Shun

So this will actually be an amalgam of my many times at Shun, a Sushi place outside of University Village.

I started out with a vendetta against Shun. While in previous incarnations the building has been a KFC and a freaky vegan cafe, its most recent incarnation was as my family’s go-to thai restaurant, Thai Dusit. Furthermore, my first visit my food was forgotten. We went, we ordered, everyone at my table got their food. I asked repeatedly for my food, my family finished theirs, mine still was not there. I left hungry, bitter, and nostalgic for Thai Dusit, who had never, in all my many visits, left me unfed.

My parents, despite my bitterness toward the restaurant, returned without me. They told me it was actually pretty good, and it seemed to have gotten over its opening jitters. So I went back. And what a pleasent surprise.

Every time I am in Shun, I am served up beautiful, fresh, well cut plates of sashimi. The rice is a good texture on the nigiri, and they make a delicious and slightly more original seaweed salad than you see in your run of the mill sushi place. It is a great place to get what you want and keep the price down–you can get out of there with seaweed salad, sashimi, sushi, nigiri and sake for under $25 a person no problem.

In terms of service, I have to mention that on Valentine’s Day, with no reservation anywhere, we were able to fight our way through the crowd at the door, and be seated with in ten minutes. How many other places can do that?

My only issue I have ever had with the food would be that I was once served a piece of geoduck that maybe sat a little bit too long. But when you consider how often I eat there, only one bad piece of fish–and it wasn’t awful, just not perfect, I can’t complain.

Thai-ger Room

Holy hell, its been a while since I posted! Ski season (aka hibernation) has in fact set in. In the meantime I have moved into a new house and got a new car (courtesy of the lady in the giant SUV who slammed into me). So all is good now. Last night the man was craving a little bit of Thai, and, inexplicably to this girl who grew up frequenting Siam on Broadway, Thai-ger room is what he likes.

To me, Thai food means a big table full of various dishes all passed around family style. At Thai-ger Room, I’m limited to my one dish. Well that clearly wasn’t going to work. I admit that it is nice that I know I can get my meal for $6.75. But still, I want that variety.

I started with the ‘Crab Wontons’ which were basically Crab Rangoons, though the sauce was so overly sweet I felt a little like I was eating cream cheese and jelly. Not too bad once I dropped the sauce, but a little more crab flavor would not have hurt. The boy tried to have the wings as a started, but they showed up moments after our main dishes (which admitadly were quite quick). The wings were served with the same overly sweet sauce, so I clearly had no dipping intentions. However, the flavor of the wings was basically non existent. You know the old joke ‘tastes like chicken’? Well, these tasted like chicken. Now think of the last time you had wings that tasted like chicken? Exactly. I want my wings to taste like buffalo, or jerk, or some kind of exciting thai spice!

For my main dish I fell upon the classic, Drunken Noodle. I love them. I have no crticism of the noodles themself. They were tender, the beef was delicious, the 5 stars had some semblence of heat (which is not something I find often). All in all, very good. My only question: Who serves a noodle dish with a side of rice? I would so much rather have had more noodles. Or a bit of broth. Some veggies, anything! I don’t need more starch! The BF had garlic peppers with beef. It was also quite good.
And went well with the side of rice.

Moral of the story: At Thai-ger Room, stick with the basics. A meat dish, eat it with your rice, and go home happy with your cheap meal!