Zama - 19th and Walnut St

Chef Hiroyuki “Zama” Tanaka started his 20 year sushi career by washing knives at a restaurant in the Kanagawa prefecture just outside of Tokyo.  After working his way up the ranks and becoming a sushi chef he immigrated to the states where he served in the kitchens of Morimoto, Pod and Genji.  This is a background you would be hard pressed to find in a city filled with Korean and Chinese run sushi restaurants.  And honestly, when it comes down to it, just like we like our suits to be Italian and electronics to be Apple, we like the idea of an actual chef from Japan being behind a sushi restaurant. There's a certain level of authenticity and inherit quality that we associate with who's making our stuff, whether warented or not.
So here we are at Zama, will the chefs background make a difference?

The dichromatic decor is modern, clean and impressive.  Wood slates cover the walls and line the booths. On the back ceiling there is this beautifully stylized Koi pond made out of dotted lights.  Quite a contrast to what this space looked like when it used to be Loie.

 1) Kurabuta Pork Dumplings - $8.00
Decided on doing something a little different from the usual edamame starter and went with the gyoza.  The topping of ginger and chives gave these a nice bite but there wasn't anything particularly amazing about these dumplings otherwise .  They were fried pretty hard, which I wasn't a fan of, but the pork stuffing was decent [6/10]

 2) Maki Combination - $16.00
Seriously, whats with this freaking plate?  It looks like a hub cap and an ugly one at that.  Plastic and turquoise and giant, it seemed out of place against the wood and black colors that fill the restaurant.
Luckily for this dish, this is not Iron Chef, and I don't give 15 points for plating so how were the rolls?  I would say both in size and quality they were excellent.   I really enjoyed the bite and crunch the jalapenos added in the yellowtail jalapeno mango maki.  [8/10]

 3) Sushi and Sashimi Combination - $24.00
And the underwhelming moment of the day goes to this dish.  The dull, lifeless appearance of the nigiri is not the fault of my iPhone's camera struggling with low light conditions. This really looked like this...They say we eat with our eyes first and what my eyes were eating at this moment was sushi sadness. Luckily, once in my mouth, they weren't as lifeless as I expected but still, this didn't make me feel good about paying $24 for this either. [6/10]

4) Asahi Select - $6.00 / Sapporo Light - $6.00
I really do enjoy the light, crisp, clean tastes of Japanese beer.  Always goes great with sushi.

Overall LTE score [7/10]  I have a hard time scoring these higher end restaurants.  On one hand, the food is good and probably deserving of at least some of the premium you pay but on the other hand you're spending a fortune and you expect to be blown away for it.  Did I enjoy my meal?  Yes.  Would I ever eat here regularly?  Not unless I were able to find a way to have an illegitimate child with Arnold Schwarzenegger. But at the end of the day, I feel like I generally take cost into account less and judge on how much I enjoyed my meal.  In the case of Zama, I left feeling like I had a good meal and the space I ate it in was beautiful.  Was the pedigree of having an accomplished Japanese chef running the kitchen worth the cost?  I didn't find that to be the case with this lunch.

http://www.zamarestaurant.com/

Vic Sushi Bar - 20th and Sansom St

Vic Sushi Bar
Continuing my trend of visiting restaurants in tiny spaces today I head over to one of the tiniest of sushi spots and also the closest and most convenient option, Vic Sushi Bar.  The name really does sum up the entirety of the operation. Its a sushi bar surrounded by maybe 8 seats and that's it.  If you want to sit down you better come early or really late cause these seats get occupied quickly.
The big draw of Vic's has always been, in relative terms, what I would consider cheap sushi.  They have a special that serves you any 3, 8 pieces rolls, out of a selection of over a dozen for $10.95.  That's less than 50cents a piece!  Now, like burning and house or rectal and probe, cheap and sushi are two words I usually don't want to hear together.  It conjures up images of being planted face first in a toilet bowl.  But as far as I'm concerned the fish here is as fresh as any of the other casual sushi places in the area.


1) i Roll - $13.95
Damn it, why do I have to be such an Apple fanboy.  I don't know what I was expecting.. maybe an effigy of Steve Jobs in roll form but that lowercase i had an unusual affect on my decision making.  As the words i Roll were coming out of my mouth faster than my eyes could comprehend its list of ingredients one in particular stood out only after it was too late...pineapple.  The roll comes with spicy tuna, white tuna, pineapple, avocado, masago, coconut jam all wrapped in soy paper.  What makes this "i" doesn't seem to have anything to do with the great purveyor of all things "i" but regardless I can safely say, just like pineapple on pizza, I don't like pineapple in my sushi.  I'm not a sweet and savory kind of guy. Its either one or the other and rarely do I enjoy the combination.  The pineapple was an unwelcome burst of sweetness in an otherwise savory and enjoyable roll.  This was an iMistake.. at least for my tastes. [5/10]

1) Crazy Roll - $13.95
My first roll left me unsatisfied so needing to satiate my pallet I asked for the Crazy Roll.  This item was on the white board so I don't believe it's part of their standard menu but it includes spicy tuna, avocado, lump crab on top with a wasabi mayo.  I think subconsciously I was calling myself crazy for ordering 2 of the specialty rolls that individually cost more than the 24 piece special but it was too late, this Toyota's accelerator was stuck on go.  Thankfully, this was a great roll. You really can't go wrong with crab and tuna.  I actually mix in lump crab meat when I make my tuna salad so it's a combo that I've always enjoyed.  [8/10]

3) 3 Roll Special - $10.95
Now the order that makes Vic Sushi Bar the default sushi destination.  Spicy tuna, yellow tail scallion and cucumber were the 3 selected for today's special.  Well made, fresh ingredients and cheap! [7/10]

Overall LTE score [7/10] 
As small as this place is it really does a good job of delivering quality sushi. While some of the rolls aren't my favorite the ingredients are always fresh(well the pineapple was probably from a can).  For your normal casual lunch the 3 roll special is a must.
Now this is just an observation but I've noticed the take out rolls are of a slightly inferior construction to what you would get sitting in.

Numa - 18th between Walnut and Chestnut St

Numa Sushi, itadakimasu

Eating Japanese food is usually an expensive endeavor.  Whether you get yours from a supermarket refrigerator or sit down at a restaurant these little pieces of raw fish encased in rice can put you into the poor house if you're not careful(exponentially more with the latter).  Numa on 18th St is no exception to this but even with the premium that comes with the sit down option we think it's worth it here. 

 1) Tempura Bento Box - $9
So all things considered these bento boxes are a pretty good deal.  The tempura portion comes with 2 pieces of shrimp, broccoli, mushroom, and sweet potatoes.  I wished there were a few more non veggie pieces but everything tasted great. The ginger salad dressing was very good, sometimes you can run into a watery problem with this dressing but no problems here.  The 3 cali roll sushi pieces were good as well but the fried gyoza lacked filling. [7/10]

 2) Maki Combo Special - $12
Well made rolls with good quality fish. I didn't think the plating was all that attractive but you can judge for yourself [7/10]

3) 16oz Sapporo - $7
Japanese beer + sushi = heaven.


Overall LTE score [7.5/10] One of our favorite sit down sushi places that doesn't completely break the bank but also serves quality product within a modern, clean space.  Doesn't hurt that a portion of their profits go to help a kenyan orphanage which the owner helps support.

Obento Japanese Lunch - 17th and Market St

O Bento and Catering?  More like O Crapo and Expensive! 

1) O Bento Sushi Bento Box, $12.99
The good: fish wasn't warm
The bad: sashimi pieces were the size of postage stamps, sushi pieces were even smaller, rice balls were dry, it was all mediocre and including a bottle of water my total came out to $15 and change.  Left still hungry, feeling ripped off with a hint of unsatisfied anger.  [1/10]

2) Soba Noodle Combo, $10.99
The bad: overcooked, tasteless, bland, bad.  The noodles were almost paste like, what kept them from melting back into the dough that they came from is a mystery.
the shrimp tempura, which looked huge and crunchy in the photos, was actually some anorexic cousin of the shrimp also soggy and oily.  didnt taste terrible though.  [1/10]

Overall LTE score [1/10]  1 point for not poisoning us