Amelia L.
Yelp
This fast casual restaurant just opened this week. The space is nicely laid out with a small waiting area by the door, dining room area, small section for Japanese snacks and restaurant merch, and counter for ordering and displaying the food. The menu simply consists of rice/noodle bowl that can be customized with healthy grilled toppings and fried toppings.
For the Pick your own bowl ($16.50), you choose a base (Jasmine Rice, mixed grain or ramen noodle), your protein (chicken, flank steak, grilled shrimp or cheesy tonkatsu) and toppings. The price also includes either a drink (Matcha Latte, Ginger Honey, Hibiscus Lemonade) or Miso soup.
I got my rice bowl with Jasmine rice, grilled shrimp, eggplants, mushrooms, Brussel sprouts and topped with fried shallots. I also got fried gyoza, sweet potato fries, Kakiage and soft-shell crab. These sides were each $3.50.
There was a bit of a wait since the protein is cooked to order. The base, toppings and fried sides were already made. Surprisingly, they did not add too much teriyaki sauce to the bowl. Only the shrimp which was grilled had the sauce. I think I'm more accustomed to the thick, cloyingly sweet teriyaki sauce that one gets at the food court mall. The one here is more light and subtle. It was kind of nice to be able to taste each topping without the heavy flavor of the teriyaki sauce. I really enjoyed the grilled mushrooms and eggplants. As for the fried sides, my favorite was the Kakiage which reminded me of a very crispy latke. It paired pretty well with the grill shrimp rice bowl. If I had to choose again, I would probably skip getting the gyoza, sweet potato fries and soft shell crab. The gyoza was not fresh and was probably sitting there a while. The soft shell crab was just okay and they only gave two small pieces for $3.50. Same for the sweet potato fries. I think there was only about 6 pieces and while it tasted good, it didn't really go well with the rice bowl.
Nevertheless, I thought the rice bowl was very good, albeit somewhat on the expensive side. My total came to about $30 before tax and tip. That's because I went crazy and got the extra fried sides. Next time I visit, I want to spend some time checking out their Japanese snack section. I didn't get any on this visit but am planning on trying them out next time.