Lunch at Basho Japanese Brasserie!

Thanks to a Groupon, we mustered up the energy to venture over to Fenway and give Basho Japanese Brasserie a try! Walking in at 12:30 on a Saturday afternoon amid a torrential downpour, the place was pretty empty, and the sleek, dim interior with high ceilings somewhat added to the emptiness. The space didn't do much for me, but that was nothing a satisfying meal couldn't fix.

We were quickly seated and presented with the menus - quite extensive! There's basically about every type of Japanese you could want, not to mention daily specials, cocktails...To start we went with one of the appetizers on special, a refreshing ceviche with octopus, mango, and a number of other delicious things. We also threw in an order of edamame steamed in spicy garlic and ginger to munch on. How bad could that be?


For our actual meals we ended up with one of the types of lunch specials. I went with the Basho Lunch Set includes chef's choice of sashimi, sushi, yakimono, and agemono served with salad, rice, and fruit. Yakimono is a general category of grilled and pan-friend dishes, while agemono are deep-fried dishes.
I absolutely love the concept of bento, and this selection didn't disappoint! For my sushi I had a nigiri shrimp (kind of lame, but that's fine) and then red snapper - really fresh and delicious - and then two pieces of a roll with avocado, crab stick, some type of roe, and a fried mystery item! My sashimi was nice fat, pieces of salmon. Perfect! I honestly have no idea what my agemono was, but it was starchy and the consistency or sweet potato - perhaps some type of root, mixed with assorted bits of veggies. The yakemono was a nice skewer of grilled shrimp and veggies, and there were also a few pieces of chicken katsu. That, plus the salad, rice, and orange, is a pretty nice array of stuff!


The other lunch special, the selection bento, includes the choice of a sushi roll and main course, also served with salad, rice, and fruit. For the roll you can choose between Spicy Tuna, Alaskan, California, Sweet Potato, or Garden, and the main course is either chicken katso, salmon teriyaki, vegetable tempura, or a beef roll. Yum! Chris chose the spicy tuna roll - standard and well done, and the beef role, which is done as if it were maki in that the beef is pounded out and used to wrap, like nori. The beef was glazed with teriyaki and wrapped around asparagus.

All in all everything was really nicely put together. My only complaint is that I wish I had ordered more sushi and sashimi! I'll certainly be back for more of the sushi items, as well as more interesting dishes like smoked salmon fried rice and spicy lobster miso soup!

Q Restaurant

I woke up with a taste for something Asian, but instead of doing Dim Sum we opted to try Chinatown's Q restaurant, which offers Chinese, Japanese, and Thai cuisine. It was pretty empty for a Sunday at lunch time, so we were seated right away at a booth.

The atmosphere is modern and somewhat dimly lit with red walls and a number of nice-looking saltwater aquariums. Seating-wise there's a bar/lounge area with high tables, the sushi bar, as well as booths and tables.

The menu is fairly extensive and after appetizers and drinks is divided into Chinese dishes, Japanese/sushi items, and lastly Mongolian hot pot selections. Spicy tuna, spicy yellowtail, and spicy salmon rolls are $4 every day, so we started out splitting a roll for an appetizer. We went with the spicy tuna, which included of course tuna, cucumber, tempura chips, and spicy mayo. The toasted sesame seeds on the outside were a nice touch - delicious!

Chris went with a sweet and sour Chinese standard, General Gau's chicken. Typically the chicken is fried, but the chef was kind enough to stir fry it for him (so he could pretend he was eating more healthily). The ginger, garlic, sesame oil, scallions, hot chili peppers, etc. all came together nicely, but it was a little on the sweeter side than other versions of the dish we've had. Likewise it could have been a little spicier, but overall it was very tasty.

On such a cool, rainy afternoon I couldn't help but want a nice big bowl of soup, so I went with the Mongolian hot pot option. Hot pot cooking goes by a number of names, including shabu shabu, but the general idea is that you are presented with a huge bowl of broth that is kept hot by the electric burner built into the table. Thinly sliced raw meat, fish and vegetables are then placed in the pot where they cook and absorb the broth's flavors. Lastly you fish them out and can dip them in a number of sauces.

I chose the standard beef broth, which seemed to have ginger, scallions, and other goodies floating in it as well. Other broths included kimchee, tom yum, and black bone chicken. For my meat I went with the pork, but there was no shortage of options - short ribs, beef and lamb, angus sirloin, salmon, flounder, shrimp, and much more! Lastly I chose to have Japanese udon noodles, but cellophane, wide bean thread, and "S.T" (wide, flat) noodles were also options. Also included was a vegetable selection - bok choy, cabbage, tomato, mushroom, tofu, and a couple of other things were there.

The amount of broth I was brought could have fed a small family, but I naturally had no problem with that! It was very fun plunging my various things into the broth, which then made it tastier and tastier as time went by. To dip my meat and veggies I had garlic, scallions, cilantro, soy, a chili sauce, a vinegar sauce, and what I think was shacha sauce. Everything was great and I finished up feeling full and satisfied.

For dessert there are a number of ice creams like azuki bean, ginger, and green tea as well as a number of cakes, but we were too full and opted out. Overall it was a really nice lunch and I would certainly return for another meal!

Snappy Sushi

Having a craving for sushi but not wanting to spend an arm and a leg we decided to check out Snappy Sushi, a sushi joint recently having relocated to 108 Newbury from further up the street. Known for having only koshikari brown rice, Snappy offers a healthier alternative to the more traditional brown rice. The restaurant´s interior is two leveled, with the top floor having a small seating area and the downstairs offering both sushi bar seating and a number of tables.

I was pleased to see that the menu items were very reasonably priced, as sushi can obviously get quite expensive. The fancy rolls average about $10 for 6 pieces, while the more traditional rolls, both standard and "inside-out" averaged at about 5. Pieces of nigiri were either $1 or $2, and there are a number of salads and other plates averaging around $12. We decided to keep it simple and order a few pieces of nigiri as well as a few rolls.

The best roll was the crispy eel roll, which had eel, avocado, cucumber, and flying fish roe topped with mayo and crunchy tempura bits, drizzled with eel sauce. The yellowtail and salmon rolls were standard, and the inside-out spicy tuna was also very good and had a nice sprinkling of sesame seeds on the outside. The fact that all of the rolls came with brown rice was undetectable in all but the spicy tuna roll given that it had the most rice. While I must admit I do prefer the white rice, the brown was certainly nothing to complain about, especially with it being healthier. For nigiri we had the saba (mackerel), tamago (sweet egg omelet), ika (squid), and ikura (salmon roe), all of which were delicious.

I would certainly return for another round of sushi, perhaps sampling one of their very reasonable lunch specials. Other fancy rolls of future interest include the Boston Lobster Roll, which has avocado, cucumber, and green leaf rolled together, and dressed with chopped lobster meat mixed with red onion and flying fish roe in wasabi-butter sauce, and the Roasted Garlic Scallop roll, which is an avocado and cucumber roll dressed with chopped scallops and onion in Snappy Sushi's sweet garlic sauce, topped with garlic mayo and black flying fish roe.

Wagamama (Prudential Center)

Today, I went for a quick bite to Wagamama in the Prudential Center with my friend Randy. I had only been to one Wagamama before and it was in London. From what I remembered, Wagamama was a relatively inexpensive noodle house that proved to be a good time so I was anxious to try out their new second Boston location. Wagamama is open and airy with long wooden tables laid down in rows, not much fuss or muss about the place. This sparser atmosphere works well and lends a clean, modern, and comfortable feel to the restaurant.

We were quickly greeted at the door by a nice woman who brought us to our table. At Wagamama, there is a chance that you could end up sitting right next to someone you don't know since the tables hold at least 20 people. Tonight wasn't extremely crowded so we were able to secure part of a table that was a bit away from people. For drinks, we both ordered Japanese beer. I ordered the Tiger Beer,billed as "a premium beer from the far east with a full flavour and refreshing taste" it was just as it was described, a pretty darn good light beer (with a cool label). Randy got the Kirin Ichiban premium beer, "the fine aroma of hops and joponica rice provides its lighter body and delicate aftertaste". Randy said he enjoyed it very much although I did note it had a bit of a bitter aftertaste compared to the Tiger Beer. (Something I did notice is that no one at the restaurant had a glass of water...not sure if you specifically have to ask or if it costs extra.)

For an appetizer we got a bowl of edamame. Edamame is steamed green soybeans. Ours were covered in salt and chili pepper (just lightly) and they were great. A good snack before our main course.

For our entrees, I ordered the simple Chicken Ramen ($9.50). The Chicken Ramen is "soup and ramen noodles topped with a marinated and grilled chicken breast, seasonal greens, menma and sliced scalion." When it arrived it came with chop sticks and a small ladle that I wasn't quite sure how to use. I enjoyed the Ramen. It was simple but fresh and the noodles were soft and good. The broth wasn't as salty as ramen you buy in the store but I think that's definitely a good thing! The best part? I got to slurp up the liquid at the end right from the bowl!





Randy ordered the more complex chicken chili men, "stir-fried chicken, squash, red onion, peppers, snow peas and scallion served with wheat noodles in a chili sauce made from chilies, ginger, garlic, onion, lemongrass, sweet red pepper and tomato. It was a bit spicy for me but had a good flavor to it and had a familiar tomato sauce taste.

One thing Randy pointed out to me was that at Wagamama, they bring your food out right when it's done so sometimes not everyone is fed at once. This isn't a huge problem since most of the food arrives within 5 minutes of ordering.

I really enjoyed Wagamama. It had a fun crowd from young college students to fancily dressed older women, friends and couples. The wait staff was super friendly and super fast. They even bring the credit card machine right to your table so you don't have to wait too long for the bill. I would definitely recommend Wagamama for a fun quick bite with friends.