickled ginger beautiful.

The Tokyo Cowboy had Kobe beef. For my first experience with Kobe, WOW! This is easily one of the best sushi rolls I have ever had. The roll was a blend of sweet and spicy. The fusion of Southwest flavors with traditional Japanese worked well together. I will definietly order this again.

For dessert we had the tempura fried ice cream. The ice cream was yummy, but tempura really wasn't meant to go on it. Something a little sweeter like frosted flakes works more for me. In the end, we had a wonderful food and a good experience for about $25.

3 Comments:

Blogger Stuart said...

Great post, Tsunami in Sugar House is a great little restaurant.

I've never tried the bar though, my only experience is of the standard tables. And that's where the drawback for me is, the food can be so slow coming out at times.

Not the wait staff I'm guessing, just the speed of the food from the kitchen. Their menu is so big, and the place is so small I think they have a few bottlenecks. Really great sushi though.

I've often thought about trying out their Fort Union operation, it seems much bigger and as a result maybe a smoother service?

--
Stuart
http://www.gastronomicslc.com

October 20, 2008 at 10:42 AM  
Blogger Erin Carr said...

Yum Sushi! Congrats on writing for the paper. I wish I could see the actual article. You better be saving them.

October 21, 2008 at 7:50 AM  
Blogger Krista Smith said...

Thanks for your comments Stuart and Irelandsgem. Our waiter was a not as helpful as I expect from a sit down restaurant, but we only needed him for drinks so it wasn't a big deal. Brian was rolling as fast as he could, the other sushi chef seemed slower and didn't talk to anyone at the bar. Perhaps it's the difference between a bar and a table or the personality in the kitchen.

October 21, 2008 at 1:37 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home