Friday, April 11, 2008

Hanaya Sushi

Kim and I met up for lunch, hoping to try Island Boy Grille. When we arrived, Island Boy had closed. Since it was located in a strip mall surrounded by business parks and there were very few options, our choices were to leave or try one of the other eateries in the mall. We stayed and I'm glad we did, because we found a little lunch gem in Hanaya Sushi.

It's basic Japanese food. Bento boxes with various teriyaki meats and tempura. Noodle dishes like yakisoba. Some sushi, although I'll bet the turnover's not high enough to keep the fish fresh. We both had the chicken teriyaki/tempura combination.

Tempura's serviceable, California rolls well-made (i.e. the roll was tight) with lower-quality ingredients, and the salad fresh. The cup in front contained vermicelli and cucumber slivers tossed with a sweetened mayonnaise, which was a great little side. Edamame could have used some salt, but they were fresh.

The teriyaki's some of the best I've had anywhere. The sauce was perfect, very lightly sweet (unlike the goopy and overly-sweet sauces of a lot of other places) with the saltiness of soy sauce and the smokiness of the grilled chicken mixed in. I could even taste a little bit of mirin. The chicken was quite tender, pulled off the grill the moment it's completely cooked.

Two downsides: the teriyaki arrived cold, indicating that it was not made-to-order. The other was that everything was served on plastic, even for those eating in-house. I'm not a fan of high-waste establishments.

Otherwise, a great lunch joint and one that hopefully doesn't meet the same fate as Island Boy Grille. Kim did a little digging and discovered that Hanaya occupies the same space as Island Boy once did.

4 bites:

Sharon said...

How funny, I was just in that same shopping plaza for the first time on Friday and noticed that sushi joint. We ate at the Chinese restaurant was pretty good! I'll be sure to check out Hanaya now.

Anonymous said...

I stumbled upon Hanaya sushi yesterday. I'm having an internal conflict on what to order. I want to try the teriyaki, that you said was so good, but The Bibim Bap looks good too! I can't order one without trying the order, but it's not possible because that will be way too much food.

Anways, I figured something out, and I will try the chicken soon. I'm exciting.

Have you been to King's Garden next door? I can't find any reviews on Chowhound or Yelp.

moowiesqrd said...

Hey Sharon! Yeah, the Chinese place next door is pretty good. It's such a random little strip mall. Hope you like Hanaya!

Hi Anonymous- It is a lot of food, but I guess that's what return visits are for. Let me know how the Bibim Bap was! King's Garden is actually quite good. It's a bit Americanized, but I found to food to be solid and service very good. I remember their lunch menu being very reasonably priced.

Anonymous said...

The Bibim Bap was the similar to the one and only time I've had it. There is a used to be a deli in the area that served "BBB" as a weekly special sometimes. I had it once and it was amazingly good. Since then, I really wasn't sure where to get it. With all the choices on Convoy, I'm really not sure where to go!

Hanaya Sushi made there's in the traditional style, I believe. Sauteed veggies asian veggies done perfect. They serve it with a runny sunny side up egg. The one thing that threw me off was that the garnish the whole plate with chopped romaine, and the mixture of that with the cooked veggies did not go well together for me.

I watched as the cook prepared an egg for another order of Bibam Bap. She rocked the tiny frying pan over the flame and tended to the sides of the one egg in the small pan with her spatula. It was so nice to see that some much care was taken!

4 bites