June 16, 2014
Fin Japanese Cuisine
1682 Clarkson Road, Chesterfield,
MO 63017
(636) 536-4228
http://www.finstl.com/
Fin, located in Chesterfield,
is by far the best sushi restaurant we have visited to date. Although it is located in a strip mall
between a Scottrade and Krieger’s Bar Grill, once inside, the atmosphere was
very pleasant, with friendly service. While many sushi restaurants provide a generic "picture" menu, Fin had a similar menu displaying its specialty rolls-- another reason for its awesomeness. Specialty rolls are a complete mystery in terms of what one orders, so to see it ahead of time was another illustration of Fin's customer-centric atmosphere.
Jorge and I both asked for our usual green tea; an ample
supply was promptly served in a traditional tea pot with cups.
We ordered the following items:
- Miso soup
- Edamame
- Rainbow Roll – Crab meat, cucumber,
avocado, topped with avocado, tuna, salmon, white tuna, smelt eggs and red
tobiko (flying fish roe)
- Sumo Roll – a deep fried roll with eel,
white tuna and avocado, topped with mayo, eel sauce, smelt eggs, tobiko and
scallions
- Warrior Roll – a spicy salmon roll
topped with salmon, spicy mayo, eel sauce and scallion
- Banana Roll (for dessert) – a banana
rolled in phyllo dough and deep fried, served with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and
caramel sauce
The bowl of miso soup was flavorful, a bit of tofu and
spinach, and served at the perfect temperature. The edamame came out piping hot but quickly cooled, and was
perfectly cooked.
Then came the most amazing sushi:
The Rainbow Roll contained an absolutely delicious crab
salad that made you crave for more. The
fish was wonderfully fresh and flavorful, though surprisingly, there was no
shrimp used as a “topper” (this is just an observation—it was included in the
Rainbow roll for the other restaurants, but we didn’t find its absence to in
any way detract from the roll).
The Sumo Roll was deep fried heaven—there were two kinds of
roe on the top, and an amazing mayo and eel sauce combination that made us sad
to eat the last pieces of this delicacy.
The Warrior Roll’s salmon, eel and dollop of sauce on top added
a pretty look to a delectable roll. Were
I to ascribe a feeling to the roll as we ate it, it would be “happy.”
The rice used in all the rolls was very tasty and had a
terrific sticky quality to it, helping the rolls keep their form nicely. None of the pieces fell apart when we handled
them.
We finished off our meal with a dessert item, not something
we usually do, but after such a wonderful meal so far, we couldn’t resist
ordering the banana roll. And we were
not disappointed! The combination of
banana fried in phyllo dough along with the ice cream caramel and whipped cream
was the perfect way to finish off a perfect meal.
Overall, on a scale of 1-10, we rate Fin a 9.5. The only negative was its location in a strip
mall (if it was on a nice city street with outdoor seating, its rating would
have been an “11”), but the drive to Chesterfield from Saint Louis
is absolutely worth the trip to dine at Fin.