Sub Zero- Central West End (2/15/2014)

February 15, 2014

Sub Zero

308 N Euclid Ave, , St Louis, MO 63108 (CWE)

Sub Zero, located in the Central West End, specializes in both sushi and burgers, which makes it a good choice for sushi lovers who have significant others who don’t care for the stuff.   We sat in the large dining room, and because we arrived for an early lunch on a Saturday, were the only customers during our visit.  We received friendly and prompt service. 

To start, Jorge and I both asked for tea, and were brought hot water and a choice of several teas, in the form of Bigalow tea bags.  We both chose the green tea. 

We ordered the following items:

-  Miso soup

-  Spider roll (soft shell crab)

-  Holiday roll—one of Sub Zero’s specialty rolls, consisting of tempura shrimp wrapped in a bonito, topped with salmon, tuna, spicy unagi sauce and spicy Japanese mayonnaise

-  Unagi nigiri (sea eel)

The large bowl of miso soup was flavorful, with plenty of tofu and spinach.  The soup was tepidly warm, not hot, though this may have been due to the early hour of our lunch.

The spider roll was yummy but cut thin, so it fell apart easily when we picked up the roll segments.

The chef covered the holiday roll with an abundance of the spicy mayo (way too much), which hid the flavor of the underlying fish and unagi sauce.  I scraped off most of it before eating each piece. 

The unagi was delicious—large pieces, with excellent flavor.

Overall, on a scale of 1-10, we rate Sub Zero a 7.5.  The service was excellent, but the Holiday roll could use less generous portions of mayonnaise, and both rolls should be more thickly sliced.

Wasabi - Clayton (1/31/14)

Jan. 31, 2014

Wasabi Sushi Bar (16 South Central Ave. Clayton, MO 63105 | ph: 314.721.9970)

Wasabi is a small but airy sushi bar in downtown Clayton.  We arrived for an early lunch on a Friday, and got prompt seating and service.

The green tea came in large, plastic “bottom pouring” pots.  These were fun, and allow you to see how steeped the tea is before pouring.  Of course, the plastic is not well-insulated and the tea cools off more quickly that it would in ceramic or cast iron.

Wasabi’s miso soup included chopped mushrooms, which was an interesting touch.  However the seaweed and tofu were relatively scant, and the soup was not overly flavorful.  We ordered two pieces of tokibo (roe).  While the roe itself was fine, the seaweed was chewy and overall not great.

Our experience improved dramatically with the arrive of our sushi.  The server recommended “Mr. Kim’s Roll”, a California roll with seared spicy tuna sprinkled with “crunch”.  While the crunch wasn’t quite as crunchy as we anticipated, the tuna was well-prepared and ample.  The real treat were the shellfish rolls.  We ordered a Spider Roll (soft-shelled crab), and were pleased by the large amount of crab.  Even better, the crab meat was nicely warmed rather than cold.  It was excellent, as was the shrimp tempura roll, in which it was clear that the shrimp had just been cooked.   Another nice feature of the sushi was the rice, which was sticky and flavorful – a far cry from the bleached white rice that one often encounters.

While Wasabi could use work on some of its side dishes, the main sushi rolls were very good and we’d come back!