#203 - Twelve Stones Restaurant, Flower Mound TX

Two weeks ago I went to Dallas for the weekend to visit friends. I don't normally get to do that during football season, but since I don't travel with the team to away games anymore, I now get a few free weekends in the fall. Usually I stay home and relax, but I hadn't been to Dallas since the summer so I took the opportunity.

I've talked on this blog before about how when I spend the weekend with Joni and Tony, we pretty much sleep, eat, relax, and do it all over again. Friday at lunch we were already discussing possible dinner options. Yes, we are those people.  Joni & Tony tend to be creatures of habit when it comes to eating out in Flower Mound. It's significantly larger than Stillwater and has a lot more options, but I still feel like we eat at a lot of the same places when I visit. We had branched out for lunch both Thursday and Friday, and when Joni said they had tried a new restaurant for dinner recently and it was really good, I was all for it.

I liked Twelve Stones as soon as we walked in. They offer valet parking, but we found a space almost immediately. The restaurant is very warm and inviting. The walls are a combination of wood and brick, some of the short walls are metal, and they have a really cool bar with industrial shelving and 3 large TV's. It may sound like an odd combination of materials, but it really works well. The bar area takes up about 1/3 of the restaurant, and the main dining room comprises the rest. They can divide the dining room into semi-private areas with tall curtains. 

Photo Courtesy of I Am Jay Marks

Photo Courtesy of Kim's Healthy Eats

Since it was Friday night, the restaurant was packed. I think we could have gotten a table in the dining room almost immediately, but Joni wanted to sit in the bar area, because you can then choose from the bar menu or the full dinner menu. They had a 2-piece band playing when we arrived. It was quite loud because they were set up pretty close to us at the end of the bar. But they played good dinner music, and were very good musicians.

I have to admit, I'm not usually a big fan of sitting in the bar area, and particularly at the bar, in any restaurant unless I don't have a choice. I find that the service tends to be not as prompt and less attentive, especially when the restaurant is really busy. This ended up being the case on our visit. Our first server was a young lady. She was really nice and showed up to our table pretty quickly, but was kind of flighty. When we ordered the appetizer the first thing she said was "I don't think that's on the menu anymore". Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense since the menu changes all the time and it's still listed on there. She said she would check...and then never came back. I saw her at the bar making drinks, which wasn't that odd. But 10 minutes later she was still there, and had clearly forgotten about us. After a while a male bartender came over to take our order. He got us our appetizer, but when Tony ordered coffee it took another 10 minutes for it to arrive. 

The restaurant is open for both lunch and dinner, and the menus change regularly, based on seasonal availability. I love restaurants that do that. We decided to start with the fried pickled okra.

House-cured pickled okra, tempura batter, jalapeno cream

These were delicious. They were served scorching hot, and the batter was light and airy. The jalapeno dipping sauce was very good and had just enough of a bite.

Joni and Tony split the flatiron steak. Tony ordered it medium rare; Joni argued, as she likes her meat medium well. Tony won the fight.

Grilled flatiron steak, bravas potata, ramp puree, pickled fresno pepper, cilantro lime garnish

Joni gave me a small piece. Wow, this was amazing. The meat was incredibly tender, and had so much flavor. I prefer my steak medium, but had no complaints about this one. If you don't like cilantro this wouldn't be the dish for you, but I would have eaten every bit of that garnish. 

I went back and forth on a couple of items, and finally settled on fish & chips, because Tony had them last time and said they were really good. They use the freshest fish they have available, and this night it was black striped bass.

The fish was good, but I think it might have been sitting for a while because it was very limp. And it was a little under-seasoned for my taste. However, the tarter sauce and vinegar made up for that, as they were both very flavorful. The fries were good. They were kind of the bottom of the batch, but they were hot and crispy on the outside, so I went with it. 

Tony and Joni both had raved about the mac and cheese, so we ordered a side of it with our meal. This was unfortunately another miss by the server, as he completely forgot to put in the order. But as soon as he realized the error, he corrected it quickly.

I am a big mac & cheese snob. I grew up eating my mom's baked mac & cheese, and am extremely critical when it comes to others. This one was good, and I loved the rich, creamy smoked white cheese. But I felt like it was missing something. It could have jumped up a few notches with bread crumbs on top, or a fun pasta shape, or something like that. 

As I mentioned earlier, Tony got coffee

I had never been to a restaurant that serves pressed coffee. So of course I had to get my own to try. It takes quite a bit longer to brew, which honestly could have been part of the wait when Tony first ordered it. But that longer brew results in a very deep, rich coffee. And it was delicious. 

We didn't really need dessert, but after looking at the menu Joni and I decided to split the salted caramel pot de creme

This was SWEET. But it was also delicious. It was super rich and thick, and had such a wonderful deep caramel flavor. I loved the toffee chip garnish, almost like you're eating a Heath bar. But homemade and much better. We only had a few bites each. I was tempted to eat my portion and Joni's, but I thought better of it.

Will I go back? Despite the few misses, most certainly I will. I really like the atmosphere, and overall the food was really good. I want to try out some of their other dishes

#202 - Dragon Palace, Flower Mound TX

Last week we had an away football game, so I took the opportunity to spend the weekend in Dallas with friends. When I go stay with Joni and Tony, our time is pretty simple. I get up and work out in the AM, Joni and I decide where to have lunch; we come back and take a nap; and then the 3 of us decide where to have dinner. The schedule rarely changes much over the course of the weekend. Joni invited her mom and aunt to have lunch with us on Friday, which I knew would be entertaining. I met her mom a couple years ago, and she is just as fun and feisty as Joni. 

Flower Mound is a lot larger than Stillwater, but we still tend to go to all the same restaurants whenever I visit. I had told myself that I would push for more variety on this trip, and it worked out pretty well, starting with lunch at The Rustic on Thursday. We did go to an old standby Thursday night, but that's because we were in Roanoke and the options there are limited. So I was thrilled when Joni threw out 3 brand new restaurant options for lunch on Friday. After some back and forth we eventually settled on Dragon Palace. It's located in a strip mall about 10 minutes from Joni's house. It's in the middle of the mall, so unless you know where to look, you're likely to miss it. It's not a huge place, but it is very comfortable. There is a large bar/sushi bar and bar seating that takes up nearly 1/2 of the restaurant on the right side. The other half is a combination of booths and tables. 

I wasn't going to drink anything other than water, but subtle peer pressure won out when they all ordered wine. So I decided to try a Tokyo Iced Tea. It's their take on a Long Island iced tea but with lychee liqeuor added. Lychee is a small fruit found in China that grows on a tree, and it's encased in a red exterior that kind of looks like a raspberry. The fruit itself is white and looks like a jelly. I've never tasted one on its own, but it adds a lot of sweetness to beverages. The iced tea was almost too sweet, but I powered through and drank it slowly.

Their food menu is quite big, and features appetizers, entrees, signature dishes, and sushi. My original plan was to go with sushi, but theirs is kind of pricey since they don't have a separate sushi lunch menu. Since everyone else was going with lunch specials, I jumped on the bandwagon.

Joni's aunt had really liked their egg rolls last visit, and even said her plan was to get just egg rolls as her meal next time. She didn't do that, but she did order a side of egg rolls in addition to an egg roll with her meal

I didn't try any, but she ate all 3 so I'm guessing they were just as good this time around.

Joni and I decided to split the vegetable spring rolls

These were delicious. Fried when you order, super crispy, screaming hot, and I really liked the sauce too. I believe it was duck sauce, and it added lots of flavor.

Joni and I both got soup with our lunches. Joni went with egg drop and I got won ton

I was so excited to see such big won tons in the soup! That never happens. I really liked this soup. The broth was extremely flavorful, and the wontons were fantastic. And both soups were served screaming hot, a huge plus in my book.

I love that we got the crispy noodles with our soup. One of my favorite Asian restaurants in Stillwater used to do that, and then slowly phased that out. So this was a very pleasant surprise

Joni got the chicken lo mein

Her mom got the cashew chicken with fried rice

Her aunt got the General Tsao's chicken with fried rice

And I got the kung pao chicken with brown rice

I tasted bites of everyone's food, and they were all wonderful. I was surprised at the General Tsao's chicken, that it didn't come with the usual thicker sauce and more heavy breading. But I also liked this one much better because it was definitely quite a bit lighter. Joni's lo mein was a massive serving, and she took over half of it home. 

My kung pao chicken was fantastic. I think they use dark meat chicken, so it was much more tender than breast. And the vegetables were cooked to a perfect tender crisp. The heat options were mild, medium, and extra spicy. I didn't want to scald myself so I ordered it medium. Even so, it was pretty spicy. I devoured all of mine, but I also hadn't eaten breakfast. When I do that, I eat like I'm going to the electric chair at the next meal.

I had such a great time with Joni's aunt and mom. They are so funny, and I love that even at their ages they are still so active and vibrant. They kept Joni and me laughing the whole meal. I'm officially inviting them to lunch every time I'm down there.

Will I go back? No question. I really do want to try the sushi. And they've got so many other menu items that all look good. 

#201 - The Rustic, Dallas, TX

My first few years working at OSU, I traveled with the football team to every away game. Long story short, that ended 2 years ago. At first I was really bummed, but very few of my friends travel to away games. So even if I did go, it would be like my first year at OSU where I hardly knew anyone and hung out by myself. Instead, I take the opportunity to visit friends/family, or just relax at home.  Last week I decided to go to Dallas to visit friends.

Dallas is one of my favorite cities. Before I moved to Oklahoma I think I'd only visited a couple of times, but it's still always been a favorite. Even after I moved here I didn't visit very often, but once I found friends down there I go as often as I can. I always joke that if they would just move OSU to Dallas, I would never have to leave.

I drove down last Thursday, and had an appointment near downtown. Joni works nearby, so we decided to meet for lunch. Dallas has so many restaurants that I think it would take me a couple of years of going to new restaurants every week to hit every single one. I'm not that familiar with downtown, so I went online to see what was near my appointment and came across The Rustic. They use local ingredients, it's just a few miles from where I was going, and Joni had never eaten there before either. Sold.

The Rustic is located in the heart of Dallas, just North of downtown. The interior is very casual, with wood paneling on the walls, wooden tables, animal heads on the wall above the open kitchen, and a large outdoor patio. It's a very open concept restaurant, with huge garage doors that can open from the main dining room to the patio.

As you enter the restaurant, they've also got an entire wall of different types of firewood. It's really cool, because they explain each type of wood and the flavors it provides to food

This is a very cool restaurant, with tons of character. It's a regular restaurant during the day, with lots of workers going there for lunch. After hours it's definitely a hot-spot. The backyard is huge, and they do concerts back there all the time. They've got fire pits and heaters so the outside can be used most of the year. There's a beer station at one end, next to the stage, and a regular bar at the back of the patio. We are big fans of The Truck Yard for their great patio, but this place is a very close second, if not tied. And besides, the crowd here would be closer to our age. It didn't take Joni and I long to decide we'll have to check it out on a weekend.

As I mentioned earlier, The Rustic is a locally sourced restaurant. Seafood is from the Gulf, and meat, dairy and produce are from local farmers. Even better, they offer 25% off to military, uniformed officers, paramedics, and firefighters every single day. I love restaurants like this that make a difference.

We decided to start with deviled eggs

Oh my. These were absolutely outstanding. The yolk was so light and fluffy, and had such a wonderful flavor. The red seasoning was a mixture of sea salt and paprika. The crispies on top are pork rinds. I don't think I've ever eaten those before, but they were really good. I could easily have eaten all of these myself.

We also got the cactus fritters, mainly because our server said if we liked fried okra we would really like these

Sadly, our server was wrong. When I hear fritters, I think ground stuff that's formed into balls and fried. Not huge strips. And it was beer battered, which I'm not a fan of. Our server offered to swap them out, which was very kind of him, but we declined because we had enough other food.

We decided to split the special, which was brisket quesadilla and and avocado salad

Again, oh my. We both loved the avocado salad. It's huge chunks of creamy avocado, crunchy jicama, and fresh cucumbers. It was a very interesting combination, one I've never had before, but it worked really well. Actually I don't know that I've ever had jicama ever before. It doesn't really have much flavor, but does have a very nice peppery bite. Joni got full before me, so I got to enjoy about 2/3 of the salad. The quesadillas were phenomenal. The brisket was so juicy and tender, and was absolutely bursting with flavor. There was a kick from the jalapenos, but it wasn't overpowering. I would say the only slight negative is that it didn't come with a side of guacamole. But I guess that might have been avocado overload. But seriously, does such a thing really exist?! I think not.

We were very excited to find out that the brisket quesadillas will soon be on their permanent menu. They definitely deserve to be there. 

I don't think I have to say it, but I will most certainly be back. It would be awesome to see a free concert, go to a Dallas Cowboys watch party, or just hang out on the patio on a Saturday afternoon.

Shared On

MeetUp Monday

#191 - Main St Bakery, Grapevine TX

When I was in Dallas a couple weeks ago for Joni's daughter's wedding, I stayed at the Springhill Suites in Grapevine. I normally pick the select-service hotels over full service, because they offer complimentary breakfast, wi-fi, and parking. On Saturday morning I went down for breakfast. The eggs were horrible...tasted like powder. I know places do use powdered eggs, but when they're prepared properly you can't tell. The sausage was super salty, and I heard a young woman telling her mom that the oatmeal wasn't good at all. Clearly, a huge disappointment. 

My original plan was to sleep in Sunday morning, have a leisurely brunch, and then head back to Stillwater. But then I changed my mind and got up early, so I could knock out a few hours of work. No chance I was tempting that hotel breakfast again though. I momentarily thought about just hitting the road and stopping for fast food, but that goes totally against the food blog. So I went online in search of breakfast. I didn't want to go too far out of my way, and wanted to eat before I reached the highway, so that somewhat limited my options. I came across Main Street Bakery; only about 10 minutes from my hotel, and it had gotten really good reviews. 

Main Street Bakery is, no surprise, on Main St in downtown Grapevine. But they do also have locations in Plano and Richardson, which are Dallas suburbs. There's so many cute little shops and restaurants on Main Street, and Joni and I often go there. I had never heard of or even seen the bakery before, so it was a nice surprise. And the restaurant is absolutely adorable. A few tables out front on the sidewalk. You walk in the front door and there's a couple of tables, plus a little counter with a few stools looking out to the street. To the left are 2 displays full of fresh pastries and baked goods, and an open kitchen at the back.

All of their pastries and breads are baked fresh daily, which was one of the selling points for me. You can imagine the gorgeous smells wafting throughout. 

You order at the counter and they bring the food to you. Joni doesn't do restaurants like that, so I'm guessing that's why we've never been here before. But then I saw that they serve wine at lunch and dinner...I think I might have found a way to get her here! They have the entire menu on a large board above the order counter, but I always feel rushed trying to decide what to get that way. I looked around, and found handheld menus on a display rack

They also have a bloody Mary bar in the main dining room.

I don't do tomato juice, and I had a 4-hour drive ahead of me, so I passed. They also have a wide variety of coffees and teas. I had already had coffee so I passed on that as well. But I like that they serve the coffee in large mugs, and you can get free refills. Perfect for a leisurely morning.

Although the pastries and baked goods looked amazing, that wasn't going to be filling at all. So instead I went with the Le Parisien

Scrambled eggs, applewood bacon, with our award winning croissant, jam, butter, breakfast potatoes

This is a basic breakfast, kicked up a bunch of notches. The eggs were delicious and very clearly freshly cracked, completely the opposite of my hotel debacle the previous morning. The bacon is thick cut and cooked just the way I like it. When I first saw the potatoes I was a little disappointed by the lack of color. But what they lack in color, they make up for in great flavor. However, I only ate a few bites so I could save my carbs for the croissant. And I'm glad that I did. The croissant was excellent, very light and flaky. I wish they gave you more butter rather than jam. Yes, I realize I could have gotten up and gotten more, but I was just too lazy.

Will I go back? If I lived there I would be there every Sunday. 

Shared On

Wonderful Wednesday

#189 - Piranha Killer Sushi, Flower Mound, TX

Two weeks ago, Joni's daughter got married. So of course I'm not going to miss out on that, even if it means a weekend away from Stillwater so close to the first home game. I very rarely do that. I'm a well-known procrastinator, but I made sure I was in pretty good shape work-wise before I left.  I drove down Friday afternoon, and was staying at a hotel in Grapevine. My original plan had been to take a nap when I got to the hotel, but then I saw I was literally right next door to Grapevine Mills Mall. So I bucked up and hit the mall. After about 5 stores I started getting tired.  I pushed through and walked the rest of the mall, but then headed back to the room. By this time it was too late for a nap, so next on the list was dinner. 

I self-created LOTS of drama in picking a dinner spot. I went back and forth between 5 different restaurants, driving much more than necessary, and getting thoroughly annoyed in the process. Finally I decided on Piranha Killer Sushi. They're part of the restaurant.com program, and I had thought about trying it numerous times. So that's where I went. 

The restaurant is in Highland Village, about a 10-minute drive from Joni's house. This is one of 6 locations, all in Texas. It's not a huge place, but it's got a great corner location in a shopping center. There's a great outdoor patio that takes up one whole side of the restaurant, with about 20 tables that are a combination of high top tables, short tables, and bar seating. This is the second restaurant I've seen where half of the bar is outside on the patio, and the other half is inside the restaurant. Great use of space, and more places should do that. As you enter the main doors of the restaurant there's a small seating area behind the host stand, a sushi bar, inside bar seating, and then the patio. It was such a gorgeous night that I sat on the patio. They have little Christmas lights hanging from the trees, and that's the only real exterior lighting. So once it gets dark, you can barely see. I think they should add little tealights or something on the tables so you can see both your food and who you're talking to. I had my Nook with me, as I always do when I dine solo, and I had to stop reading by the time I got my appetizer because I couldn't see a thing. But that was the only negative about the atmosphere.

For the restaurant.com coupon I had to spend $20. So my plan was to start with edamame, which is one of my favorite things to get at Asian restaurants. But then I saw la la's jalapeno poppers; and in the spirit of food blog research I knew I had to get them. My server warned me that the jalapenos they had that week were spicy, and that it was a large serving, but I decided to brave it.

She wasn't kidding. About the spice or the size. One bite, and my mouth was on fire. But the cream cheese and sauce on top cooled it down. The poppers were really good, and I absolutely loved the sauce. I've never seen them tempura fried before, but I like the change-up, and the tempura is lighter than normal breading coating. Lightly fried, stuffed, and delicious. It was a lot more than I could eat, especially since I was ordering sushi, so I stopped about halfway through.

I had originally considered getting 2 rolls, but since I had the poppers I only needed one. I still needed to make sure I got up to $20 so I could use the coupon. After a lot of back and forth, I went with the lobster roll

Masago, scallions, shrimp tempura & ginger cream topped with avocado & lobster

The rest of the roll was very good, and the flavors worked really well together. The lobster added great flavor to the roll, but when I tasted a piece by itself that had fallen off, it was just okay. I knew I was taking a gamble with the lobster. Being from the East coast, I am very picky about seafood.

Will I go back? Yes. Joni would really enjoy it because of the awesome patio and good selection of wines. I want to try some of the other rolls, and Joni (who doesn't do sushi) can get something else. Or we can split some appetizers.  Or, just play it by ear.

Repeats with a Twist - Farina's Winery & Cafe, Grapevine, TX

Farina's Winery & Cafe is one of my favorite restaurants in downtown Grapevine, TX. My first trip was just over a year ago with Joni for lunch.  Then in March we went back for lunch, sat on the patio, and used a restaurant.com gift certificate to save $50 on our meal.  If you've never used restaurant.com, you're missing out.  There's restaurants all across the country that participate, and basically the certificates get you half off when you spend at least a certain amount. I've found quite a few restaurants for this blog through the site, restaurants I never would have found otherwise.

Last Saturday evening we were discussing where to have dinner, and we finally decided on Farina's.  I had never been there for dinner, so I was good with that.

There are 2 entrances to the restaurant.  The main entrance on Main Street, and then at the back of the restaurant, through the patio.  We entered through the back this time, since that's where we parked.  Farina's is a very unique space, as there's no direct path between the main dining room and the patio; you have to walk through both the kitchen and the antique shop next door. I've seen reviews where people hate it and complain; to me, it just adds character.

Grapevine is always crowded on the weekends.  And on Saturday night, the restaurants were packed.  We wanted to sit on the patio, but there was a private party in there, so the wait was going to be about 30 minutes. That wasn't a problem for us, so we waited at the bar. I really like the chandelier hanging over the main dining room

Our wait ended up being closer to 45 minutes, but it still wasn't too bad.  And we didn't mind because they have live music on Saturday nights.  It was one guy playing the guitar and singing, and he was really good. The patio is a good size, seating about 50. Half the patio is covered, and the other half is uncovered. When it's daylight and not too hot, sitting in the sunlight is great. We sat in the covered section and it was a little dark, but too much light is going to bring out the bugs. They also had fans moving the air so it felt good.

We started with a cheese plate

I'm not a big fan of olives, but I really liked the tapenade.  I've had a couple other tapenades that I really enjoyed as well. Maybe I just do better with a mix of olives.  The pesto was delicious. I'm not sure what the different cheese were, but they were all pretty mild, and were all good.

Garlic bread came next.  This caught me by surprise, because we'd only ever been here for lunch and they don't do bread then.

It was served warm, and they definitely didn't skimp on the spread.  It was delicious, but I was good and stuck with one piece.

Our entrees came with a salad, and I got the homemade creamy Italian on the side

I've gotten this salad before and it was like they dumped all the olives in the restaurant on there.  This time it was much less, which works for me. The salad was good, but way too much cheese. I only ate about half the salad to save room for my meal.

Tony got the basil pesto pasta with meatballs. Joni got pizza with all veggies (mushrooms, pepperoncini peppers, and spinach) and I got the shrimp scampi

Basil, pine nuts, chopped meatballs and fresh garlic sauteed in a cream sauce
and served over penne pasta

This dish was excellent.  The pesto was so fresh and flavorful. And even though it was a cream sauce, it was very light.  

I didn't try any of Joni's pizza, but she said it was good, as always.

Succulent shrimp sauteed in a garlic butter sauce, topped with Italian seasoned bread crumbs
and Romano cheese, then baked to a golden brown. Served with spaghetti alfredo

The shrimp was a little overcooked, but the outstanding flavor made up for that.  And it was served scorching hot, so I was really happy. It's a good thing I wasn't kissing anyone, because the garlic was powerful. I mean, I was breathing fire.  But that didn't stop me from eating the whole thing, and even dipping some of my pasta in the remaining sauce. The spaghetti alrfedo was awesome.  So often alfredo sauce weighs down the pasta, but this one was very light. I really liked that the portions weren't outrageous. 

I was able to download a restaurant.com certificate to use here again. It was a $50 certificate, so we had to run up the bill.  It really wasn't that hard with 3 of us.

Yes, of course I will be going back.  Most likely on my next trip to Flower Mound.

Repeats with a Twist - Asahi Teppenyaki & Sushi, Flower Mound, TX

Even though I had quite a few samples at the Dallas Farmer's Market last Saturday morning, I didn't go crazy on them; I knew that by the time I got back to Joni's house it would be time to start thinking about lunch.  My original plan had been to leave the market by 11, but of course I got sidetracked by all the goodies and didn't leave until 11:30.

After some discussion of cuisine and locations, we finally decided on Asahi Teppenyaki & Sushi. I had been there with Joni once before 2 years ago.  That was back when I wasn't taking notes as I ate, and I was also way behind on doing my posts. So by the time I actually wrote the review I couldn't remember the names of anything I had.  I always apologize to new meal companions when taking notes, but they fully understand when I explain why.

We pulled into the parking lot from a back street, and really weren't even sure if it was open anymore.  There were only a couple of cars in the parking lot because it a Saturday past the lunch hour. And also there was no sign above the front door.  I later noticed that the sign is on the side of the building that faces the main road.  That kind of makes sense, but at the same time it's still pretty odd.

What I remember the most about our last visit--other than the great food--was the unruly kids. We were seated in the bar area, and this group of little kids kept running all around the restaurant. They were even playing hide-and-seek, and yelling for each other.  Mind you, this was during dinner, when the place was almost full. The worst part was that not once did the parents even attempt to control the kids.  They didn't even get up to come look for them. When I was a kid, if I had even thought of doing something like that, my mom would have spanked me in front of everyone.  Heck, the manager could have spanked me and my mom would have been okay with it.  Wait, I never would have acted like that because I was raised better. These days, if a stranger had confronted the parents or even said something to the kids, the parents would have flipped out.  A couple times the kids were leaning over into this waterfall in the entry foyer. It was all I could do not to dump them in there. 

Thankfully, the restaurant was nice and quiet on this visit, and we were seated in the main dining room.  Asahi has 3 distinct dining areas.  As you walk in and past the host stand, there's a sushi bar area to the right with a long sushi bar and table seating.  The main dining room is to the left of the host stand and is pretty small, with 6 booths and 3 tables. The hibachi tables are just beyond the main dining room.

I don't usually take pictures of the menu, but this one was so unique and I really liked it

I don't know if it means anything, but I just thought it was really cool.

Joni was in charge of the appetizer.  She said she had been at a Thai restaurant lately and the spring rolls weren't fried and were really good.  But the rolls here are fried, so instead we went with steamed gyoza

I've had gyoza lots of times, and this was one of my favorites.  I usually get it fried, but I think I might be a bigger fan of the steamed. The filling was so flavorful, and the dipping sauce matched it perfectly.

Joni doesn't do sushi.  Ever.  So she went with the chicken hibachi, and she selected fried rice. It also comes with soup and salad

The salad is a small green salad.  She had already dug in before I could get a picture, so that's already a little mixed.  The soup is miso.  I didn't try either one, but she said they were good.

I tried a piece of the chicken, and it was delicious.  Very well seasoned.  The fried rice was fantastic.  I can't tell you the last time I had fried rice, but I'm glad she got it and that I tried it. At the hibachi table they cook the rice with the veggies and meat so it gets all the same spices and flavor. I could have eaten that whole bowl.

I started with the sakura. I had never even heard of it before, but sounded very interesting and there were only 3 pieces.  I figure if it wasn't good, I wouldn't waste much.  

Mini tostada chips filled with crab meat & spicy tuna, topped with masago and a hint of eel sauce

These were awesome.  They really were mini, little one-bite appetizers served cold. The menu says that the tuna is spicy, but I really didn't taste any spice at all. I'm very slowly becoming a fan of raw tuna...as long as it is in small quantities and there's other stuff to go with it. I never used to like masago, but I tried it once about a year ago and was hooked. The garnish was julienned carrots, so I dipped those into my soy sauce and ate those as well.

For my other roll I got the caterpillar. I don't do raw eel, so before I ordered it I asked the server. She confirmed that it's seared.

Eel & cucumber, topped with avocado and eel sauce

This roll was so good.  The creamy avocado went really well with the rest of the roll. The pieces of eel were pretty big, and perfectly seared. The first time I tried eel sauce I thought it was made from eel. But there's absolutely no eel in there.  So I can't figure out where the name came from.

I was a little worried with my order, because there were no prices listed on the menu. That's usually a dangerous sign, and you end up unintentionally spending a ton of money. But it was just the opposite here, so I was happy.

Will I go back? No question.  The food is delicious, the service is prompt and attentive, and I really like that the manager is there, visible; as a matter of fact, she was seating everyone during our visit.