Samurai

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Category: Restaurant Reviews

Samurai Japanese Steakhouse is located on Wolf Road in Colonie, in the old Burger King building, next to the Hess gas station. When you walk in, you're momentarily confused because technically you can walk to the left or the right. After a moment, you realize the hostess station is on the right hand side. Aside from that momentary confusion, there's a wonderfully decorative waterfall at the front door that's done quite nicely.

The rest of the decor is tastefully done, and on par with most Japanese Steakhouses I've been in. The seated dinner area is separate from the hibachi area. There's a mixture of dark Earth tones, with pops of color here and there, andthe overall theme is one of sharp lines (square, rectangle) versus rounded curves.

The service was odd, almost overbearing. One server came to take our drink order. Then, two minutes later, another server asked us if we ordered drinks yet. I thought it was just our table at first, but then noticed it happen with another table as well. Disorganized at best. A second issue I had, which I found to be a theme in Japanese Restaurants (and one Chinese Restaurant) of the area, was the language barrier. Asking questions of our server was an exercise in futility. They're not knowledgeable, and are literally there just to write down the items from the menu as you order them.

On to the food. For appetizers, we ordered Rock Shrimp ($7.95), and Spicy Tuna Tar Tar ($8.95). The Rock Shrimp had an off-putting batter texture. It was soft, and greasy, and indicative of not being properly drained after frying. The sauce was haphazardly put on, which meant only the pieces with sauce were flavorful. Some of the greens had more sauce than the actual shrimp.

By contrast, the Tuna Tar Tar was delightfully fresh. There was amazing presentation, which included very skilled knife work. Our main issue with the dish was that the tuna itself, outside of the spicy sauce, was very bland. At first, I thought it was just me holding an expectation to sushi grade fish that shouldn't be had. However, the more I thought about some of my favorite sushi experiences, I knew it wasn't asking much for the actual fish to hold a distinct flavor. The tuna had no flavor of its own.

For our entrees we ordered three rolls; The Fire House Roll ($11.95), The Fantastic Roll ($12.95), and a Spicy Yellowtail Roll ($4.95). The Fire House Roll became a source of some issue. It was supposed to be shrimp tempura inside, with a spicy tuna and crunch mixture on top. When it arrived, there were also cucumbers inside which was nowhere on the menu. Since this was one of Brian's rolls, and he doesn't like cucumber in his sushi rolls, he brought it up to the attention of the staff.

The staff promptly got to work on a second roll, and left the first one at our table because it couldn't be reused. Since I don't mind cucumbers in sushi rolls, I picked at a couple of pieces, and enjoyed the flavor of the roll greatly. Oddly enough, when the second roll arrived, I liked it a lot less than the first. The problem was the same that was had with the Rock Shrimp appetizer. The shrimp tempura was fried, wrapped immediately, topped with the cold topping, and served. The lack of draining the grease, and letting the shrimp cool, resulted in the roll having two extreme tempuratures (hot inside, and cold outside). Additionally, the batter was greasy and soft, as opposed to light and crispy.

The Fantastic Roll, while presented well, was just too large to manage. The fish inside (tuna, and salmon among them) had no flavor of its own, necessitating the use of soy but then the soy pretty much overpowered everything, being the only flavor of the roll (rather than complimenting it). Plus, the special seaweed it was wrapped in tasted like a tortilla roll. Not seaweed. I couldn't finish it.

Saving grace? The Spicy Yellowtail was actually enjoyable, flavorful, and delicious.

Spicy Tuna Tar Tar	Rock Shrimp

Fire House Roll (top left), Spicy Yellowtail (top right), Fantastic Roll (bottom)

Dining Out For Life

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Category: Events

Written by Brian

Dine out at participating restaurants on Thursday, April 25, 2013 and a percentage of the price of your meal will be donated to help the AIDS Council provide services to people living with HIV/AIDS in your community.

Participating in Dining Out For Life® is easy:

1. Choose a participating restaurant.
2. Gather a group of people and call ahead to make a reservation. Be sure to mention you're Dining Out For Life®.
3. Dine out on Thursday, April 25th and enter to win a fabulous prize.

See a list of participating restaurants here:  http://www.diningoutforlife.com/albany/restaurants

Newest Lunch

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Category: Restaurant Reviews

Written by Brian

Newest Lunch was recently featured on a Food Network show, so Josie and I decided to check it out.  The show focused on the hot dogs, so even though it was still breakfast time for us, we tried a few hot dogs too.

We both ordered egg and cheese sandwiches, mine with sausage, and hers with bacon.  These sandwiches were amazing.  Tons of meat, eggs scrambled, and still nice and fluffy, and lots of cheese (some on top and some on bottom).  The rolls were lightly buttered and grilled.  For about $4.00, it is probably the best breakfast sandwich I have had in the Capital Region.

Next up the hot dogs.  The hot dog itself was nice and juicy with a good flavor, As for the sauce, I thought it was dry, but Josie thought I was crazy, so we agreed to disagree on that.  We both completely agreed that it was flavorless, and added nothing to the hot dog.  She said she would order it as is again, but I think I would get it plain.

The bad part of this review would be the atmosphere.  This place is a dive.  Stains on the ceiling tiles, old outdated booths, and even the outside looked dilapidated.  Our server (who we guess is the owner) was very nice and gets a great rating from us, but most of the other staff came off as a bit rude and too busy to deal with you.  Above and beyond that, the other customers were rude.  When we got there, the place was full.  We stood around for about 5 minutes, when another couple came in (who had obviously been there before).  They walked up to a booth of some people the knew, and had them get up so they could take their seats.  All the staff saw this, but didn't say anything.  The owner came over and asked a single guy he knew to move to the bar so we could sit there, but we were annoyed.  Someone else walked in and put their giant coat on my bench.  When we were trying to pay, no one let us move up to the register even though they were just standing around waiting.

Most of that is irrelevant to this review, the restaurant isn't at fault for it's customer's behavior.  The good food, and the fact that our server was the only one who was polite gets Newest Lunch a 4 Fork rating.

Sausage Egg and Cheese	Bacon Egg and Cheese

Hot Dogs (one with sauce, one with 'everything')

Hokkaido

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Category: Restaurant Reviews

Written by Brian

Hokkaido recently opened up on Central Ave in place of an old Friendlys.  I went with a friend that was visiting.

I ordered the American Dream roll - Rock shrimp tempura topped with spicy lobster and spicy kani, served with a spicy creamy sauce ($14) and a spicy yellowtail roll ($5.50).  I found the American roll to be a bit disappointing.  The cream sauce on top was strange, almost like they poured a sweet and sour sauce on top of a spicy mayo, it just didn't' work.  The lobster flavor was missing, and all you could taste was shrimp tempura and the strange sauce.  This one was a miss for me.  The yellow tail on the other hand was good.  The fish tasted fresh, and it was a good size.  I also felt the price was reasonable for this roll compared to the American roll which was overpriced at $14 (I would have been ok with $12, but $14 with no actual lobster taste is too high)

My friend ordered the Volcano roll - Shrimp tempura, avocado, spicy tuna, crunchy on top with eel sauce ($12) and a mango with avocado roll ($4.50).  The volcano roll was good, the tempura added a nice crunch.  Overall, it was a nicely balanced roll.  I didn't try the mango and avocado roll, but it was described as a good roll that was creamy but could have used a bit more flavor.

The hamachi side dish was described as quite fresh with a good flavor.

The plates were presented beautifully.  It is uncommon to see a sushi chef take the time to make nice artwork with sauces, and they did a great job.  As you can see in the pictures, the plates are really neat.  Service was fine, although there was the typical language barrier that you see often in a Japanese restaurant.  I wouldn't say Hokkaido is in my top 5 sushi places in the area, but I would probably try it again in the future

American Dream and Spicy Yellowtail rolls	Volcano and mango / avocado rolls

Hamachi (Yellowtail)