Sushi Gin

(A couple of nights ago there would have been a Brussels Sprouts au Gratin recipe here, but several video card driver crashes plus driver-upgrading reboots took up so much time that it didn't get posted. Let me just say the following things about the gratin: 1) needs less Dijon, since both Dijon mustard and wasabi taste like rubbing alcohol to me, 2) needs more sauce, 3) otherwise good.)

Alex had a pretty crappy day at work today, so I suggested we go out for dinner tonight, and he selected Sushi Gin. Neither of us had ever been there, and I would have suggested we go to our usual Japanese spot of Shogun but Shogun has hibachi, whereas it appeared Sushi Gin didn't, and neither of us was in a hibachi mood. Plus it's always nice to try new things, and I had been looking for a local (ie, not KC MO) non-hibachi Japanese restaurant.

We sat down on booth seating, with Pier One seat pads. While this isn't exactly traditional (as far as I know), it was for me much more comfortable than the crawling-under-the-table-no-shoes thing, which is kind of hard to get in and out of. Alex ordered hot sake and I ordered Coke (bad me!), and as for our orders, we got an appetizer of edamame, and I ordered shrimp/veg tempura with salad, and Alex got a sushi selection with miso soup.

Well, the soups came. I say plural because for some reason they gave me miso soup instead of salad. I had only had miso soup once before and I always liked the scallion broth soup better but they didn't have that here, and the miso was okay. Kinda wanted to try their salad dressing though, but oh well.

Then the edamame arrived, which was nicely de-fuzzed (the last batch of edamame we got from Shogun appeared to have all its fuzz still on), and then our actual dishes. Alex was quite pleased with his sushi, particularly the unagi and big-eye tuna (this was a special item which was not on the menu and so I don't know what the Japanese name for it is). The tempura was more filling than I had expected it to be (the Coke probably didn't help with this), and ultimately a bit underwhelming. I had specifically ordered it because I had never had vegetable tempura before, and I think I expected it to have more flavor. Even with the sauce, it mostly tasted like plain seasoningless cooked vegetables (broccoli, onion ring, mushroom, sweet potato, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, and asparagus) in a crispy batter. I think shrimp in and of itself probably had more flavor, which is why I like shrimp tempura better. Anyway, I filled up so quick that I ended up leaving the mushroom, half the onion ring, sweet potato, and 2 (out of 4) shrimp to Alex. Then he had green tea ice cream (his favorite) and i had oddly orange-colored vanilla ice cream. I swear, I thought it was mango, which is usually the non-green tea option, and I don't like mango ice cream all that much so I was going to be pissed if they had screwed up my dessert too. It was vanilla though, and a bit underflavored and overly-frozen (ice crystals). I think I've spoiled myself by snacking on Haagen Dazs extra rich light vanilla bean ice cream lately, but damn if that isn't delicious.

Ultimately though, it was only $49 plus tip, and Alex was so very pleased with the sushi (and the menu... I should have gotten udon instead, dammit!) that I'm sure we'll go back. It's a nice, more casual, closer option to Kabuki, which is difficult to get to because it's downtown and downtown is evil.