Continued GR Hibachi Obsession- Kobe & Shang Hai Ichiban

Talk about night and day.

I was really excited.  I heard terrible word of mouth about Kobe on 44th St.  I thought about it, and decided to discard the information and form my own opinion.  I saddled up the Bug, and hit the road for a 25-minute drive on a Sunday evening to investigate.  I planned to order exactly the same food I reviewed at Wild Chef.

Eager to compare, I was first hit with ridiculous Michigan lefts after passing the entrance, which is unmarked.  I think I wasted a quarter tank of gas just trying to get there.  And I'm only referring to 44th St and their parking lot.

Upon entering, the hostess told me I couldn't sit at the bar.  They weren't serving drinks.  Only, I really could sit at the bar, I just couldn't order sushi.  Unless I wanted to talk to "the three girls."  I was so confused.  There's a sushi bar.  There's another room with a bar/bar (which says "sushi bar" over the outside door).  Both were visibly unmanned.  Both were covered in plastic/paper.  Extremely uninviting.   I finally did clarify the "drinks" and "beer/wine" on Sunday thing for her.  Blue laws.  Seriously?  Yes.  Still, both environments screamed "WHY IS THIS RESTAURANT EVEN OPEN?!"  Even though the hibachi tables had customers.

I chose the sushi bar.  When the waitress came, I was informed that I couldn't get hibachi rice unless I sat at a hibachi table.  I clarified that I wanted sushi and rice to go, and again, was told I could not where I was seated.  That was IT.  This was the worst service with the most rules and ridiculously unwelcoming situation I had ever encountered in attempting to spend my hard-earned money.  I walked out, "This is seriously the weirdest restaurant experience I have ever had."  I partially blame the under-exposed high-school staff.  I never got to the point to try the food.

Frustrated yet hungry and obsessed, I took off for Shang-Hai Ichiban on Broadmoor, another 25 minutes away.

Fearfully, I opened the humongous, fore-boding door, and walked into... an oasis.

Despite being empty, both the sushi bar and bar-bar were open.  The gorgeous flowered fountain was burbling clear running water, flowing smoothly over a rock-fall.  It sounded as pretty as it looked.  Note: their hibachi tables were also patronized.

The bartender, while busy, treated me as if I were his only customer.  He artfully made suggestions to up-sell the menu.  I went for it, with substitutions, which he skillfully cleared with the kitchen.  This place was starting to feet like heaven.  He was so smooth, I'm not even sure what I ordered.  Except that it was 8 pieces of select sushi, plus a roll, for $20.

The yellowtail melted in my mouth.  As did the salmon.  And the eel.  For kicks, I gave the chefs creative license and got squid sushi.  The spicy tuna roll was equally delicious.  Everything was as it should be, if not better.  I couldn't have been happier.  The fried rice tasted more like Chinese fried rice.

Like many sushi restaurants in Michiagn, Ichiban was originally established by Koreans.  Not surprisingly, it was purchased and is now run by Chinese.

Grand Rapidians-New Wild Chef on Alpine

Ok.  I know I should be going to Art Prize.  But there's a NEW Wild Chef restaurant on Alpine, and I couldn't help but explore it on my way home from buying dog food at Pet Supplies Plus.  Not to mention, the sign said, "Happy Hour!  Hibachi for 2- $19.95.  3-6pm."  That's a serious deal!!!! Being half Dutch, I squealed around and pulled in (even though I am 1).

I sat at the "sushi" bar.  The bartender, Russel, was also the manager.  I asked him how many "Wild Chef"s there were, and he replied, "Four."
"Where?," I asked.
"Here."
We both burst out laughing as we recognized the misunderstanding.  There is one other location, in Holland. (Turns out he went to Hope College, but is from Ann Arbor, and just moved to GR with his fiance).  That explains the worthwhile conversation.   I learned a few things that I was wondering about.

1.  The price of fish has gone up!  This affects our sushi prices.  Why did it go up?  He wasn't sure.  I shall investigate further, later, but I suspect the Gulf may have something to do with it.  Although he mentioned tuna and salmon, specifically.

2.  Hibachi chefs are like mercenaries.  They all claim they are from New York.  They start out learning how to cook the food in the kitchen, specific to that restaurant.  They also practice "back stage" for their debut.  They generally suck, and get fired within a month.  Then they move on to another restaurant.  Lather, rinse, repeat.   (Hint:  Judge your Hibachi chef by their egg talent).

Ok, so the review.  The martini was LARGE and delicious.  The seaweed salad was a Japanese delicacy served in an American portion- ridiculously HUGE.   I love seaweed, and could have split the salad with like 5 people.   The hamachi (yellowtail) sushi was pretty delicious.  The salmon (crap- I forgot the Japanese word) was eh, ok.  They put salmon roe on top, which was a step above and beyond as far as garnish, but I hate salmon roe.  The pieces were of good size.   The sushi chef gave me a spicy crab salad on the house, just trying to win over new customers, I suspect.  Very nice.  I ordered hibachi rice-- to go.  I tried it when I got home.  It was pretty flavorless compared to the Kalamazoo hibachi restaurants I frequented, such as Kumo and Sakura.  Definitely second rate.  Overall, the presentation and service went above and beyond.  Quite enjoyable and impressive.  The food was...mmm, not bad.  I want to jump up and dance about it, but really, can only say it was so-so.  Still, I am very happy for a Japanese restaurant on this side of town.





  

Bloggity blog blog

I am about to embark on the world of blogging.   Why?  I'm not quite sure yet.  It's kind of like a public journal, isn't it?  Probably because I live alone.   And television gets boring (except Bravo, but they only air like one new episode a day).   My dogs almost speak English.  It's taken them four years to learn, but they're getting pretty good at understanding what I mean.

I used to live for music.  However, I am uninspired where I live.  Shopping on the internet mostly pisses me off because you can only access a snippet.  We used to be able to cut through an entire record to grasp song structure.  I miss that part of the process.   I also used to hang out with a lot of people who cared about it.  Not these days.  Listening to music alone isn't nearly as much fun.  Even though I used to do a lot of it in high school.  I mean, what's the point?  It doesn't even matter if someone else doesn't remember it with you.   I don't think...  I recently was chatting with someone, a dj who told me artist and title on the dance floor of Groove Jet in 1996,  to try to remember what the song was.  I even left a message on his voice mail, trying to sing it.  I could somehow grasp the obscure electronic melody line briefly.  It was our memory, and a good one!  He couldn't be bothered, and replied, "no clue."   Why did I bother to listen then and remember it now??  What good is having an amazingly rare record, or even a popular one, if there's nobody to share it with?

Well, every now and then I have a funny thought.  Not at the moment, though.  I think I'm getting blogfright.   Do they make a pill for that?