Tani Sushi Bistro (March 28, 2014)

March 28, 2014

Tani Sushi Bistro

16 S Bemiston Ave, St Louis, MO 63105

http://www.tanisushi.com/

Tani, located in Clayton, has a wonderful atmosphere.   We arrived a few minutes before opening, but were seated anyway by a very pleasant hostess.

  As usual, Jorge and I both asked for tea, and were promptly green tea in a large mug, with a lemon slice on the edge (which we found a little unusual).  The tea was hot and nice. 

We ordered the following items: 
- Miso soup 
- Rainbow Roll – California roll, 5 kinds of fish (chef’s choice), shrimp and avocado 
- Crazy Roll – tuna, eel, tamago, green onion, crab, and masago, tempura shavings, and eel sauce  
- Sex and the City – one of Tani’s specialty rolls, consisting of scallop, crab, and masago, tempura shavings, avocado sauce, and a “hot sexy sauce.”

 The bowl of miso soup was flavorful, a bit of tofu and spinach, and served at the perfect temperature.  It was by far the best miso soup we had tasted to date.

The Rainbow Roll was very good and the fish was very fresh.  The overall flavor is best described as “serene.”  It was simple—not too much cucumber, and the crab inside the roll was chopped to a nice texture.

The Crazy Roll was cut into big slices and contained large pieces of fish.  We found the taste to be quite succulent.  Delicious!

The Sex and the City Roll was very disappointing—the “hot sexy sauce” was just standard red sauce, overwhelming the rest of the roll and just too hot.  The core of the roll was chewy, as if the tempura scallop and crab were overcooked.  Our waitress was very kind in removing the dish from both our table and the bill, and we ordered a replacement item: the Samba Roll, which normally came with Tuna, Yellowtail, green onion, cucumber, avocado, cilantro, jalapeno, orange tobiko, sesame seeds, and special sesame chili sauce; however we ordered it without the jalapenos.  It was delicious, with a subtle amount of cilantro that was not overwhelming at all.

 Overall, on a scale of 1-10, we rate Tani an 8.5.  So far, it is our top choice.

Sushi Ai - Downtown Lunch Buffet

On Feb. 28 we visited Sushi Ai's downtown location (910 Olive St.)  The street setting and interior were both a little run down, but service was friendly and we were seated right away.  Sushi Ai's distinguishing feature is its all-you-can-eat lunch buffet.  For $12.99, you can order an unlimited amount of soup, appetizers, sushi and rolls.  In addition, there are hot and cold buffet tables with self-serve hot and cold appetizers and salads.  

The served appetizers were nicely done.  The miso soup was hot and flavorful with pureed tofu and small cubes, the vegetable tempura were crispy and hot, and an order of shrimp shumai were tasty, though quite small.

We ordered several rolls (Spicy Crab, Christmas, Eel and St. Louis).  Probably because of the all-you-can-eat special, the rolls were modest in size, without a lot of meat.  The St. Louis roll was heavy on the cream cheese, light on the salmon.  The eel roll came with a flavorful sauce, but too much cucumber. 

The offerings at the self-serve buffet tables were relatively standard pan-Asian fare (spring rolls, crab rangoon and the like at the hot table, and a mix of salads at the cold table).  Not bad, but unremarkable.

Overall, the food at Sushi Ai was undistinguished, but for $12.99 a great value for downtown.

Rating:  6.5