Sushi Taro @ Restaurant Week 2011

The original plan was to write about the restaurants I tried from my West Coast Trip before writing about RW, but this is one review I can't wait to blog about, so I have to swap the order for this one time.  Usually I wouldn't prefer eating out right after a trip, since you eat out on every meal when you are traveling, so I am kinda craving some homemade cooking.  I don't think I can do it for any other restaurant, but for Sushi Taro, most definitely! Believe it or not, I actually dreamed about dining at Sushi Taro the night before, that's how excited I was. Sushi Taro - definitely my favorite Japanese restaurant and might even be my favorite restaurant overall.

Even though it has already been 3 years since they changed the restaurant model at Sushi Taro, I still miss the old Sushi Taro all the time.  I remember the last month before they closed the old Taro, I went there every week for dinner, with different people of course, it was so good that I can never get sick of it. The always perfect yakitori, spicy scallop roll, the tamagoyaki with the Sushi Taro stamp, and mouth watering sashimi; I even miss the tatami!  Never had a bad dinner there, Sushi Taro never disappoints.

Enough reminiscing, unlike the old Sushi Taro, today's Taro focus on tasting menu, got rid of all the "cheaper dishes" and concentrate on authentic Japanese style cuisine.  The sashimi is still the freshest I have ever had, the dishes were still prepared with high quality, the only difference is... I can no longer stuff 20 yakitori to my face. Darn it!  I still enjoy going there for their weekday lunch (very affordable), and of course for RW. Today, I found out about their HH special, which I need to plan a visit very soon.

Appetizer Tasting

Staring from left to right, jelly coated vegetables, tuna and yellow tail sashimi, and cold soba with duck.  One of my food buddies didn't like the jelly coated vegetables, she thought it was weird, but I actually thought it was ok.  The sashimi, as always, encore is the only word I want to say, and the duck soba was very good as well.  All three tasting dishes were cold, but it's a refreshing start for the meal.

Grilled black cod marinated with soy sauce

braised pork belly in sweet soy sauce

The braised pork belly was actually one of the dishes on their old menu, which I always order. So I already know it's going to be really good, therefore I ordered it for my entree.  It's tender and marinated well, you can just poke it with your chopsticks, and the meat will fall right off.  Grilled cod was another choice for the warm dish, but I didn't try it, however my food buddy who got that as her dish was the first to clean the plate.

Special 4 with spicy tuna roll

Special 4 with Rainbow Roll

with Spider Roll

We were given the choice of 7 regular cut of sashimi (tuna, salmon, shrimp, eel, yellowtail, white fish, omelette), 5 Japanese cut of sashimi (octopus, mackerel, tuna, sweet raw shrimp, snapper), or 4 special or I call the finest cut of sashimi (fatty tuna, king salmon, waygu beef, salmon caviar or sea urchin).  All of us went for the finest cut, and every piece of the special 4 is to die for.  You can't go wrong with any sashimi at Sushi Taro, you are guarantee the freshest stuff already, so if you want more pieces and sea urchin or raw beef sashimi is too extreme for you, feel free to get the Japanese cut or regular cut. The spider roll and rainbow roll are additional cost, but worth the additional cost, we ordered one of each and split it.  If you never had any sashimi that are really fresh which has a hint of sweetness to it, and it's really soft to the point that it melts in your mouth, you can come to Sushi Taro, and this will be what you will experience. It's so satisfying, it's beyond words can describe. 

Mango ice cream

Green tea ice cream

A sweet ending to the meal, I would say both are excellent, go with your personal preference. 


The 2 hours meal went by too fast for me, I was full but I wanted more.  It is like every time when I walk down those stairs from Sushi Taro, I want to turn back already.  


Sushi Taro, I shall return very soon!


Sushi Taro


Coming Up: West Coast Trip