Zumi Sushi January 30, 2011

Vegan Soba Bowl

Zumi Sushi is one of those restaurants that I kept meaning to go to and always forgetting about.  I’m glad that I finally made it, because it’s good.

Zumi Sushi is relatively new to town (opened in May 2009) and is located across from the Belcourt in what’s becoming a seriously interesting strip of restaurants.  The food is affordable and very tasty, and it’s also beautifully prepared.  The restaurant also features great happy hour specials that you should seriously consider enjoying on their enormous front and back patios once it warms up.

House Salad

I began my meal with the House Salad, which is basically just romaine lettuce and shredded carrots, but it’s topped with house-made carrot-ginger dressing.  A version of this salad is served at pretty much every pan-Asian restaurant, and this one holds its own.  The dressing is really flavorful, and I liked it a lot, but it’s still just a bowl of lettuce and carrots.

For my entree I (obviously) ordered the Vegan Soba Bowl, pictured above.  I mean, come on, how could I not order the one menu item with “Vegan” in the name?  The Vegan Soba Bowl is a bowl of buckwheat soba noodles cooked with tofu, veggies (broccoli, bell peppers, and snow peas make an appearance) in a vegan dashi broth.  This bowl basically punched me in the face with flavor.  It was surprisingly spicy, with a lot of crushed red pepper.  The soba noodles really hold up well with the veggies and tofu.  The portion size was generous but not enormous – basically, it was the Goldilocks of noodle bowls.  The grilled lemons on top were an awesome addition.

On a separate visit (sans camera, sorry, blog fail) I knew I wanted to try the sushi.  The Green Sesame roll was calling her sweet siren song of deliciousness, and I succumbed.  The Green Sesame roll features asparagus, carrots, cucumber, kanpyo, inari tofu, and peanuts, all rolled in thin strips of avocado.  It sounds good, right?  It is good.  And it’s eight pieces.  For $5.50.  OH YEAH.

I will absolutely be back to Zumi Sushi.  There are more things on the menu I want to try!  Can you believe I haven’t had the garlic-soy edamame?  Me neither.  I will leave you with this photo that shows how mature I am:

Zumi Sushi Japanese Kitchen

2119 Belcourt Avenue

Nashville, TN 37212

615.383.5770

Website

 

Ru San’s August 20, 2009

Cocktails

I went to Ru San’s for a friend’s birthday dinner.  Ru-San’s is in the Gulch, which is an awesome neighborhood for eating.  Their menu is extremely extensive; it is practically a book.  They have a great and varied selection of vegetarian rolls, all but one of which are $4.50 or less.  There’s also a great mix of vegetarian appetizers.  Ru San’s plays a crazy mix of loud electronic music, which really makes the experience in my opinion.  The birthday girl made reservations for twelve, and they put together a bunch of tables at the back for us.  We all had a great time, and it’s a great place for a special occasion like a birthday (not so much like an anniversary).  Furthermore, those cocktails are simply called “Ultimate.”  None of the cocktails on the drink menu have descriptions, and my group was never able to determine exactly what kind of liquor they contained.  There is also something on the drink menu called “Hardcore! – Penlock [or Perlot or Penklot or something to that effect]” and it costs $8.50.  When I asked what it contained, the server began rattling off “vodka, beer, sake . . .” at which point I just had her stop, because I didn’t really want to know what else was in it.  Apparently, I am not hardcore enough for Penlock (or Peklot or Penkoe or whatever).

Edamame

I started my meal with edamame.  It came unsalted, and it’s hard to see it in the photo but there was a generous pile of salt on the plate.  I LOVE edamame.  I love how the pod is weird and hairy.  I love the act of eating the stuff.  Any restaurant that serves edamame is a winner in my book.

Garlic Sesame Tofu

Next I split this order of Garlic Sesame Tofu with basically everyone at the table.  Most of the tofu dishes on the menu included bonito flakes.  Bonito flakes, in case you don’t know, are basically dried fish.  They are used in all sorts of Japanese dishes, and if you’re at a Japanese restaurant you should ask if bonito is in any of the stuff you’re ordering.  Take miso soup as an example.  I didn’t have the soup at Ru San’s so I don’t know what it contains, but at a lot of Japanese restaurants if you ask if the miso soup has fish the server will tell you “no,” but if you ask if it has bonito the server will tell you “yes.”  Getting back to this dish, I asked if it contained bonito and the answer was no.  And man, it was good!  All the omnis at my table were reaching over to grab bits of tofu, mushrooms, whole garlic cloves, and seaweed salad.  My only complaint is that the tofu was a little mushy.  Seriously, if you go to Ru San’s, eat this.

Vegetable Futo Maki

Ah, my main course: Vegetable Futo Maki.  This roll was supposed to include tamago (egg), but when I asked them to leave it off they happily obliged.  Now, I’m not a big sushi lover, but this was GOOD.  It included carrots, mushrooms, avocado, tofu, and possibly more (I’m not really sure).  I ate it with my hands and got teased, but eating sushi (except for sashimi) with your hands is totally acceptable.  I don’t want this post to turn into some crazy guide to sushi etiquette, and it’s not like I’m an expert, so I’ll include some sushi-licious links at the end of the post.  But yeah, seriously, that roll was awesome . . . especially with soy sauce and wasabi.  Mmmmmmmmmm.  Also, my friend who sat next to me had never had sushi before and chose a fully-cooked noodle dish involving shrimp.  I had him try a piece of my veggie roll and he said it was good.  So, success!

I would definitely eat at Ru San’s again.  The food was good and the atmosphere was fun.  The menu is enormous and you could have something new every visit if you went every day for a month.  There are more dishes I want to try, like the inari tofu.  Plus then I can have more sake bombs.  Kampai!

Ru San’s Japanese Sushi and Seafood Restaurant

505 12th Avenue S

Nashville, TN 37203

615.252.8787

Links:

Ru San’s website (with menu)

How to eat sushi (hey, man, it’s harder than you think if you’re a first timer–all those condiments are confusing!)

Japanese food glossary (so you can find out what kampyo is)