Urbanspoon Blog – Narita (2nd Review)

[rating:4]

I was taken here today by the Mrs and a few of my close friends. Again I am in that situation where I am torn. Where does one begin?

First off, we were supposed to go to Cabana, but that place was PACKED! PACKED! This was my wife’s backup location, we had reservations here as well. It was pretty busy for dinner, the whole Forest Hills area, particularly this strip was buzzing and busy this evening. Summer is in the air.

We had to wait for our full party to arrive before we were seated, that’s fair. I was starving and pretty irritated, however the lady that spoke with us was very friendly and nice. When I asked for the men’s room, she directed me to the boy’s room and also offered the alternative of picking a corner outside.

Her friendly manner and sense of humor calmed me down a bit. I had a ginger ale and some edamame while we waited for the other folks to show up. I felt better after eating something. If you didn’t know, I’m a moody eater, I HAVE TO EAT ON TIME! Otherwise, things get ugly.

I had a regular salad, it was weird, instead of ginger dressing that I expected the salad came with a mayo based dressing. It was good, just caught me by surprise. I also had a kani salad, this was pretty good and enjoyed by everyone.

As usual I had a spicy tuna roll, this one was different from the other places I’ve had. It was more tuna than spicy, but it was good. I had a spider roll, that was so so. Not very impressed there.

As a main dish I asked for beef teriyaki well done, my only gripe with this dish was that it was SOAKED in teriyaki sauce! So much sauce. My wife insisted on trading with me for her chilean sea bass, I eventually agreed. The sea bass was pretty good, the beef was good too, but all that sauce was just a turn off. Chef Ramsay warns us about people who drown their food in sauces, it’s usually a sign of a chef lacking in confidence. I also tried my friends salmon sashimi, that was pretty good. I’m trying to eat more of the raw fish items these days.

I felt the staff here was very friendly and attentive. They sang happy birthday for me and they had a freaking gong to get everyone’s attention. That was rather embarrassing, but quite fun. Hahaha.

I felt the service was a tad slow, but I’m not sure if that’s because they were waiting for everyone to finish before proceeding, or they were backed up, or who knows.

This place is cool, I’m sure we’ll return. Probably not on a friday night though. Too much going on out there.