Saturday, March 17, 2007

King of the Roll

The worst dining experience in a long time.
The King of the Roll in Larkspur delivered on that. Very run down, and unkempt, it boasts fast service on sushi to go.

Miso & cucumber salad

Since it was beautifully warm about 6 p.m. when we arrived, we decided to sit at the outside tables in the back. We passed by a very messy table which had not been cleared, and which wasn't even cleared when we left at nearly 8 p.m. The waitress took our drink order promptly, and then it took forever for our food order to be taken, in fact, it was taken by a second person. After a little bit longer, our miso soup and cucumber salad arrived in good form.

Tempura Vegetables Dinner

My father was unimpressed with his tempura vegetables. Large serving, but very greasy.

Oyako (!) NOT

I was shocked at what came ostensibly as "oyako don". I was astonished that anyone with any exposure to authentic Japanese food whatsoever could possibly consider this mess of a dish oyako don. It was simply a bad chicken teriyaki with a horrible and browned omelet mixed up disastrously with dashi, on the side over rice. Authentic oyako don consists of pieces of chicken gently simmered in dashi with scrambled egg and onion, which is very gently placed over the rice, and the egg is just barely set. It is delicate and balanced at its best. There is no teriyaki sauce involved.

Anna Roll

It was getting dark, and we were getting cold by the time the appetizer arrived, the Anna Roll. Some 'fast' sushi! Unbelieveable. Have you ever bitten into anything that has something so hard in it that it literally caused pain in your teeth? The coating on the shrimp tempura in the middle of this behemoth did just that. I had previously visited here and thought it simply mediocre. The visit gives it the status of truly terrible, and to be avoided.

3 comments:

Elle said...

Ooohh that sounds like a terrible place. Too bad. Good Japanese food is wonderful, as you well know.

Unknown said...

Sorry you did not like it. I have been there many times for the sushi and sashimi and always found it to be very fresh and tasty. Next time, Try the sushi.

Anna Haight said...

Hi mma,

I did have the sushi, and I was appalled. Check out the yelp reviews, there are some who like it for the sushi - but most are aware that it is not very traditional sushi at all. If you like unnaturally large, American-style sushi you may like this. In Japan such rolls too-full of rice in proportion to the topping/filling is considered cheap/bad and that's where I learned my taste for sushi. There are quite a few on yelp that call out its shortcomings in harsher detail and give it one star. I recently heard that it has good Chinese food, so I will likely return to try it. I would like to be able to find its redeeming features.