Sunday, September 30, 2012

A not so magical night at Jasmine's Cafe

So before I start my blog about Jasmines,  I must prefacewith an important fact.  I just watched "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" which I previously blogged about.  But the short version, is the film is a documentary about one of the true masters of sushi who has perfected the art Japanese cuisine through perfection and exceptional attention to detail.

Naturally, after watching the pain staking attention placed  each step in making sushi..I may be a little harsher then normal....OR maybe just less sugar coat it???

Either way I was not impressed!  My husband (this will never get old) and I went to Jasmine's and decided to get the Dinner for 2.  This includes two soups, two salads, an app, 10 pieces of nigri and 2 rolls of our choice.

SOUP-The miso soup was a little bland for me.  Maybe not enough miso or soy or something. But by no means was the soup bad....Just not amazing.    The hubby (OMG I am still married) likes tons of seaweed in his miso soup.  Jasmine's miso soup had very little seaweed, so he was a little let down.

SALAD-The salads were the usual iceberg lettuce with shredded carrots   The standout here was the creamy garlic dressing which my loving husband (maybe not so loving) had to be forced to share some of his salad.  Seriously, I am not joking.  I had to stop him from licking the bowl.  I had the salad with the ginger dressing which was more vinegary then gingery.  It tasted like it came out of a bottle not made in house. Yes- I am picky about my ginger dressing...

DUMPLINGS-For, the app we went with the shrimp dumplings. These were ok. Not bad but the filling used little frozen shrimp which were bland and lacked texture and threw the dumplings off.  However, these were steamed perfectly.  The app is served with a brown sauce and spicy brown mustard which paired well together.


SUSHI-For our 10 nigri, the chef gave us 2 tuna, 2 salmon, 2 Krab, 2 squid and 2 escolar.  Please bare in mind my warning. Now the lovely rice bowls the fish sat on were not all the same size or shape.  The rice with my Krab was a good inch shorter than my rice for the salmon.  Additionally, the rice was not seasoned well.  The problem with badly seasoned rice is  the seasoning is to make sure the rice sticks and does not fall apart.  Therefore, this was some messy falling apart sushi.

As for the fish, this was hit or miss....Again, I have a decent palate and have been eating sushi of all qualities for YEARS.  So I am good at deciphering quality of fish( This does not mean the fish is unsafe just some fish is better than others similar to cuts of beef).   The tuna was extremely watery with the color being off which leads me to think it was frozen. YUCK!  The squid was very bland and the texture was off so I think this was either a little old or frozen.  The Krab was Krab....not my favorite kind of sushi...I mostly like Krab in seafood salad but that is a story for another day/blog.  The salmon was wonderfully fresh and melted in my mouth.  But the standout was the escolar.  OMG-this was so fresh and creamy.  We would have been good with 10 of the escolar.  But alas, when you order a meal it is chef's choice.

AL LA CARTE- shitaki nigri which were BAD.  There was no sugar coating this.....BAd BAD BAD BAD BAD...and more BAD....do i need to type more?

Jasmine Cafe & Lounge on UrbanspoonThe positive- For less then $50 my husband (wtf) and I got FULL on sushi.  Like we left a sushi restaurant full with not room for dessert or the need to pick up fast food.  All avid sushi eaters know this is RARE.  Good price and happy tummy.  Jasmine's has a nice extensive menu for non-sushi eaters..such as Bento Boxes and even sandwiches   The menu does mark raw and not raw options for the pickier eats.  The atmosphere is super casual and fun.  Lots of college students.

The Negative- Was this the best sushi in town? NO  Was this the worst sushi in town? NO

Basically- Spend a little more and go to Sakura! Or spend a bunch more and get the kick-ass dumplings at Kitcho with some Uni


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