Dinner Review
The lovely kimberlogic and the charming xlii invited me out to eat at Osushi in Copley Square tonight (http://www.osushirestaurant.com/) to help them use up a couple of Groupons. We had a delightful if rather experimental meal. The waitress came back with questions twice, once about something I can't remember, but that I think they were out of, and the second time about my Maguro Spring Roll (see below).
Things arrived as they were finished in the tiny kitchen. So we started with the house salad, which was nice but nothing special. Then my Maguro Spring Roll thingy arrived. Raw tuna, kani, mango, cucumber sticks, and rice noodles wrapped in rice paper. It utterly failed to work. Not that it tasted bad; but it's a bunch of mild-flavored things that didn't come together. Even a slightly spicy peanut sauce didn't help. It was also too big to eat comfortably - they could have made a longer, more easily consumed roll with the same amount of food. Or even used less cucumber and noodles, which were bulky.
The green tea expertly brewed from a tasty toasted variety and treated as bottomless (so I'm not sure WHEN or IF I will sleep tonight).
The edamame was perfect.
Next was my cha-soba, which was supposed to be a salad with chilled green tea infused soba noodles topped with kaiware and mizuna in a chilled dashi soup, but! I didn't actually get the kaiware (sprouted daikon radish seeds) nor the mizuna (mustard leaves), just the house salad on top instead (they asked if it would be OK & I acquiesced, unsure of what I was missing until I came home and looked it all up on the Intarwebs). There was a Tempura-cooked chunk of frisee (I think) on top. The noodles were a little over-cooked, but the dashi was yummy. The mix of the noodles, the greens, and the dashi together on my soup spoon worked, but I'd like to try it again sometime with the intended greens.
Next, our sushi arrived. I had Osushi's Milan roll with asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, topped with fresh prosciutto and truffle aioli. It was... odd. Experimental. Interesting. There were about 9 or so pieces, so I was switching between it and other food, but I had to stop switching and just eat that. So by the end, I was used to it and in a more savory mood such that I enjoyed it. It also helped to flip the pieces upside-down and make sure the truffle aioli hit my tongue first. BUT, it sure as hell didn't mix with the sushi well.
I tried kimberlogic's TNT (?) roll, which was a nice blend of salmon and toasted sesame seeds and other tasty things. I also tried xlii's Dragon Roll, which was of a yummy, if standard variety. Definitely the smaller maki roll style, rather than the Special Roll style. My dining companions seemed to enjoy their other rolls as well.
The hamachi kama was excellent. It's kimberlogic's favorite and I often have a bit when I eat with her because I like it well enough and to help her finish it, but this was buttery perfect with a very nice ponzu sauce. Apparently it showed up late (the waitress explained) because when the chef made it the first time, it was overdone, so he made another one (without us ever knowing, even!) for the table.
We finished with four mochi, each cut in half for sampling. They were mango, red bean, green tea, and strawberry flavored. Quite good.
Osushi's fish was of excellent quality and the service charming. But they're apparently well-known for their drink menu, which we did not sample, but which might've improved our opinion of them. Overall, Osushi is interesting and willing to experiment, but they ran out of some things and failed the experiment with other things.