KEN Iong's new restaurant combines water, sushi and toy boats. What's wrong with this picture? Nothing. So it's surprising to hear him sweating the details -- boats capsizing, guests knocking lids into the waterway during opening week -- "something new every day!" he said. New sushi spot
makes a big splashWell, as captain of the new endeavor that is Catch of the Day Sushi at Market City Shopping Center, he's the one who must go down with his 19-inch sampans, but to me, it looks like smooth sailing ahead. The only problem I see is that he'll probably need at least one more of his 80-foot waterways to accommodate "passengers" at peak hours.
The sampans float sushi to passengers via a circular waterway that seats 40. It's the old conveyor-belt idea, but done with water and four pumps that move the sampans along at a pretty quick clip. You have to make a quick decision about the sushi passing in front of you, or you'll -- sorry, I have to say it -- truly miss the boat.
A friend of mine, making a grab for Chicken Yakitori, flipped a lid into the water, something we had worried about mere minutes before. We worried about sinking the boats, too, and Iong said that has happened when heavy containers of wasabi and ginger end up on the same boat. "We never expected customers would do that," he said. As president of Sushi Chef, a sushi wholesale company, he's a newcomer to the restaurant biz. Oh well. He's making up a Plan B, possibly setting up these condiments on the counters in front of diners. Plan B works better for me anyway, because some people tend to hog the wasabi.
BY an accident of timing, I was lucky enough to be seated in front of the chef, so I had a personal guide to the items floating by. Those who sit at the far end of the conveyor have, really, last choice. California handrolls, yakitori and hamachi sashimi ($3.79) are rare sightings and get netted fast when they do appear. There are plenty of seats late in the evening, but selections tend to be sparse when fewer people are in the eatery.
Pricing is reasonable and done via plate color. Yellow plate items such as different types of maki sushi, tamago (egg), Spam and cone sushi go for $1.19. I noticed most customers piled up stacks of green plates ($1.69). This grouping included a spicy seafood salad of fresh chopped shrimp. These tend to be mushy looking, but are tasty and deliver a pleasant zing to your tongue.
Also in this $1.69 grouping are California temaki rolls and sushi topped with ahi or tako poke, which had more rice than poke.
Pink plates go for $2.19 and include amaebi (sweet shrimp), sea and freshwater eel, chawan mushi (savory custard) and scallops with mayo, similar to the seafood salad above.
Deluxe items such as ikura (salmon roe), sea urchin, gyoza, shumai and sashimi are delivered on red plates for $3.79.
Watching everyone else's plates pile up, it seems the magic number is 14 plates per two people. I watched one little girl polish off seven plates. As if you need reminding, the restaurant offers a most fun and excellent adventure for kids of all ages.
Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays; 10:30 a.m. to 11:730 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Prices: About $25 to $35 for two
Call: 732-9661
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Nadine Kam's restaurant reviews run on Thursdays. Reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Bulletin. Star ratings are based on comparisons of similar restaurants:
-- excellent;
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