Spending four years in Japan I am no stranger to sushi and sashimi.  While in Japan I would have sushi at least once a week.  I have only eaten sushi a few times since returning to Albuquerque.  My experiences were not bad, but left something to be desired being so spoiled on the authentic stuff.

My wife Tanya and I have birthdays that are one day apart.  Mine is on the 8th of March while Tanya’s falls on the 7th.  We decided to celebrate both our birthdays by going out for dinner at Azuma Teppan and Sushi.  I called early Friday afternoon to make reservations for 7 p.m. that night.  We showed up at 6:50 and had to wait about 10 minutes to be seated.  Not too bad considering it was a Friday night.  The atmosphere was nice, not over done with lots of oriental decor.  Just enough to let you know you were in a Japanese restaurant.  The noise level was nominal, and we were able to have a conversation without having to raise our voices.

The dinner started out with problems.  We sat there for over 10 minutes without being asked for our drink order.  I ordered a Kirin Ichiban (Japanese beer) and Tanya ordered a glass of chardonnay.  When our waiter returned he had forgotten my beer but had kindly added a glass of water to Tanya’s order.  I finally got my drink and we proceeded to order an appetizer of gyoza and the "Love Boat" for our main course.  The Love Boat is a sushi and sashimi sampler prepared for two.  It is a good choice for people not familiar with sushi and you will not walk away hungry.  Tanya has only had sushi once before so I thought it was a safe bet for our first trip to Azuma.

Our gyoza arrived in a timely fashion but turned out a little different then what I was accustomed to in Japan.  Gyoza’s are similar to dumplings / pot stickers.  At Azuma they serve them deep fried.  Normally in Japan they are prepared by frying them in a pan then at the last minute steaming them.  This creates a very unique taste and texture.  I prefer them prepared this way over deep frying.  All that aside both Tanya and I thought they tasted great.

By the time we had finished our gyoza, I was ready for another beer.  When the waiter returned with my drink he proceeded to tell me that from then on I was only allowed to order water.  I thought at first it was a joke but turns out he wasn’t kidding.  While I wouldn’t have ordered another beer, it did leave a bad taste in my mouth.  I’m 33 years old and I don’t think that I need to be told, for no good reason, that two beers is my limit.

Our main order took its sweet time, but that was expected because of how much food had to be prepared.  It arrived in a huge wooden boat with about five different cuts of fish and eight traditional California roll pieces.  The fish was served both sushi and sashimi style.  The sashimi was sliced a little thicker then I would have liked but all in all it tasted great.  The fish itself was very fresh and there were no real surprises.  Tanya’s first bite, which was sashimi she didn’t like at all but that ended up being the only fish she didn’t enjoy.  The only real problem with ordering the "Love Boat" is that they play it very safe.  All the fish varieties were the most popular, ie, salmon, tuna, white fish, etc…  This was fine for our first trip but I think next time we will take a couple more risks and try some not so mainstream options.

In conclusion, the food was above average and the atmosphere was pleasant, but the service was pretty mediocre.  They didn’t seem to take the time to find out if we needed any help or suggestions.  This is a big deal if you have never been to a sushi restaurant before and could be very overwhelming for a first timer.  Here is how I ranked them on a scale from 0 to 10:

• Seating Time:  8
• Cleanliness:  9
• Friendliness:  7
• Atmosphere:  8
• Overall Service: 4
• Taste:  8
• Timeliness:  6
• Presentation:  7
• Overall:  7

 

Technorati Tags: albuquerque, azuma, Cooking, food, Japan, japanese, New Mexico, restaurants, review, sashimi, sushi

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 11th, 2006 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Albuquerque, New Mexico, Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.