I was not looking forward to dinner at Sansei because our dinner there was really disappointing last year. We ordered all their “signature” dishes and it was a bunch of crazy-ass fried cream cheese filled sushi rolls or dishes topped with sickly sweet sauces. Icky.
Our friends really wanted to eat here this week so I relented and reluctantly agreed to go. I’ve been dictating where we’ve all been eating this vacay, so I suppose it was time I let someone else have a say. And boy, was I glad I did.
This time, we steered away from the stuff that was noted as crowd pleasers and simply chose items that looked delicious and not overly complicated. Here’s what we had:
Cajun seared white tuna sashimi with shaved Maui onion, red jalapeno and Yukke sauce:
Roasted Japanese eggplant with sweet miso-sake sauce:
Grilled Upcountry shiitake mushrooms with tangy soy-ponzu sauce:
Ahi tataki salad:
“Kenny G”: thinly sliced fresh sashimi grade shiromi with shiso, minced garlic, and masago in a tangy ponzu vinaigrette:
Delicious but what’s the deal with the name? How is this a homage to the easy listening smooth jazz King?
Shichimi Seared Fresh Atlantic Salmon and Tiger Prawn served with asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, and soy butter sauce:
The salmon (which wasn’t local) was a tad over-cooked but the soy butter sauce was pretty amazing.
If any of you are interested in totally blowing your Paleo diet, order the tempura fried ice cream. It’s vanilla ice cream wrapped in buttery pound cake, rolled in roasted macadamia nuts, flash-fried and served with chocolate sauce and whipped cream.
This dessert is the sole reason our friend wanted to eat here. It was not cheat-worthy in my book so I abstained.
Our meal was great and it cost HALF of what we paid the night before at Mama’s Fish House. The fish here is super fresh and I definitely preferred the raw preparations to the cooked ones. If you order before 6 pm, your bill is 25% off – so go be like an old lady and come in early!
