A Little Part of Japan on Buford Highway

There has been a lot of buzz lately about a sushi place on Buford Highway called Sushi House Hayakawa. This authenticly Japanese sushi bar is located on Buford Highway several blocks north of 285. When we first pulled into the parking lot, I got all excited about the bright neon sign next to the 'Grand Opening' sign that read "Karaoke Bar". Wow, I thought, this place is authentic! But alas, the karaoke bar was the next door establishment.

But with or without karaoke, this place is truly Japanese. If you call during non-business hours, the answering machine greeting is in Japanese. Our waitress, an American, was the same person who I was passed on to when I called to make my reservation. While she was very good, I couldn't help but think she may be the only English-speaking staff in the place. And the clientele was 50% Japanese. Always a good sign.

When I go into a place like this, I almost always order Omakase to see what new experiences the sushi chefs can throw my way. While the fish quality was amazingly fresh, I was a little disappointed in the actual selections, especially since I ordered the more expensive $65 version. The sashimi and nigiri selections were your typical tuna, yellowtail, cooked shrimp, octopus, squid. There was even a tuna roll. In all, it didn't seem too different from a chef's choice selection at your run-of-the-mill sushi bar. I was especially disappointed with no toro in any form in any of the courses. The last course, a bowl of a dapping of rice topped with a generous portion of salmon roe was the most distinct course of the Omakase. Other than that, I thought the dinner sort of lacked creativity. I wondered if being gaijin that I got a more pedestrian version? We didn't speak with the sushi chef ahead of time, to let them know we wanted an adventurous selection (and toro), so that may have been a mistake. But again the fish quality was outstanding, so I will definitely give it another try some time.

Decadence, Style and Great Food at MF Buckhead

With the wife and kid out of town for a few days, I am taking advantage of the open schedule by hitting some mighty fine restaurants. Last night, I left a bar crawl to hit up the new MF Sushi in Buckhead. I fugured it would be a good choice since 1) the wifey can't eat sushi at the moment, and 2) I figured it would be half the cost since I was going solo (by the time I was done, it wasn't).

First impression when I walked in- Wow!. The place is huge- 8000 sf ft. The sushi bar alone can comfortably seat at least 20. The feel is completely different than the MF in Midtown. Where as that place feels soothing and sedated, this place screams at you. I felt I had walked into the trendiest place in LA or Vegas. I started with a couple of appetizers, a seaweed salad and a dish with yellowtail, lemon, cilantro and wasabi. Outstanding. And it got me in a creative frame of mind, so when the sushi chef suggested Omakase, I immediately jumped on it.

The chef put together a great blend of old favorites of mine as well as some more creative elements. On the traditional side, they offered a great spicy tuna roll, melt in your mouth salmon nigiri, and golden eye snapper sashimi (I had never had this before). One interesting dish they presented was a miso marinated duck. All of this left me clamoring for more, so I ordered more nigiri including Toro and yellowtail. By this time, I have been soaking up this experience for 90 minutes and had gotten on the good side of the sushi chefs. He then showed me the kobe. I remember a scene from Sixteen Candles when Anthony Michael Hall shows a bunch of high school freshmen a pair of girls panties. Their reaction was probably similar to mine in this case: "Ooooooooooo." He cut off two thin medallions and then sears them with a blow torch (the beef, not the panties). I was in heaven.

The experience at MF Sushi Buckhead rivals the experiences I have had at Nobu and at Morimoto. The Omakase is a little more planned at those locations - you know the # of courses and the price ahead of time. But the MF selections spanned the perfect blend of traditional and creative. And the feeling that you get when sitting in MF is as big and bold as the food you are eating. You know you are at someplace special. And for sushi, whether its Atlanta, NYC or wherever stateside, you are.

Yuraku- New Sushi Bar in Smyrna

Smryna's West Village is a good example of the new urbanism spreading across Atlanta. Sprawling at the intersection of South Atlanta Rd. and I-285, the West Village contains condos/townhomes all with numerous retailers, bars and restaurants. Yuraku Steak and Sushi is one of the latest entrants into this complex, and will probably do quite well.

As we walked into Yuraku, the staff was incredibly friendly and welcoming, which was maintained throughout the meal. They were great with Little Steakhead, constantly humoring her, and she responded with giving us an incredibly stress-free night out. I'll go out on a limb to say the service is amongst the best I have seen in a sushi bar in Atlanta to date.

The sushi menu is quite extensive, although its one of those that provides pictures of the food for each dish. This seems to be indigenous to Asian places, and my usual experience from places that do this usually don't have the best food. Yuraku doesn't necessarily reverse that trend.

We started with the Tempura Udon Soup, which I thought was quite good. (The picture of the Miso Soup with big chunks of mushrooms sort of turned me off...good thing they had the pictures!). We then shifted to what our waitress called their most popular roll- the Super Crunchy Shrimp Roll. If you can get past the presentation where it sits on a bed of rice krispies, this too was actually tasty. For our main course, we split the Sashimi Deluxe plate, which is easily enough for two when you add in everything else we ate. Here, we were somewhat disappointed. The presentation was nice (which can be said about most things at Yuraku), but it definitely doesn't stand up to other places in the city, including the nearby Tomo. The spicy tuna roll was nothing special.

Yuraku will not be a favorite amongst true sushi enthusiasts. But that is not to say the place will not find a niche in the growing Smyrna community. The price is reasonable, and the atmosphere is very inviting. I would probably stick with more pedestrian sushi and roll selections next time, and keep your expectations reasonable. And to me, there are times when that will crave the sushi fix. If in that area and looking for more, make the trip to Tomo.