Cuisine Review

There are the beginnings of a steadier march of restaurants into downtown. The excitement generated by the opening of the Battle House, RSA Tower, the renovation of the Riverview and Lafayette Plaza, and even the new steel mill announcement seem to have entrepreneurs even more optimistic about ventures downtown.

Samurai J, a sushi bar located on Dauphin Street across from Bienville Square, has been a popular restaurant in Daphne for some time. For the last year year they have worked methodically to renovate the Mobile location with much success.

Large comfortable booths make up the front of the space along with tables for two – both large groups and intimate couples are accommodated. The long sushi bar is to the rear of the space with a kitchen hidden in the far back. I have eaten here to good result quite a few times since their opening.

Service at any sushi bar can be slow, as preparation takes a dedicated effort and cannot be done quickly. At lunch and heavy evenings, they have had at a minimum two and a helpful third to move things along. But they do address this upfront in the menu with a statement that “sushi orders usually take at least 30 minutes and may not be served at the same time with other items.”

To demonstrate their popularity I can say that only once was the place not almost to capacity on any of my visits. The menu is divided into several sections – salads, appetizers, dinner, rolls and nigiri. They have combination meals, kid’s choices and desserts.

The salad offerings include a tuna tataki, thinly sliced tuna on top of mixed greens and house vinaigrette; seaweed salad that for $2.25 extra can come with crab, octopus, tuna and salmon); tofu salad which is served cold with ginger, green onions, and tempura sauce and either a spicy or not spicy squid salad. A frequent lunch mate of mine always scarfs down the squid salad ($5) – and while I do not eat squid, I trust by his zeal that it must be excellent.

The appetizers are numerous, and I have several times tried the sampler platter ($7), with two wasabi shumai (wasabi skin with pork and vegetables, quite hot), two pork gyoza dumplings, two vegetable gyoza and two harmuki (pork spring rolls). All are a perfect hunger stave off while you wait on the real deal. They do serve a miso soup that well, is just nothing in my opinion to waste stomach capacity on. I always, always, eat the sushi, but they have dinners for the rest of you that come with rice, soup and salad. A tempura platter ($13) with a panoply of vegetables and shrimp; chicken or beef teriyaki are demonstrative of this.

So, onto the sushi rolls. I counted 23 of them, along with 16 nigiri. On any of them, you can get a quail egg topping on request ($1.50, along with a warning about consuming raw egg). Not for me. The rolls are not large in scale, but are lengthy. To get an idea, three more than fill me up. They are one dip, one bite pieces. I will only cover the ones I have tried. First, about the quality of fish – it is on par with the best in town. On my visits, I have not detected anything but freshness and nice color. I love tuna rolls, and the tuna tempura ($5.85) and spicy tuna ($4.85) – I always order one or two of, and another lunch friend of mine recently got me to add avocado to the top, which added quite a new flavor.

At these prices, you are not taken to the cleaners, unless you are like me and eat copious amounts. The lobster roll ($7.50) is continually raved about, with fried lobster tail in a light tempura batter with avocado, cucumber, spicy sauce mango and kimchee sauce. Spicy salmon roll ($5.25) is served with spicy sauce and contains crunchies, mango and avocado and despite the fruit, is not too sweet but adds a soft balance.

My favorite roll is the dynamite ($6.50), with tuna, yellow tail, kimchee sauce, crunchies, mango and cayenne. It is quite a tasty combination. I have not seen the spider roll ($7), with soft shell crab, with avocado, cucumber, mango and spice sauce but I think it sounds worthy of trying. Yes, lots of the rolls have mango, a theme, but it works. There are plenty of veggie type rolls – the only one I have tried is the portabella mushroom roll ($3.40) that I while good, it does seem kind silly to order with all the seafood available. Eel, shrimp, a Philly roll, all the usual suspects are found here.

On the nigiri side, the pieces are substantial, and include roe, red snapper, octopus, scallop and the like.

Each day has two or three specials and close friend of mine went in the other day and had one of the special rolls of the day they feature. It was a white tuna with jalapeno and green peppers. He said that it was quite different and very good. The concept of wasabi and jalapeno together is not for the weak taste bud, though. Keep some tea handy (water is said to make spicier foods taste spicier).

On Monday and Tuesday evenings they have a shortened version of the roll menu with all-you-can-eat sushi for $20. The selection is only cut slightly and has standards with a couple of favorites such as the dynamite. You begin with three rolls, and have to eat these three before getting another, one at a time. I went with three others and we tried our best, but could not eat more than three. And, it was packed on a Monday night – so good to see anywhere, much more downtown.

They are open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday “until” and the same on Saturday. Saurai J is located at 167 Dauphin St., and at 1410 U.S. Hwy. 98 Suite J in Daphne.

Kinnon Phillips is Lagniappe cuisine editor. Contact him at kphillips@lagniappemobile.com.

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