These plates are made for sharing, a comment voiced on the menu itself as well as by the servers, and while I could have easily hoarded a couple of these plates to myself, I have to agree. The best method for enjoying the many options is to embrace the tapas-style serving and share, share, share. This would be a great place to come if you have different dietary needs in your party, too. Lots of veggie-friendly options for those that don't want to eat the animals.
We started off with a beer flight of three selections, Surly Bender, Hitachino, and Sapporo. Heavens, how have I never had Hitachino? Note to self for future excursions. The mixed drink list was enticing, too, with options incorporating lychee fruit and other yummy things. Someone needs to report back on those. Or, maybe I need to report back.
We shared four dishes (aside from a scoop of Sebastien Joe's Surly Bender to finish things off): sashimi duo of salmon and tuna, takoyaki, spareribs, and shumai tempura (not pictured). The sashimi duo ($14) was just perfect, and provided a larger portion than I expected. I would happily have that and a bowl of soup for lunch sometime, preferably sitting in the sunshine-ready tables outside.
My favorite of the evening, takoyaki ($6), is a ball of battered octopus with Japanese mayo, Tonkatsu sauce, aonori (blue seaweed), and bonito flakes (thin dried flakes of smoked bonito fish). It sounds like an awful lot to be going on in one little ball, but man, it's perfect. Steaming hot when you take that first bite, the octopus flavor and mayo are a perfect combination of salt and sweet.
The shumai tempura ($6.5), shrimp dumplings, were an excellent next step in the meal. And the fact that I enjoyed them speaks volumes considering I'm really not a tempura fan usually. Some tempura batter is just too heavy, masking whatever is underneath. But this had a very thin coating of tempura and you never lost that fresh shrimp texture and flavor. The house-made ponzu sauce should be bottled and sold.
We finished off with the heaviest plate of the meal, the miso pork spareribs ($6), braised in a white miso with daikon. By the time we received this dish I was pretty full, so my friend had the luck of eating two ribs to my one, lucky duck. These were deliciously tender but with just enough oomph left in them to keep them attached to the rib (I don't like that "falling off the bone" business). The white miso was light and soft, and my friend, who normally dislikes miso, raved.
The service, too, matched the expert dishes. We let the server know we were headed to a show and she and the rest of the waitstaff, made sure we had plenty of time for each dish with a comfortable window to walk the 2 blocks to the Guthrie. And we even figured out (for next time) that the parking across from Zen Box is significantly cheaper than the ramps across from the theater. All the more reason to make this your next stop before taking in a show!
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