Saturday night, after watching the Yankees beat Orioles at Yankee Stadium with Patty & Justin, we went to Yumi in Sea Bright for sushi. http://www.yumirestaurant.com/.
Yumi is my favorite sushi place - I love the ambiance; I love that Bowie & Sean (owner and the sushi master) know us by name and I love the food. Alan's opinion is that they aren't the best for straight sushi - he thinks Shumi is...and I'm sure Susan & Rich would agree. The thing that Yumi does better than anyone is the appetizers. They are inventive, changing, daring and they almost always are fantastic. I say Alan's opinion - - mine is that Yumi is the better restaurant overall but I'm incredibly partial to their rolls and white tuna.
But Shumi or Yumi, this is a review. Saturday night, 8pm reservations and the place was hopping! Capacity crowd with people eating outside as well. Bowie reserved table #25 - the best table - right next to the sushi bar, close to where Sean creates the magic. There were five sushi chefs cranking out dish after dish...
We ordered a few appetizers to share and then all did our own sushi. The appetizers were the tuna sashimi pizza with crispy scallion pancake and signature spicy kabayaki sauce; a new appetizer of yellow tail sashimi with wasabi and sesame seeds; the baby jack with citrus oil and jalapeno and another new dish called tuna nachos that was tuna, avocado and seaweed encrusted chips.
We've had the pizza many times and it was good, but didn't strike anyone as the standout on this evening. The yellowtail with wasabi sauce was spicy without overwhelming the fish - you still got a good representation of the sashimi with the heat. But the two dishes that stole the show were our favorite - the baby jack with jalapeno...this is a gorgeous blend of perfectly fresh fish that's more delicate than a yellowtail or other white fish plus the bite of pepper and the cooling crispness of the citrus oil. Incredible dish. And the new one - the tuna, avocado with nachos - was awesome. The chips were small and light that added crunch to the tuna / avocado. Very nice dish indeed. We'll see if it stays on the menu.
Patty and I both ordered salads - mine is the Yuzu Romaine in Parmesan bowl and hers was the Yumi Seaweed Salad. I almost always get this Yuzu salad - it's a palette cleanser with the lightest soy, ginger, sesame dressing. For our sushi order - I had white tuna, yellowtail, red tuna and toro or fatty tuna. Alan got the baby jack along with his tuna order. Patty also ordered sushi. Justin got two rolls but I honestly forgot which ones they were.
It was a very nice meal and Yumi continues to be our go to sushi place. I think if we lived closer to Somerset we might be lured away by the incredible variety Ike has at Shumi but I for one am pretty happy that we get to eat at both!
Jenn's rating: 85
Zagat: 26-19-22
Showing posts with label asian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label asian. Show all posts
Monday, August 1, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Another One Bites the Dust
Yesterday something that has never happened before occurred. I got to work and realized I didn't have my wallet. No money, no credit cards. And while I quickly dismissed the fact I had just driven into the city without a license, I was crestfallen when it dawned on me that no money meant no lunch. Surviving on what candy and granola bars I had tucked into various drawers, come end of day...starving! So the inevitable conversation with Alan about what to get for dinner ensued. I wanted something quick to calm the loud, obnoxious sounds coming from my grumbling stomach. So we agree that it's a good night for Chinese. We could use the leftovers to get us through the following day as well.
I called our local Empire Cafe, the take out place we've been frequenting for going on eight years now. And what do I hear on the other end of the phone? Why, this number has been disconnected! I refuse to accept that my favorite little Chinese place is no longer in business and promptly dial 411. Nope, no such business listed in Marlboro. Ugh!!
No warning...no personal message to me, a loyal customer...no sign on the door, just closed. I am sad...but still super hungry.
Empire Cafe is now a distant memory as we rack our brain for another close Chinese take out establishment to try. It takes a few minutes and come to realize, we've got like four others to choose from in a two mile radius from the house. Ah, there's hope!!! We settle on the one we think we remember the name of and call it in.
Long story short - pretty damn good take out Chinese food. Goodbye Empire Cafe, hello Hot Wok!!
I called our local Empire Cafe, the take out place we've been frequenting for going on eight years now. And what do I hear on the other end of the phone? Why, this number has been disconnected! I refuse to accept that my favorite little Chinese place is no longer in business and promptly dial 411. Nope, no such business listed in Marlboro. Ugh!!
No warning...no personal message to me, a loyal customer...no sign on the door, just closed. I am sad...but still super hungry.
Empire Cafe is now a distant memory as we rack our brain for another close Chinese take out establishment to try. It takes a few minutes and come to realize, we've got like four others to choose from in a two mile radius from the house. Ah, there's hope!!! We settle on the one we think we remember the name of and call it in.
Long story short - pretty damn good take out Chinese food. Goodbye Empire Cafe, hello Hot Wok!!
Monday, June 13, 2011
Atlantic City, New Jersey: June 2011
We spent part of the weekend down in Atlantic City with Mary & Steve for a mini-getaway. We started off with lunch at the Continental in the Pier Shops across from Caesar's Palace on the boardwalk. Right off the bat, we were all happy to hear that despite it being 1:15pm, they were serving breakfast & lunch! The menu was not large ~ not diner large ~ but well rounded. I had the BLT with fried egg. It came on thick Texas style toast and other than being greasy was very good. The accompanying side salad with avocado ranch dressing had too much feta cheese for my liking.
Next up was a trip to the Toga Bar smack in the middle of the casino floor for pre-gambling drinks. These were tasty and were also very inexpensive (there’s a little confusion here on if that was the price of six plus drinks or if the bartender left off a few but we decided not to question it in either case). I might have found my go to bar drink ~ Absolut Citron with Sprite.
The group broke up at this point with Alan & Steve heading outside to the Beach Bar at Trump Casino and Mary and I hitting the blackjack tables. We reconvened an hour or so later at the Beach Bar. Mary & I opted for fruity, frozen drinks. I’m pretty sure mine was sans alcohol from the taste of it. Not what I was hoping for!
Later that evening it’s off to Buddhakan for dinner. Also located in the Pier Shops at Caesar’s Palace, Baddhakan is next door to Continental. It’s got a great, tiny bar that surprisingly based on size, serves dinner. It was also packed. We had 7:15pm reservations but told the table wasn’t ready. We waited maybe 20 minutes ~ enough time to have a drink in the tiny bar with every other starving would be diner. We are eventually seated in the main dining room close to the communal table situated under the eerily smiling face of the giant Buddha. A length conversation ensues on whether we should scale the long table to rub the Buddha’s belly for good luck. We don’t, focusing on a very nice looking menu instead.
Lots of intriguing appetizers ~ we settle on ordering four and sharing. Pork Pot Stickers, Wild Mushroom & Truffle Dumplings, Tuna Spring Rolls and Boneless Char Sui Spare Ribs. The spring rolls are very close in nature to a traditional Thai spring roll – not as exciting as we were hoping it was going to be. The other three appetizers were wonderful and turned out to be the highlight of the meal. We are also all intrigued by the Duck Salad with frisee, poached egg and sherry vinaigrette and order two of them to share as our second course. I love this course – it’s what I was hoping for with the combination of textures and flavors. Mary points out the egg is, at best, warm and was used to and hoping it would be warm to give that extra point of blended temperatures.
For the main course I order the Beef Lo Mein. Alan gets the Wok Cashew Chicken; Mary the Broken Chili Chicken and Steve the Char Grilled Aged Beef with Szechuan Fries and Watercress Salad. All of the courses are decent and safe, filling…but lacking any wow factor. There were no standouts and upon Steve’s question of would you order it again the consensus was no, we’d try something else.
A note about my rating scale: I’ve been keeping a record of restaurants since November 1, 1998 on almost every place Alan and I have eaten since our first high end experience on that night at Xavier in Piermont, NY. To set expectations, I’ve only handed out a perfect rating of 100 six times in 13 years across a total of 412 restaurant visits. They were:
· Daniel, NYC (first trip, lunch with Scott in 1999)
· Alaine Ducasse, NYC (2001 for Alan’s birthday lunch)
· French Laundry, Yontville, CA (2001 with Scott & Paul)
· Per Se, NYC (2005 with Hugh Davies)
· Daniel’s, NYC (Sky Box seating in 2006 with Susan & Kristie)
· Les Crayeres, Reims, France (2006 with Scott)
Mary ordered the Chinese Chicken Salad. We were told by our friendly and attentive server that the salads were "big enough to share". She didn't mention that they were big enough to share with the other twenty diners in the establishment! It was comically huge.
Alan & Steve both ordered omelets. Alan’s was ham & swiss served with toast and breakfast potatoes. He powered through it so I’m guessing it was tasty. Overall it’s not a bad place to grab a low key bite to eat; very affordable.
Next up was a trip to the Toga Bar smack in the middle of the casino floor for pre-gambling drinks. These were tasty and were also very inexpensive (there’s a little confusion here on if that was the price of six plus drinks or if the bartender left off a few but we decided not to question it in either case). I might have found my go to bar drink ~ Absolut Citron with Sprite.
The group broke up at this point with Alan & Steve heading outside to the Beach Bar at Trump Casino and Mary and I hitting the blackjack tables. We reconvened an hour or so later at the Beach Bar. Mary & I opted for fruity, frozen drinks. I’m pretty sure mine was sans alcohol from the taste of it. Not what I was hoping for!
Later that evening it’s off to Buddhakan for dinner. Also located in the Pier Shops at Caesar’s Palace, Baddhakan is next door to Continental. It’s got a great, tiny bar that surprisingly based on size, serves dinner. It was also packed. We had 7:15pm reservations but told the table wasn’t ready. We waited maybe 20 minutes ~ enough time to have a drink in the tiny bar with every other starving would be diner. We are eventually seated in the main dining room close to the communal table situated under the eerily smiling face of the giant Buddha. A length conversation ensues on whether we should scale the long table to rub the Buddha’s belly for good luck. We don’t, focusing on a very nice looking menu instead.
Lots of intriguing appetizers ~ we settle on ordering four and sharing. Pork Pot Stickers, Wild Mushroom & Truffle Dumplings, Tuna Spring Rolls and Boneless Char Sui Spare Ribs. The spring rolls are very close in nature to a traditional Thai spring roll – not as exciting as we were hoping it was going to be. The other three appetizers were wonderful and turned out to be the highlight of the meal. We are also all intrigued by the Duck Salad with frisee, poached egg and sherry vinaigrette and order two of them to share as our second course. I love this course – it’s what I was hoping for with the combination of textures and flavors. Mary points out the egg is, at best, warm and was used to and hoping it would be warm to give that extra point of blended temperatures.
For the main course I order the Beef Lo Mein. Alan gets the Wok Cashew Chicken; Mary the Broken Chili Chicken and Steve the Char Grilled Aged Beef with Szechuan Fries and Watercress Salad. All of the courses are decent and safe, filling…but lacking any wow factor. There were no standouts and upon Steve’s question of would you order it again the consensus was no, we’d try something else.
Jenn’s Rating: 72
Zagat Rating: 26-27-23Jenn’s rating scale (0 – 100).
A note about my rating scale: I’ve been keeping a record of restaurants since November 1, 1998 on almost every place Alan and I have eaten since our first high end experience on that night at Xavier in Piermont, NY. To set expectations, I’ve only handed out a perfect rating of 100 six times in 13 years across a total of 412 restaurant visits. They were:
· Daniel, NYC (first trip, lunch with Scott in 1999)
· Alaine Ducasse, NYC (2001 for Alan’s birthday lunch)
· French Laundry, Yontville, CA (2001 with Scott & Paul)
· Per Se, NYC (2005 with Hugh Davies)
· Daniel’s, NYC (Sky Box seating in 2006 with Susan & Kristie)
· Les Crayeres, Reims, France (2006 with Scott)
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