Lure Bistro

The other day, Steve and I joined some friends at Lure Bistro for dinner.  They had a combination of sushi, seafood, and other dinner fare.   They also had an all you can eat option for snow crab legs.   I decided to get some sashimi (pictured above) and a burger.

Steve got a spicy tuna roll.

Here is the burger I got.   It had cheddar cheese and a bacon jelly.  The truffle fries were so tasty!  I also was able to take home half of it for lunch the next day.

Steve had the filet mignon.  It's on a bed of mashed potatoes.

The bread before dinner was also good.  That's a garlic butter to the side.

The restaurant had a free valet.   The prices were reasonable too.   If I'm in the area, I would go again.

Anniversary Dinner: Voodoo Tuna

 Tonight we went out to Voodoo Tuna to celebrate our anniversary.   It's wonderful to have a sushi place so nearby.  Pictured above are salmon sashimi and banana unagi rolls (our favorite roll from this place).

 We also got the white tuna sashimi, dragon roll, and Cajun bacon rolls.

 Here is a closer view of the white tuna.

 They gave us some free Asian pear cheesecake to celebrate!   The fruit was warm and drizzled with caramel sauce.

 Since we last visited, Voodoo Tuna has completed the murals on their wall.  The art is beautiful and a tad bit quirky.

I really like this place.   It's too bad they aren't open on Sundays.   Weeknights are fairly quiet and it's easy to get a table right away.

Parallax

We went to Parallax last night for dinner.  We had been meaning to go, and we just happened to be in the neighborhood.  Pictured above is the pork shank Steve ordered.  The meat was very tender and falling off the bone.  It was served with spicy egg noodles.

 We also had calamari as an appetizer.  This was really delicious!   It had a marinara sauce and a sweet and sour type of sauce served with it.

I went with salmon rolls because I had a snack before going out.   These were nice.  I would have tried one of their specialty rolls if I had more appetite.

Overall, no leftovers with very nice portion sizes.  We'll probably visit again and try the dessert menu.

Roxu Fusion

Hi everyone!   Steve and I just got back from dinner at Roxu Fusion.   For a while, there was a great famine of sushi in Lakewood.  Now, with this place and Voodoo Tuna, it's really convenient to get your fix.   As of this entry, Roxu has only been open for 2 weeks.   We arrived at happy hour and got seated right away.

With the happy hour prices, we decided to try a variety of things.   We ordered some maki rolls and steam buns.

Here are pictures of the menu:

We ordered the dragon roll and the salmon avocado roll.   It was pretty good.   Personally, I like my salmon not smoked, but these were tasty.  Also, the rolls are huge!   I think I would prefer 8 smaller rolls to these 6 big ones.  They're a bit big for the mouth.

These are the salmon rolls.   Lots of salmon roe too.

The dragon rolls had eel, avocado and midori sriracha sauce (midori is Japanese for green).   Nice kick to them.

This is a ginger margarita.  Steve enjoyed it.

My favorite part of the meal was the steamed buns!   They came in two pieces (perfect for sharing) with what we thought was a light salad.   Turns out the salad is a minute slaw, which was extremely tasty!   Usually, I think of slaw as being overly sour/fermented.  This was light, flavorful, and crunchy.

These are the Wagyu Strip steam buns.

The meat was tender.  Good flavor.

The Tuna bun was nicely seared and spicy.  I really enjoyed it.

However, my absolute favorite was the Pork Belly bun.  Perfectly crispy and savory.   I will definitely be ordering these again!

To end our evening, we ordered the Cheesecake Souffle.   That was really nice.  Served garnished with two Pocky sticks and glazed with a light mint and in cherry hibiscus syrup.  Really nice presentation:

The next time we visit, we're going to try chicken and waffles and some other dishes.   Worth the visit.

VooDoo Tuna: Part 2

We just got back from VooDoo Tuna.  It was another good time.   We ordered things that we wanted to last time.

Here are the lobster nachos.   It has lobster, guacamole, and rice as a dip with large fried noodles around the side.  It's drizzled with a sweet soy sauce.   The chips are brittle, so I recommend using the spoon to serve the dip.   Very yummy!

We ordered the banana eel rolls again and tried the crab rangoon rolls.   Those were nice with cream cheese, crab, tempura, and scallions. Our favorite definitely is the banana eel though.

This is the Voodoo Ramen.   It's nicely spicy.  We didn't eat it right away, so the broth soaked into the noodles.   I loved the roasted chicken while Steve preferred the andouille sausage.   Compared to traditional ramen bowls, the soup content was less, but it was still wonderful.

This place is quickly becoming one of our favorite restaurants.  I can't wait until they have a dessert menu!

VooDoo Tuna

We just got back from VooDoo Tuna!  Tonight is actually their grand opening.  They occupy the space vacated by Sakura a few years ago.   I've missed having sushi available in Lakewood.   VooDoo Tuna specializes in fusion foods.

The decorations of the restaurant are modern.   Canvased lights in alternating colors and a zigzag patterned wooden floor.   It feels very sleek.  Goes well with the type of food they serve.

As of this blog post, they do not have a full website yet, so here are images of their menu:

As you can see, they list traditional items first, followed by their fusion offerings.  We went with 3 fusion maki rolls and an order of salmon nigiri.  If you ask for sashimi or nigiri "VooDoo Style" they serve it with a nut/fruit pairing.  

The bottom left and top right corners are the Pecan Salmon rolls.  They have kale, fresh salmon, and pecans served on top.   I love salmon, but these were a bit plain for my taste.   I couldn't really taste the honey.

The bottom right corner is the Jamaican Bacon roll.   It's served with fresh salsa on top.   Steve loves salsa, so he enjoyed these.  

The top left corner was our favorite!   Those are the Banana Unagi rolls!   Absolutely tasty!   Banana makes a great pairing with eel.   The outside is tempura fried and the rolls are served warm.   You should definitely try these.

And of course, salmon nigiri.   Nice presentation and not skimpy on the ratio of fish to rice.   There wasn't any surprise wasabi between the rice and fish, which is good for me.

I can't wait to go back again.  We want to try the Cajun Ramen and the Lobster Nachos.

Table 45

Last night we went to Table 45 for International Talk Like a Pirate Day.   It just was calling for us to go because the restaurant is so fancy and to celebrate such a fun geek holiday was an incredible contrast.   We got there and caught the last 5 minutes of happy hour prices on appetizers!   Also, the staff were wearing pirate hats and music from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disney World was playing in the background.  Table 45 prides itself on being an international fusion restaurant.  The menu, chef, and staff have completely changed since we were last there in 2009.

We got too appetizers.  Pictured above are the Tokyo Street Fries.  The sweet potato fries had some large flakes of salt.   They are nicely crispy and the sweet spicy dip made for a nice contrast.

Steve ordered the Moroccan Kafta, a lamb kebab with salsa, yogurt sauce, and some naan.  The lamb was nicely spiced and went well with the yogurt and salsa.   Salsa and lamb are two Steve's favorite foods, so he really enjoyed this.

 After happy hour ended, we decided to get the rest of dinner.   Pictured above is the bread served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

We decided on sushi.   The sushi wasn't as prominent a part of the menu the last time we ate there.   We got the shrimp tempura rolls and the spicy scallop rolls.   I was a little wary of the scallop because I had never eaten raw scallops before.  However, it was the most unusual thing we saw and decided to get it for the experience.  It was really tasty and chewy.   I was expecting it to be chewy to the level of calamari sushi, but I was pleasantly surprised.  Those tempura rolls were excellent too.   They had this really crispy batter that was different from tempura rolls served at other restaurants.   Yum!

We ended our meal by splitting this chocolate lava cake.   It was served in a hazelnut creme sauce and garnished with hazelnuts and chocolate curls.   It wasn't too hot or excessively gooey.  It was exactly the right temperature to eat.   I've known lava cakes that you have to cut open and a wait a while first.  

Overall, it was a fun night.   Steve even got to taste some rum samples that were being featured at happy hour.   Happy belated International Talk Like a Pirate Day everyone!

Arashi Japan

After our show today, we went out to Arashi Japan.  I was really craving a bowl of ramen.  The owners of the restaurant had a place closer to our home called Sakura, but changed locations a couple of years ago.  I don't get to go there as often as I'd like, but it's definitely one of my favorite Japanese restaurants.

We had some Alaska rolls as an appetizer.

The meal came with salad and soup.  This is the house salad.  We chose the onion soup, which was quite tasty.  I forgot to take a picture of it.

I liked my spicy shrimp ramen, but I accidentally deleted the picture.  The restaurant was nice enough to split it into two bowls for us. We even had some for leftovers.

Steve had the shrimp hibachi.  The fun part is watching them prepare it (pictured at the top of this post).  They do this cool flaming onion volcano trick.  It's all very theatrical.  It comes with vegetables and rice, and a shrimp appetizer, which just happens to be the hibachi shrimp we ordered.   In other words, this dish was finished cooking when the other people were just getting their appetizers. 

All of this food was really easy to share.  If we had wanted to, we could have added additional vegetables and rice to Steve's meal for an additional 4 dollars splitting charge.   It was a fun night!

Benihana

Today we went out to Benihana with family.  We had never gone before.  Admittedly, sushi is one of my favorite things to eat.   My husband was also curious about the chain because it was heavily mentioned in Chuck, the television series.  Apparently, one of the main characters has a dream to be a chef at Benihana's.  We saw it at the mall, and we just had to go.

We just happened to arrive during Happy Hour.  I thought Happy Hour only happened on weekdays.  The rolls we ordered were about half price due to the Happy Hour specials. 

The picture above is a Dragon Roll.

Here are some California Rolls.

The tray above is a Rainbow Roll.  The other one is the Crunchy Shrimp Roll.

I also ordered a Salmon Hand Roll.

The prices were extremely reasonable.  I highly recommend going during Happy Hour, which goes until 5 pm on Saturday.