Paul Vandeman

We were very excited to try this place as the menu looked very exciting. Unfortunately we found the food to be good but a little underwhelming. We really liked the Hotate Wasabi (scallop dish) and the fried salmon collar special, both very strong dishes. The Kobe Sushi was good but not a stand out. The Ramen Poutine had very good gravy and when you had the pork, pickled ginger, cheese and fries in one bite, it was delicious. Unfortunately you could only have that bite approximately 3 times since there were only three pieces of pork on the dish. (Suggestion: add cut up pork belly to the dish so that you can have all the flavors in more bites). The Grilled Oyster special was good, but it was overly dry and really lacked acid. I added some of the sauce from the Salmon Cheek and it helped a bit, but would have loved more sauce to soak up with the bread. The last dish was the Udon Pepperoncino which unfortunately was lacking acid and the kick of ‘pepperoncino’ we expected, so it felt flat and heavy. That dish could be killer with a little more balance and spice. Even though I was disappointed in some of the dishes, I felt the concepts were very strong, so I’d return to see if this was just a one-off issue. Great staff and a fun, intimate environment - oh and the beer was delicious as well.