Restaurant Review: Momiji
You all know that I freaking love sushi, but I am also ridiculously cheap. Momiji satifies both of these desires. Hubby and I went a few weeks ago on a Wednesday to enjoy some of their half price sushi! This place is hidden in a strip center between the Loew’s and 183 where 183 and 45 intersect. I drove all through the parking lot before I found it tucked in over there.
The half price sushi goes Sunday through Thursday. Not all the rolls are half price, but the ones on the list are definitely worth it. It’s not like only a sad skinny California roll is half off. There are tons of them. Unfortunately, they seem to have messed up their web page, so you’ll just have to trust me. They also have a different item on special each night of the week. Wednesday was $3 for a bottle of hot sake. I could care less, but Hubby was all over that stuff. I think it tastes like nail polish remover, but I don’t judge.
We definitely stuffed ourselves (enjoying every bite), and spent around $30-35. It’s definitely possible to spend less and still enjoy yourself, but as always we decided to experiment and try some things we hadn’t had before. I think we had some kind of giant clam or something? It was good, but next time I’ll stick to the classics. The place is really adorable too, with lots of parasols hanging from the ceiling. I guess I’ll have to go back and take pictures…
I’m a bit disturbed by the trend of Americanized sushi. This stuff is supposed to be healthy, so all these tempura and cream cheese creations, while tasty, are kind of missing the point. Leave it to Westerners to fatten up on raw fish and rice, and pay out the wazoo for it. Someone give me money so I can go to Japan and eat authentic sushi for comparison. I promise to blog about it after. This is the season of giving, after all.
Restaurant Review: Osaka Mansun
When Hubby got a job, I told him we’d go out to his favorite place, Osaka Mansun on Anderson Mill in Austin. He’s been there 3 months now, and we still hadn’t gone, plus Hubby got a raise today (YAY!!), so I decided it was finally time.
This place is tiny, but awesome. They have Japanese and Korean food. I had never had Korean before we went there, and I love it! Our favorite is the Dolsot Bibimbap, which is a huge, sizzling clay pot with rice, veggies, and meat in it. They crack a raw egg into it, and you stir it around, and the egg and rice cook from the heat of the bowl. You end up with a layer of crispy rice all the way around the inside. It comes with a dozen tiny side dishes, like kimchi.
I’m not sure what you’re SUPPOSED to do with all of them, but I eat some, and throw some in my bowl. There’s also this red chili sauce, “Korean style” as the waitress said, that you stir in. It’s spicy, flavorful and delicious. I’m going to try and find it at an Asian grocery store around here.
This is the regular Bimimbap, not the Dolsot
James got the same thing as me, but the Spicy Squid version. I have never seen something that looked so much like sci-fi food, and I am so sad I didn’t take pictures. There were literally pink tentacles sticking out of his bowl like it was trying to escape. The tentacles were very tasty and not all chewy like I’d expected.
We also got some sushi I hadn’t had before. We got the Shogun, which was a baked sushi. I’m not sure what all was inside, but it was wrapped in salmon, then baked, then coated in some kind of sweet, savory sauce. It was good, and very heavy. You could have that roll by itself for a meal. We also got the cowboy, which had tempura shrimp, avocado, mango, cucumber, and rice, all wrapped in rice paper instead of seaweed. I liked this one even more.
We also got a crunchy California roll, which is one of my favorites! Crab meat with avocado inside, tempura bits and eel sauce on top. Fantastic! We got the shogun and cowboy together because James thought it was funny.
The Korean bowls are only about 10 bucks each at dinner time. Considering how much you get, that’s very good, and I’d rather spend that much here than at Chili’s or something. If you want sushi it’ll cost more, but I like the fact that you don’t HAVE to have sushi to have a good meal.
Lots of our friends have more money than we do, so sometimes it’s challenging hanging out with them. They’ll want to go places on an everyday basis that I would have to save for special occasions. If you have a friend like this who loves Asian food, this place could be a good solution for you. All in all, I got to try some foods I’d never had before, and it was fun.
