M's Favorite Food Memories of 2017

Somehow it's already May, and we still haven't posted our favorite food memories from last year. We originally planned to do it by Chinese New Year, and then wanted to finish them before we moved, but things got so busy and so hectic (multiple all-nighters level of busy), much more than we anticipated despite knowing we had 12 years of stuff to move, and we never got to it. A lot of our stuff is still in boxes, and we still don't have a complete living room, but we don't want to neglect this blog forever. So this post is long overdue, but before summer officially kicks off, here are my favorite food memories from 2017. We ate a lot of good food in 2017, both at home in NYC and on our trips to LA, Seattle, and Vancouver. In (sort of) alphabetical order, here are my 10 favorite food memories of 2017.

1. Eatsa (NYC)

I went to Eatsa for the first time early in 2017 (we posted about it) and returned several more times over the course of the year. (It probably would have been many more if I had still worked in a Midtown office.) Eatsa revolutionized the eating scene in two different ways: the ordering process (automat-style from a kiosk/phone app without any human interaction) and making healthy quinoa bowls affordable (pretty much everything was under $10). In the end, the price may be part of what did them in, since quinoa isn't cheap, and they closed all their non-SF stores in October. (The cynical part of me still wonders if all the stores were just a test run for their tech.) I'll always be sad that I can never have another no worry curry (what ended up being my favorite) bowl again, with its tasty quinoa, spaghetti squash, apple-cabbage slaw, pickled onions, red Thai curry sauce, and more, but all the tasty bowls are a happy memory of 2017.

2. Bollo de pescado from Ecuadorian Delights at the Queens International Night Market (NYC)

I love going to the Queens International Night Market (which has already started up for 2018 before I finished this post). In 2017, we made two visits and sampled Burmese, Guyanese, Antiguan, Salvadoran, Ecuadorian, Guatemalan, Persian, Nigerian, and Filipino cuisine. There really isn't anywhere else in the city where you can do all that in a short period of time and at affordable prices. My favorite thing at the night market last year was the bollo de pescado from Ecuadorian Delights, a green plantain tamale with tuna and peanut sauce wrapped up in banana leaves and topped with pickled onions. It was so delicious, and tasted like something that was just made in someone's home kitchen. We got it on both visits because we liked it so much, meaning we were too full to try their hallaca or corviche, and now I have no idea where to go to get any of those.

3. Corn ice cream taco from Empellon (NYC)

We went to the Midtown Empellon to celebrate my birthday, and one of the desserts that we heard a lot about before our visit was the corn ice cream taco. I figured it would be good, but I wasn't prepared for the explosion of corn flavor in every bite. Corn and ice cream are a great combination, one of my favorites, with some sweetness, saltiness, and savory flavor all in one bite. It wasn't a big dessert, so we were also able to get the avocado dessert and a seasonal apple dessert sampler, but it was probably my favorite dessert of the year.

4. Acai and pitaya bowls from Fruit Wonders (Palm Springs, CA)

Our big trip last year was to California, and we spent a few relaxing days in Palm Springs. It was really hot during the day, and the perfect way to cool down was a visit to Fruit Wonders. We got an açaí bowl the first time and a pitaya bowl the second, and both were really good. Sweet smoothies with granola, hemp seeds, oatmeal, blueberries, bananas, strawberries, kiwi, coconut, and agave. We'd been wanting to try açaí bowls for a while, but this was our first time, and we were hooked thanks to Fruit Wonders.

5. Los Tacos No. 1 (NYC)

Los Tacos No. 1 has been open in Chelsea Market for years, but they finally opened a second location, right near Times Square, last summer. Their tacos are some of the best in the city, and this new location was so much closer to us. We went there a lot since their opening, getting tacos, quesadillas, mulas, and nopal plates topped with (most commonly) pollo asado or adobada. Even with all the new spots in Hell's Kitchen/Midtown West over the past year, its arrival was the most exciting thing that happened for us. One of my few regrets before we moved was that I didn't manage to go there even more.

6. Salmon oshi sushi from Miku (Vancouver, BC)

We had a lot of things on our Vancouver to-try list for our few days there, and one of the must-dos was aburi oshi sushi, a special type of sushi that is not very common around here, pressed and flame-seared. We went to Miku, an expensive restaurant on the downtown waterfront, and sat at the bar for a light meal just so we could try the sushi. The salmon was BC wild sockeye salmon, and it was topped with jalapeño and Miku sauce. This was unlike any other sushi we'd had before. It basically melted in your mouth, and was so full of flavor. Pretty much a perfect bite of sushi, and I still dream about it.

7. The famous chicken for two from The NoMad (NYC)

We went to The Nomad for A's birthday, and we were finally able to try their famous whole-roasted chicken for two. We weren't sure if it would live up to the incredible hype, but it definitely did. They bring the chicken out to you once it's done, but then bring it to the back and plate it. You get a large piece of white meat chicken, so juicy and tender, with foie gras, black truffle, and brioche bread crumbs under the skin, on a plate with potato puree and leeks, and then you get the dark meat in a small bowl like a stew. It was amazing, and its stellar reputation is well-earned.

8. Cheddar garlic roll from Piroshky Piroshky (Seattle, WA)

I'm not big on waiting in line for food, but we waited for Piroshky Piroshky. We had tried their salmon pate piroshky years ago when a relative gave one to us to try, so we got that again along with some other stuff that looked good. While the salmon one was as good as we remembered, what we really loved was the cheddar garlic roll. Layers of perfectly chewy pastry with cheddar cheese, garlic, and scallions, it was a combination of some of my favorite things. We went back again on the day we left to get some more, because it was just that good.

9. Sisig tacos from various spots around NYC

We don't have any Filipino restaurants in our neighborhood (last year or now), so before last year, we only ended up getting Filipino food once in a (very long) while. Last summer, we got some sisig tacos at a street fair, and that ended up kicking off an unplanned summer of Filipino food exploration. We got so much Filipino food last summer, everything from halo halo to sisig bangus to chicken adobo to buko pandan, but of course, more sisig tacos all over the place. They may not be traditional Filipino cuisine, but they're fun to eat and delicious.

10. Sockeye salmon sashimi from Sushi Itoga (Vancouver, BC)

Last but certainly not least, the sockeye salmon sashimi from Sushi Itoga in Vancouver. Sushi Itoga was another one of those must-try things I put on our Vancouver list. It was a small spot where you ordered sushi at the counter, and then they brought it to your table. Even better, it was incredibly affordable. We got six rolls, a plate of sashimi, seaweed salad, and the included miso soup and tea for like US $35. Even better than the price was the quality. That sashimi was so fresh, and it was so soft that it really just melted in our mouths. (I realize I said the same thing about Miku, but it's true.) We went there on our last day in Vancouver, and we were talking about the sashimi the entire way back to Seattle on the train.

There you have it, my favorite food memories of 2017. Somehow it took over four months to put it into words, but it's finally done!

Team Mystic

Some days you just want some sushi. That was how we found ourselves at Ajisai, our neighborhood sushi joint (previously posted here), yesterday after a late visit to the gym. Although there were a lot of appetizers and hot food on the menu that sounded tempting, we decided to stick with rolls.

We ordered a sushi combo (which came with a salad or soup) along with 3 individual special rolls. The salad was your typical sushi joint salad - mostly lettuce with some cucumber and carrots and an orange-colored ginger dressing. We really love that dressing, so even if the salad ingredients themselves are never that exciting, we like eating the salad because of the dressing.

The combo we got was combo C ($16), which had a yellowtail jalapeño roll, spicy tuna roll, and spicy crunchy salmon roll. Whenever we get a combo, it's pretty much always this one. The quality is pretty good and everything tastes really fresh. This time around, my favorite from the combo was probably the spicy crunchy salmon, and A's was the spicy tuna roll.

We also got the namesake Ajisai roll ($16), described on the menu as "spicy crunchy salmon, mango, topped with black pepper tuna, sweet shrimp, eel, avocado, and tobiko with mango sauce." We've probably gotten this one before, but since we never posted about any of our visits before, it's hard to say for sure. This roll definitely had some sweetness from all the mango, but it wasn't an overwhelming amount. Our favorite parts of this roll were the ones with the black pepper tuna, but it was all pretty good.

The second special roll we got was the viking roll ($14), which was "eel, avocado, crunchy inside, tuna, salmon, yellowtail on the top with spicy sauce." It was also topped with some microgreens. This roll was good too, but texturally, it kind of mashed together a bit since all the ingredients were soft and covered in sauce. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing though, as the taste was good. A particularly liked this one because of the eel which is usually his favorite type of sushi fish.

The last special roll we got, I hadn't even seen on the menu when browsing it, but once A pointed it out, I knew we had to get it. It was called the mystic roll ($16), and considering we're Team Mystic in Pokemon Go (and proud of it), it was like it was meant to be. The mystic roll had "spicy tuna, avocado, crunchy, top with seared tuna and red wine pear with black rice and carrot ginger sauce." While we were pretty sure we had gotten the Ajisai roll before, and we knew we had gotten the viking roll before, we were relatively confident that this one would be new for us. We would have remembered eating a sushi roll with crunchy wine-soaked pear on top of it. This roll was really interesting and we liked it. The black rice added a little bit of a different flavor (you could get the other rolls with black rice too, but it costs extra), and it was nicely balanced out with the mild sweetness of the pear and that carrot ginger dressing I've already mentioned we love. It was a good choice, but we would expect nothing less from something called a mystic roll.

We were pretty happy with our Ajisai sushi dinner, and it was exactly what we both wanted for dinner. It's nice having a reliable sushi joint in the neighborhood.

Sushi Star

Last fall (I think), a new sushi spot opened up on 9th Avenue that I noticed whenever I would bike downtown, and I was intrigued by what they had to offer. It looked like there was takeout sushi, but they also advertised sushi to order. Recently, I noticed they had a discount through LevelUp, so I thought it was the perfect time to try something new.

There are 2 ways to order at Sushi Star (but I didn't know this until after I had already gotten my food). You can either get pre-made sushi or other food from the refrigerated cases on the side of the restaurant, or you can use their electronic menu and order from an even greater selection of sushi which is then made and brought out to you. Pretty cool idea. In any event, I had already chosen a pre-made "super salmon box," which had a 6 piece salmon avocado roll, plus 3 pieces of spicy salmon roll and 3 pieces of smoked salmon cream cheese roll, along with a small portion of edamame. The cost was $13.95, so after applying my $5 discount and adding tax (I forgot about tax in my initial calculations), it still ended up over $10 in total. I was trying to spend less than $10 after the discount, but didn't succeed.

The sushi rolls themselves were pretty good. I liked the flavors, everything tasted fresh, and the quality of the rolls was on par with sit-down sushi places that we've been to before. The edamame was fine, pretty standard, but a very small portion. My main issue with lunch was the price. That box was the equivalent of 2 sushi rolls plus a little bit of edamame, and without the discount, would have been over $15. Meanwhile, I could order a sushi lunch special to go from one of the sushi places in our neighborhood of similar quality, which would be 2 rolls plus miso soup and a salad, for a little over $11 (regular price). The prices at Sushi Star just seem very high for the amount of food you're getting, and I can't imagine I would be full without spending more than I would like. So while the quality was pretty good, because of how much I would prefer to spend (YMMV), I can't see going there again without a discount of some sort.

Sushi Star is located at 462 9th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen.

Uma Temakeria

We've had Uma Temakeria on our radar for a while, ever since Chef Chris Jaeckle of all'onda opened the first location, mostly because of their hyped sushi burrito (they claim to have been the first in the city to make it), but also because we were intrigued by how they were inspired by the Brazilian temakeria (that is obviously related to our WorldEats interest). Last fall, they opened a second location at the (much closer to us) Gotham West Market, and we finally made it in to try the sushi burrito last weekend.

Since it was our first visit, I decided to go with the "uma-ritto," their namesake sushi burrito, which was $11. I figured that the chef-designed combination might taste better than throwing every possible item into the burrito. The uma-ritto had salmon, tuna, tobanjan mayo, cucumber, carrots, tempura crunch, and sesame seeds. I chose brown rice for the base, and since you could add in any of the free vegetables, I did choose to add in some seaweed salad, figuring that shouldn't detract from the original combo's flavors. While I appreciated that they made everything from scratch after you ordered, it did take over 10 minutes to get the burrito (which from all of our Chipotle experience would seem like a long time for a line assembly), so I'm not sure how that would go at a more peak time.

We liked the sushi burrito, but we don't know that it lived up to the insane amounts of hype that surrounded it when it first came out. It was a nice twist on temaki (hand rolls) and a bit more filling (although certainly not as huge as the person working there made it sound when someone said they wanted a light dinner), and the ingredients did taste good. Honestly though, it's really kind of just a reformatted hand roll, and a little expensive for the size, but tasty for what it is.

Our Feast of the Seven Fishes

Happy Christmas to all who celebrate! Our holiday has been filled with lots of good food and some low-key family time, which has been nice. Last night for Christmas Eve, we went to my parents' favorite sushi place on Staten Island, Genki Sushi, for dinner. Sushi has been our tradition on Christmas Eve for years now, as a way to honor the Italian-American Christmas Eve tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes (there were a lot of Italians in my neighborhood growing up). Sushi is a pretty easy way to eat at least 7 different fish or seafood types, so we've been doing that for as long as I can remember.

We started our Christmas Eve dinner with this special appetizer that had eel and avocado wrapped in some cooked whitefish (not sure what type since it was off-menu). This was a really tasty way to start the meal and we were already up to 2 fish: eel and whatever that white fish was.

One of our favorite appetizers there is the dragon ball, which is spicy kani and shrimp wrapped with avocado and topped with a special sauce and some roe. We don't think it's real crab, but that sea legs imitation crab stuff (which I guess is mostly pollock usually). Either way, 2 appetizers in and we were already up to 4 different types of seafood: eel, whitefish, kani, and shrimp.

Next came the tuna pizza, a crispy tortilla (like a flatbread) topped with tuna, crab (the same stuff that's in the dragon balls), and avocado (spread). Pretty good, but we like the dragon balls better. The tuna pizza brought us up to 5 fishes.

Every so often my parents like to order the pineapple fried rice which comes served in a pineapple with a sauce that tastes a little like a pineapple mayo, kind of sweet, kind of tangy, kind of creamy. The fried rice mixes in shrimp, crab, chicken, and scallop, so that brought us up to 6 with the scallops before the sushi rolls even arrived.

We ordered a whole bunch of rolls, both "regular" and "special" rolls, and I'm pretty sure we covered at least 7 fishes with the rolls alone. 

The first roll on the plate was the dragon roll - eel, masago, avocado, wrapped with avocado and topped with roe. This is a classic roll that you can find at most sushi places, but this is a good version. We already counted eel so we were still at 6.

These 2 were the spicy scallop roll and the rainbow roll, a California roll wrapped with avocado, tuna, salmon, and white fish. The inside of a California roll is usually that same imitation crab stuff, and we've already counted scallops, tuna, and white fish, but salmon hit the magic number of 7 fishes. That said, I always thought the "white fish" here was yellowtail instead of white fish like the menu said, which if it were would take us to 8. Not a big deal though, because there would be more yellowtail to come later.

I didn't remember ever trying this roll before, but this one was the Halloween roll. I'm not entirely sure what's in it since it's one of the newer special rolls that's not listed on their takeout menu, but it seemed like spicy tuna and avocado on the inside, with white tuna and peppered tuna on the outside. The peppery flavor of the tuna made this one really stand out, and with the white tuna, our fish total came up at 8.

Three rolls in this picture - salmon/avocado, yellowtail/scallion, and spider roll (soft shell crab). The yellowtail took us to 9, and the soft shell crab (different from the kani stuff in the other dishes) took us to 10. These were all pretty standard rolls from the "regular" section.

One of the special rolls we really like at Genki is the Ichiban roll - spicy tuna and crunch on the inside, with lobster tempura, avocado, and special sauce on the outside. The lobster took us to 11!

The current seasonal special roll was called the new year's roll and consisted of tuna, salmon, and avocado on the inside, and a lobster salad on the outside. This one was really good, and while containing rich lobster, it was fresh and bright and light, exactly what one would think of for a good start to the new year. Since there weren't any new fishes here, we ended Christmas Eve night at 11. Success!

We actually went back again to Genki tonight for Christmas dinner, getting a couple of the same things like the fried rice, but mostly ordering all new things. Some of the biggest hits from tonight's dinner were the spicy girl roll (spicy salmon crunch and avocado inside, with tuna, white tuna, scallions, and spicy sauce on the outside), the volcano salad (spicy tuna, kani, shrimp, tako, and seaweed salad, wrapped in avocado and special sauce), and the yellowtail guacamole (crisps topped with avocado, tomato, and seared yellowtail).

We've never had a bad dish at Genki, even when they're experimenting with new dishes and combinations. It's definitely the sushi place we visit most often since my parents love to go there, the staff is friendly and attentive, and the food tastes good. Is it some sort of high end traditional omakase? No. But the sushi rolls and appetizers are tasty, the quality has always been good, and we love seeing what new specials they're going to come up with next!

Genki Sushi is located at 150 Greaves Lane in Staten Island.

Bento Sushi and Noodles

Sorry, it's been a while since I've posted. Work has been busy, and I've been lazy and slacking at my blogging. Anyway...

I had tried going to a bento place that I had read good reviews on earlier this year, but it didn't have any food left, and it wouldn't have had any seats anyway. Time went on, and I resigned myself to not having a replacement for Wasabi Sushi and Bento. Then one day I was in a wandering mood, and I came across Bento Sushi and Noodles. I've been twice now so I'll go through both of my choices.

The way their bento boxes work is that you pick up one of their pre-made sets. Each box contains a salad and a dumpling, but you get to choose between a california roll, a vegetable roll, or two pieces of salmon nigiri. You then tell them at the register which protein you want, and they prepare the rest for you. First time through I got the chicken curry bento box with the salmon nigiri.

I've had quite a bit of Japanese curry in my day. Go!Go!Curry! was a regular haunt of mine back at my old job. Overall, this was a pretty tasty curry. The vegetables and chicken accented the spiced curry gravy very well, and the entire dish had a solid, comfort-food feeling to it. The salad was fairly standard, containing lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and shaved carrots. The dressing I couldn't quite place, but it was cool and refreshing with just the right touch of creaminess. The dumpling was also a pretty standard pork dumpling. The salmon nigiri was really nice. It's rare that you get nigiri in a fast-foodish style sushi place, and this is decent quality. No, you're not getting top quality amazing sushi, but you still get two good sized pieces.

The second time through I opted to get the unagi.

My first time here I didn't want to get the unagi because I figured it'd be a pretty small piece of eel over the rice. My second time coming I saw someone's order and knew I wanted it. The piece of eel is fairly large, and it's cooked up nicely. I think I might ask for less eel sauce if I get this again because they sort of drowned it. I do like eel sauce, but this much made everything a bit too sticky and sweet. I still do love unagi, though, so I'm sure I'll get this again at some point. I got the same sides so there's no point in rehashing that.

Overall, while you won't be getting the most mind-blowing Japanese food experience, you do get a tasty, solid lunch. It's a good amount of food for not a massive dent in your wallet.

Bento Sushi NYC has multiple locations but I visited the location at 685 3rd Avenue, New York, NY

Sachi Asian Bistro

So on our initial walkabout M pointed out Sachi Asian Bistro as a place that I might like. It's on the slightly more expensive side, but the restaurant staff has an excellent pedigree. With chefs Andy Yang and Pichet Ong at the helm, I was expecting pretty good things. For this first go around I ended up getting their Grilled Lemongrass Chicken Bento Box.

The bento box came with a breast piece with attached wing, black rice pilaf, miso soup, a salad, and I was able to choose the chicken shu mai and a California roll. The other options you're given are a mushroom spring roll instead of shu mai and an avocado and cucumber roll instead of California roll. I'll break up this review into each component that I ate in order. First up, the salad.

So this is advertised as a "Green Salad". It's a a mixed green salad with some thin slices of cucumber, a grape tomato sliced in half, and some weird yellow dressing. I think it was supposed to be some sort of carrot ginger dressing, but it was sort of creamy and rather flavorless. Overall it was mildly uninspired, but I wasn't expecting a ton from a simple bento box salad. Next up was the miso soup.

This was a really nice miso soup. It was light and had great miso flavor while not being overly salty. It had a good amount of seaweed and scallions and also more tofu than I'd had in most other miso soups. They also added in some enoki mushrooms which was a really nice surprise. This was one of the better miso soups I had ever had in my life, and it's something I'd like to get again. After the soup I moved on to the bento box, and my first target was the chicken shu mai.

These were also really tasty. They were basically chicken and shiitake mushroom meatballs wrapped in the dumpling/shu mai skin topped with one single soy bean. They had a good flavor to them and weren't too salty. The shu mai also came with a dipping sauce that was similar to a sweet thai chili sauce. I used it to try it out, but I found that the sauce really wasn't that necessary. After finishing up with the shu mai I went on to the California roll.

This was really a disappointment. First things first, there was no tobiko on the outside of the roll. The avocado was nice and creamy, but the krab meat had no flavor. The ginger was nice, but that really wasn't enough to save this. Maybe next time I'll get the avocado and cucumber roll, but who knows. With this disappointment fresh in my mind, I moved on to the final piece of the bento box, the lemongrass chicken and black rice pilaf.

I was really excited for this dish mostly because of the black rice. I love black rice, and this was good black rice. It was flavorful, it was nutty, and it was sweet. Unfortunately, the chicken was dry. The menu talks about galangal and "Asian herbs", but the skin and the chicken meat both were fairly bland. The skin did have a nice crisp to it, but at the end of the day, bland and dry chicken just doesn't cut it.

Overall this is a lot of food. Sure, you pay a bit more, but for the sheer amount of food, it's a great value. There were definitely some highlights (miso soup, chicken shu mai, and black rice), but the rest of the meal was so lackluster that I doubt I'd ever get this specific bento box again. Maybe I'll get some of the other options, but at this point I can't justify spending that much with the risk that it's not going to be that good.

Atami Japanese Fusion

Earlier this month, I met my mom for lunch at Atami Japanese Fusion in the East 60s. I don't spend much time in the area but I wish we had a lunch special of this price and quality in our neighborhood!

For $9, you can get a bento box or a 2 roll sushi special. That's a pretty good deal, especially with how many items Atami gives you in the lunch special.

I ordered the 2 roll lunch special. To start you get a choice of salad or miso soup. I wasn't really in much of a soup mood and I like the salad dressing at Japanese restaurants, so I went with the salad. I got a small bowl of iceberg lettuce, tomato and cucumber, topped with the usual ginger dressing. Everything was fresh and crisp. 

The sushi special also comes with your choice of edamame, gyoza or shumai. Most of the sushi lunch specials that I've had at restaurants or gotten for take-out only give you soup and/or salad. I like gyoza, and it was nice to get this as part of the special.

The Atami special includes many roll options, including eel avocado, spicy yellowtail crunch, and shrimp tempura rolls. I decided to go with the salmon avocado roll and the spicy tuna crunch roll, two of my usual go-to rolls when trying a new place. Both were light, flavorful, fresh and well-balanced. 

My mom got the teriyaki salmon bento box, which was also pretty good. The salmon, unlike other places, wasn't dry. In addition to the salmon, the bento box also came with soup for an appetizer and sides of the same green salad, vegetables, rice, gyoza, and a California roll. Atami packed quite a bit into their bento box, especially considering it's only $9.

We were pretty satisfied with our lunch at Atami. I hadn't heard much about them before going but the restaurant fit our needs for location and lunch specials. If I were in the area for lunch, I would definitely check out Atami again. It was a good deal and the quality was solid.

Atami Japanese Fusion is located at 1167 2nd Ave (between 61st and 62nd).

Himitsu

For our second dinner, we decided to check out the Japanese restaurant at the resort, Himitsu. We walked by it that afternoon in our resort exploring (once the rain had finally stopped), and it was only a short walk from our room.

We were originally seated at a table near the entrance to the restaurant. It was still really cold and the table seemed to be located in some sort of wind tunnel that became unbearable. Luckily there was another, more sheltered table available and they were kind enough to allow us to move and stop suffering. (To set the tone for this meal, the weather/cold/wind issue ended up being the most memorable thing about that dinner, something we can vividly recall almost two years later.)

We settled in with some drinks (hot green tea for A and iced tea for me) and started to look through the kitschy Asian menu, which had appetizers, sushi options and various main courses. We decided to order a mix of items and hoped they would be good.

The first dish to arrive was the chicken salad, which consisted of chicken breast, mixed lettuce, jicama, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts and a sweet teriyaki sauce. It was okay. All the vegetables made it pretty healthy, but it wasn't anything amazing or memorable.

We ordered a variety of sashimi and rolls. Everything came with approximately 4 pieces to an order. For the sashimi, we got tuna, mero (which they said was grouper but Wikipedia says is Patagonian toothfish) and salmon. The tuna and salmon were okay, not very special and not very flavorful. Just kind of blah. The grouper was the worst of the three, as it was kind of tough to chew. We got three rolls - the Dreams roll ("seafood served with Japanese tartar"), the spicy crab roll ("meat crab roll served with spicy mayonnaise"), and the spicy tuna roll ("yellowfin tuna marinated, spicy mayonnaise, cucumber and avocado"). None of them were very good. They didn't have much filling, two were topped with lots of spicy sauce (which wasn't that spicy), and they didn't have much flavor whatsoever. I'm not sure we ever even figured out what seafood was in the Dreams roll, and the menu wasn't much help on that front.

We weren't feeling very satisfied (with either quantity or quality) of our dinner thus far, so we ordered a couple of additional items (at least I think that's how our ordering went). One was the crab spring roll appetizer, which came with a sweet and sour sauce. I think we liked this but it was really just a spring roll. I don't remember tasting very much crab.

The other was a main course of yellowfin tuna tempura, which came over sauteed vegetables, topped with seaweed, and with a side of rice. This wasn't exactly what we were expecting. The batter on the tuna was heavy instead of the usual lightness of tempura. The seaweed salad and sauteed vegetables were fine, and the portion size of the dish was definitely filling, but it wasn't anything special either.

I don't recall at all what our favorite dish of the night was, but I'm fairly sure it wasn't the sashimi or sushi rolls. Probably one of the fried dishes. So far most of the food at the Dreams Cancun (other than breakfast) was just okay (and some of it was quite mediocre). We were fairly sure we would not be returning to Himitsu based on our schedule and the quality of the food. At least we made it out of dinner before it started to pour!