Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Not quite the restaurant experience I wanted




Betty and I are longtime fans of Tokyo Café, a Japanese sushi house/restaurant that burned a couple of years ago. This seems to be my Phoenix week but the café re-opened a couple of nights ago, risen from its own ashes. She and I both know better—don’t go for two weeks when a restaurant opens or re-opens to great hoopla.  But we ignored our wiser selves and dragged poor Jacob into our folly.

Tokyo Café was always a quiet place with no wait and very little noise. Not tonight—we got there at six and were seated at seven, with Jacob moaning about how hungry he was. I finally said I’d endure the wait a lot better with wine and gave Betty my credit card. She’s not aggressive and was in line at the bar for a good whole but the magic worked as I hoped—we got a table while she was getting wine. She came back breathless, having spent $29 on two glasses of wine (I was astounded too though it was good wine).

Jacob ordered edamame as I knew he would, and Betty surprised me by ordering stir-fried rice. I came for sushi, and sushi I would have—but who knew it all had cream cheese in it. My Philadelphia roll was good but married by my conscience working about the cream cheese and wishing I had remember to specify soy wrap instead of seaweed. So I was a little hungry when I got home. Betty loved her rice, but Jacob as not enthusiastic abbot the edamame—stir-fried in a soy sauce and he didn’t like the “brown stuff.”

Jacob was a charmer tonight. When I asked if he’d carry my purse, he said, “No, Juju. I have t get you in and out of the car.” And he did. He and Betty had high old discussions, most of which I couldn’t hear because the pace was so noisy.

All in all, it was not our best dining adventure and not a good advertisement for a restaurant that we really like. Wait a couple of weeks and try it—you’ll have a different and better experience than we did.

And us? We’ve been compiling a list of easily accessible spots. See you around.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about your old stand by Uncle Julio's? It's noisy in the inside, but the patio is great. Not to mention the past geniuses and beautiful, handsome people that have worked there in the past, where you can also re-live old memories (all glass, no rim on that ice cube).

judyalter said...

Love it. I treasure those memories, don't getthere much anymore