T J.
Yelp
Food 6/10, Service 4/10 Value 5/10
Highly recommended by local friends. Went solo, seated at small table in corner facing a wall though restaurant wasn't very full. Nice menus, with a seeming variety. Wasn't sure whether to go with maki dinner or a bento, decided upon ginger beef bento (sukiyaki?).
Salad and tea came out fairly promptly. But several others got seated in my area and the waiter seemed to then be focused on them, no problem. But then I noticed that slowly all three of the other tables started getting their food. More and more of their food, I just had an empty salad bowl to stare at for quite some time. As one of the tables that arrived after me was settling up her bill, my food arrived. Thought that was odd, but whatever.
The beef was a bit tough, but the sauce was excellent and the vegetables were steamed perfectly. Tasty dish. The vegetable rolls were average to me, wanted California rolls but apparently their "California rolls" consist of shrimp and avocado(!). I've heard of restaurants making minor variations in roll ingredients, but never in my life has California roll varied from a fake/real crab wrap. They kept the name and deliver a shrimp and avocado roll... that's so bizarre.
Waiter never came by after dropping by the food, nice enough guy but I think the others were probably regulars and more important to him. I had hoped for a little more than the dime-sized speck of wasabi, but made it work.
Finally got the check and laid out some money, but after 10 minutes or so I surmised that payment is "self serve" here- you gotta take it up yourself. Huge line of people paying by credit cards individually, but finally got it done and got out of there WAY later than I had wanted.
I guess for a cow town like Fortuna this is probably considered one of their better places. It's an odd area, many places like this restaurant charge San Francisco prices (and often much more), but the rent, labor, regulations and other costs have got to be considerably less than SF. If you are absolutely craving Japanese style food then this place will get you by. But it's such a mystery what they are up to.