Glenn S. Tenney KCTJ CISSP
2003-07-31 23:31:39 UTC
Masu -- Japanese Bistro
79 East 3rd Ave; San Mateo; 650-342-5254
(on 3rd, the first block "east" of El Camino, on the "north" side of
3rd, a couple of doors down from Amici's Pizza)
Just opened on July 15th. Their special thing is: All you can eat for
lunches at $9.95 ordered from their lunch menu (not a buffet). I asked
and they say that this is their regular lunch thing -- not an opening
special.
You order any two items (per person) when you finish those, you then can
keep ordering one item per person until you wish to stop. Each item
(except for the miso, salad, rice, and drinks) is made for you when you
order it -- it is not a buffet. Their menu included free items (sodas,
tea, soup, rice, salad), cooked dishes (chicken, beef, salmon teriyaki;
shrimp tempura, udon, nabe), and LOTS of rolls. Didn't see any nigiri
on the lunch menu, though. Fried rolls (gyoza roll, spider roll, etc.
etc.), cooked rolls (unagi, etc.), raw fish rolls, large selection of
vegie rolls...
When we were there earlier this week for our first time we had: chicken
teriyaki (quite good), and shrimp tempura (also quite good) -- both were
more of an appetizer serving than a meal (e.g. 3 shrimp for the tempura,
and the teriyaki plate included a couple of pieces of pickles, some
cabbage, and a piece of veggie). We had some rolls too: spicy hamachi,
spicy tuna, "Lion King" (shrimp, crab, asparagus), unagi, garlic
albacore. All were good, but too much cucumber to my tastes (I'd
prefer mostly none). The garlic albacore reflects their Korean
background and was very good -- I like strong garlic! The Lion King
was too nouvelle for us -- decorative drizzle of mayo on top! Wouldn't
choose it again, but it wasn't bad. Mayo on sushi?
You can easily have miso, salad, udon, tempura, and a few rolls all for
$9.95. Not bad at all -- and it's not a buffet!
I'd definitely go back there... and did today.
Today we had: they started by serving miso and salad (they didn't last
time, but I gather they're supposed to), salmon teriyaki (my wife liked
it), beef teriyaki (ok, but we both prefered the chicken), a roll with
unagi / hamachi / avocado (sigh... avocado in sushi...), spicy hamachi
roll (I tried to see if they would leave out the cucumber this time, but
NO), spider roll (tasted like the crab was fried a little while ago and
not right before using ... it included some real crab and some fake
crab... and lots of cucumber), salmon skin roll, and the garlic tuna
roll.
Every roll had way way too much cucumber, even when you wouldn't expect
the roll to have any cucumber. It seems that they're trying to fill you
up with cucumber... On the final roll (the garlic tuna) we picked the
cuke out -- every piece had three good sized slivers of cuke (my wife
said it was the good expensive cuke, but we agreed it was TOO much). We
also felt that the rolls were not "professionally" made -- most rolls
didn't stay rolled together and often had lopsided rice (one side of a
roll would be very thick, while the opposite side was normal).
Service is still a bit uneven -- sometimes they're right there asking if
you want to order something else, and other times your tea cup is empty
and you have to try to catch someone's eye.
So, after two tries I'd still go back for lunch there. You can easily
get enough good teriyaki, tempura, and a couple of rolls to be well
worth $10. We found the roll choices to not be "traditional", a bit
too "California", and overall just average quality. Much better than
some boat places I've been to, but much inferior to many good sushi
places I've been to...
Overall grade: "C", but an "A" as a price performer.
79 East 3rd Ave; San Mateo; 650-342-5254
(on 3rd, the first block "east" of El Camino, on the "north" side of
3rd, a couple of doors down from Amici's Pizza)
Just opened on July 15th. Their special thing is: All you can eat for
lunches at $9.95 ordered from their lunch menu (not a buffet). I asked
and they say that this is their regular lunch thing -- not an opening
special.
You order any two items (per person) when you finish those, you then can
keep ordering one item per person until you wish to stop. Each item
(except for the miso, salad, rice, and drinks) is made for you when you
order it -- it is not a buffet. Their menu included free items (sodas,
tea, soup, rice, salad), cooked dishes (chicken, beef, salmon teriyaki;
shrimp tempura, udon, nabe), and LOTS of rolls. Didn't see any nigiri
on the lunch menu, though. Fried rolls (gyoza roll, spider roll, etc.
etc.), cooked rolls (unagi, etc.), raw fish rolls, large selection of
vegie rolls...
When we were there earlier this week for our first time we had: chicken
teriyaki (quite good), and shrimp tempura (also quite good) -- both were
more of an appetizer serving than a meal (e.g. 3 shrimp for the tempura,
and the teriyaki plate included a couple of pieces of pickles, some
cabbage, and a piece of veggie). We had some rolls too: spicy hamachi,
spicy tuna, "Lion King" (shrimp, crab, asparagus), unagi, garlic
albacore. All were good, but too much cucumber to my tastes (I'd
prefer mostly none). The garlic albacore reflects their Korean
background and was very good -- I like strong garlic! The Lion King
was too nouvelle for us -- decorative drizzle of mayo on top! Wouldn't
choose it again, but it wasn't bad. Mayo on sushi?
You can easily have miso, salad, udon, tempura, and a few rolls all for
$9.95. Not bad at all -- and it's not a buffet!
I'd definitely go back there... and did today.
Today we had: they started by serving miso and salad (they didn't last
time, but I gather they're supposed to), salmon teriyaki (my wife liked
it), beef teriyaki (ok, but we both prefered the chicken), a roll with
unagi / hamachi / avocado (sigh... avocado in sushi...), spicy hamachi
roll (I tried to see if they would leave out the cucumber this time, but
NO), spider roll (tasted like the crab was fried a little while ago and
not right before using ... it included some real crab and some fake
crab... and lots of cucumber), salmon skin roll, and the garlic tuna
roll.
Every roll had way way too much cucumber, even when you wouldn't expect
the roll to have any cucumber. It seems that they're trying to fill you
up with cucumber... On the final roll (the garlic tuna) we picked the
cuke out -- every piece had three good sized slivers of cuke (my wife
said it was the good expensive cuke, but we agreed it was TOO much). We
also felt that the rolls were not "professionally" made -- most rolls
didn't stay rolled together and often had lopsided rice (one side of a
roll would be very thick, while the opposite side was normal).
Service is still a bit uneven -- sometimes they're right there asking if
you want to order something else, and other times your tea cup is empty
and you have to try to catch someone's eye.
So, after two tries I'd still go back for lunch there. You can easily
get enough good teriyaki, tempura, and a couple of rolls to be well
worth $10. We found the roll choices to not be "traditional", a bit
too "California", and overall just average quality. Much better than
some boat places I've been to, but much inferior to many good sushi
places I've been to...
Overall grade: "C", but an "A" as a price performer.
--
Glenn Tenney KCTJ CISSP
The email address has been altered for display since spam
is not allowed here, but you can figure it out...
Glenn Tenney KCTJ CISSP
The email address has been altered for display since spam
is not allowed here, but you can figure it out...