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.