Could have been...

Another stop on the road down the Coast of Central California, in San Luis Obispo for an early dinner with Colin. We spied Sushi Kokku and thought it looked promising.

In fact, we were quite impressed by the clean and cheery interior.

The first sign of trouble was when it was evident that the edamame had been cooked in saltless water, then sprinkled over the top with salt. These perfectly good ingredients could have been well integrated if the salt had just been placed in the water before boiling the edamame. (Maybe these were nuked?) These failed the taste test as the little seeds you pop into your mouth were quite bland without benefit of salt.

I ordered 'Sushi in a Bowl' which was very reasonably priced at $9.25. I thought yeah! chirashi sushi! But alas, it was sashimi over steamed rice, sushi in a bowl - NOT! The fish was fresh and delicious, the rice -- whoah! No vinegar. Do you think the person compiling this just took the rice from the wrong pot? The other strange note was that between the fish and rice was a layer of cole slaw dressed in a sesame dressing. It would have been good by itself, but not in this combination. The dish made me wonder if anyone who had any connection with Japan at all had concocted it. It was so weird, I had to call my friends on the drive away and check their reaction. Yep, universally the reaction was - 'disgusting'. I think it's all in the expectation.

Colin ordered a couple rolls, the first, a Philly Roll with the requisite cream cheese. He said it was good.

Next up for Colin was a Dragon Roll, and I tasted a bit of it. The trouble with Americanized rolls is that they are usually sauced up before hitting the table, so it was difficult to tell if the rice had vinegar in it. It tasted pretty good. To sum it up, the ambiance was there, the fresh ingredients were there, but the savior faire was missing. Just a little fine tuning and this place could be great.