“I just can’t do sushi,” my Facebook friend Suzie in Arkansas posted. “It’s the redneck in me.”
Maybe. But even the most ardent sushi-hater could be rehabilitated at Dragon King’s Daughter, where Toki Masabuchi puts an international twist on the creative sushi delights that have built her a loyal following at Maido Essential Japanese in Clifton.
Continue reading Dragon King’s Daughter gives sushi a new twist
If you think of a Japanese restaurant, sushi may cross your mind, assuming you’re a reasonably adventurous diner. Not so adventurous? Then the fun of Japanese slice-and-dice chefs showing off their utensil-tossing techniques at hibachi tables may ring your gong.
Continue reading Mikato brings Japanese flair to old Napa River space
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LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
Does size matter? Some of the Metro’s tiniest restaurants rank among its most cozy and attractive. From this assertion I do not exclude New Albany’s iconic Little Chef, a 10-seat diner so small that it once wore wheels; or, for that matter, the trendy, crowded, noisy and compact new 732 Social on East Market Street, about which we’ll be telling you more anon.
This week, though, we turn to another Lilliputian favorite, Simply Thai, housed in the freestanding building at the corner of Wallace and Wilmington avenues in St. Matthews.
Succeeding a short-lived barbecue joint and a forgettable Chinese fast-food eatery, Simply Thai crams about eight tables into a small space, with a couple more patio tables out front.
Continue reading Tiny Simply Thai packs ’em in
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Not so long ago – well, back in the early ’80s – the only place in town to get sushi was a downtown diner, where a Japanese woman came in on Thursdays to produce a special sushi lunch for a small but ardent corps of cognoscenti.
A generation or so later, more than 20 eats emporia provide Japanese fare across the metro area, most of them boasting good to excellent sushi bars. You can even buy sushi boxes at local grocery stores.
Just about everybody in town, or every sushi lover anyway, has a favorite, and a roster of top spots (Kansai, Sake Blue, Raw Sushi Lounge, Jarfi’s Bistro and Z’s Fusion) showed off their wares last month at the annual Sushi in the City gala. The all-you-can-eat event and competition at the Henry Clay was for the benefit of the Family Scholar House of Louisville.
New restaurants carried off top honors, with a judging panel rating the entry from Z’s Fusion as Sushi of the Year. The audience, however, followed another favorite, voting the “People’s Choice” award to the city’s newest Japanese restaurant, Sake Blue.
Continue reading Sake Blue is on a roll – lots of rolls
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If you’re accustomed to grabbing a cup of coffee and knocking it back without much serious thought, you might find an occasional switch to tea a transformative experience.
Particularly if you choose to savor said cup in the contemplative environment of Zen Tea House in Clifton. Owned by longtime local restaurateur Huong “CoCo” Tran, Zen Tea House completes a neat trio of unusual Asian eateries on Frankfort Avenue, two doors down from her Zen Garden vegetarian restaurant and next door to her nephews’ Basa Modern Vietnamese.
From a rock garden in the small front yard of this Clifton bungalow to the curved, black tea bar that sweeps through the front room, Zen Tea House breathes a quiet, relaxing Asian style. The space is calming and, yes, Zen-like. Continue reading Peace and good eats at Zen Tea House
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| Vegetarian plate from the lunch buffet at Bombay Grill. Photos by Robin Garr |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
If you’ll pardon a brief personal digression, I’ve been mournful lately following the loss of my beloved yellow cat Pepito, who died last month after a short, vicious bout with a virulent feline cancer. I held him in my arms and cried as the vet gave him the injection that eased his pain and took him from us way too soon. He was only 10.
To be frank, after having watched the light fade from the bright eyes of my best friend, I went through a period when I really didn’t feel right about making my meal on anything that had once been part of a living animal with a mommy and a face.
A vegetarian food critic? Appealing, but probably impractical in a general-audience newspaper, even one as eccentric as LEO Weekly. Continue reading Harming no animals at Bombay Grill
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| Sage Indian, which replaces the short-lived India Palace on Oechsli Avenue, has mostly kept its menu – featuring standard Northern Indian dishes – the same. Photos by Robin Garr |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
This week let’s make quick visits to a couple of St. Matthews-area eateries where you can fill the tank for a reasonable price and go away satisfied.
Shady Lane Café, a homey storefront nook in Brownsboro Center, qualifies as “old,” sort of, by local restaurant standards: Owners and cooks William and Susi Smith have been doing business in this location going on two years now, and they’ve built a following the old-fashioned way, earning loyalty through a savvy combination of high-quality, down-home fare at a price that’s right, even when there’s not a recession going on. (See my report in the post below)
Sage Indian makes the grade as “new,” sort of: It arrived last month in the quarters vacated by the amiable but short-lived Royal India, which put up the shutters well under a year after it opened last winter.
Continue reading Something old, something new … sort of
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| A closer peek at just one portion of DakShin’s expansive daily lunch buffet. Photos by Robin Garr |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
Step into DakShin’s spacious, almost cavernous quarters, blink until your eyes adjust to the dim, and you might think you’ve found your way into an oddly named barbecue joint. Square, rough-hewn log walls frame heavy booths of oak; atop a wall at the back, looming above a large-screen television, rests the biggest canoe you have ever seen.
But take another look, and then a sniff. Elusive, aromatic scents of curry direct your palate away from barbecue. Check the television and you’ll find Bollywood-style MTV, piped in straight from India. The art on the walls is Indian, and so are the massive, colorful, Tiffany-look light fixtures that dangle from the high ceiling.
Continue reading DakShin Indian: A taste of a different South
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| Chef Yong Bong Tak has made Asahi a worthy addition to St. Matthews. The extensive menu includes more than 100 sushi options, including the “Hawaiian Roll” (across the top) and two pairs of nigiri sushi (bottom) – yellowtail (hamachi) on the left and mackerel (saba) on the right. Photos by Robin Garr |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
If the rate that new Japanese restaurants and sushi bars are coming to town these days continues unabated, I’ve calculated that by May 18, 2021, there should be an individual sushi bar for every citizen of the Derby City.
I’ve reviewed enough new local sushi spots in recent months that I’m starting to wonder if we should dub this column “LEO Weekly’s sushi report.” We’ve heralded the arrival of the high-tone hiko-A-mon in Westport Village; the family-style Hanabi out in Prospect; and the tiny but excellent Oishii Sushi in the Highlands.
Now welcome Asahi Japanese. Continue reading Say konnichiwa to Asahi, St. Matthews’ neighborhood sushi bar
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| Word of mouth has quickly built a good reputation for Oishii Sushi in the Highlands, and it’s drawing crowds with its friendly, outgoing sushi chefs and wide selection of sushi treats like these. Photos by Robin Garr. |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
A few weeks ago, I had occasion to nosh my way through Sushi In The City, a sociable fundraising event at which a random selection of local sushi bars (and a few other eateries) provided samples of their wares.
The experience was so tasty that it left me craving even more of the stuff, so in recent weeks, I’ve made it my business to check out a couple more recent arrivals on the metro sushi scene.
Some people are still a bit wary of sushi – the concept of eating raw fish does take some getting used to. But as I said in the previous report, 125 million Japanese can’t all be wrong, and enough of us have acquired the taste to support more than 20 good sushi restaurants around town.
Two more have arrived recently: Oishii Sushi in the Highlands opened last month and Hanabi Sushi & Japanese Cuisine in Prospect around the end of the year. A third arrival, Hiko A Mon in Westport Village, opened just last week, and I’ll take my chopsticks and get out there, too, one day soon.
Continue reading Sushi is good in the neighborhood