Update Review, Sept 2022
In the middle of the pandemic, I re-discovered Sushi Taka, a place I had first visited in 2013. I got a bit obsessed in those pandemic days with their ridiculously good masubi, available in a range of flavors (teriyaki salmon, spicy beef, crispy chicken, spam and egg, etc). I found basically every variety strangely delicious, extremely comforting, and an amazing value at only $3.50 each, as they are quite large, easily double or triple the size of any other masubi I've seen. Slightly smaller than a sushi burrito, but, barely. I also learned that I could get several at a time, eat one fresh (they are made to order, served hot), save one for the next day and either throw it into my panini press to transform into a crispy wrapped thing of joy (still moist and soft inside) or even pop in the microwave on a napkin to steam it back to life with no problem, and, even freeze them. Who knew?
But Sushi Taka is only open during the week, during daytime hours, so once I was back in the office, I never went back to Sushi Taka. I still sometimes thought to myself, "Why didn't you stash and freeze more of them?". Honestly, they just hit the spot so well sometimes.
This time around, I didn't actually venture there during my workday, but rather, decided to have it delivered. I ordered on Door Dash, and my order was quickly prepared, and delivered still quite warm. A very easy ordering process, and I even put in special requests that were honored.
Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services? Here are some codes for free money!
- Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
- Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
- Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]
- Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
- Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]
Spam Masubi. $3.50. |
Salmon Teriyaki Burrito. $15.95. |
Salmon Teriyaki Burrito: Close Up. |
Crab Salad (on the side). |
Update Review, 2021 Visits
Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services? Here are some codes for free money!
- Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
- Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
- Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]
Chicken Kara-age 3 pieces. $3.50. (Jan) |
Masubi. $3.50. (Jan) |
Masubi: inside. Karaage Chicken & Tamago? |
Masubi: Spicy Beef, Salmon Teriyaki, & Tamago? (Feb) |
Masubi: Spam (& Tamago) (March) |
Masubi: Spam inside. |
Masubi: Salmon Teriyaki. $3.50. |
Matcha Panna Cotta. $3. |
Original Review, 2013
Back when we were even more spoiled, we had sushi daily at work for lunch. That was a long time ago. I also used to go out to sushi for dinner very regularly, but I honestly don't know the last time I went.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, I had to order nightly dinner for a group of co-workers, and used Seamless for the first time. While browsing through the options available, I saw a bunch of sushi places. Sushi seemed like a good idea for take out, since it wouldn't suffer from getting cold. But at the same time, I'm a snob and assumed that there was no remotely good sushi actually available on Seamless. So I cross-referenced all the options on Yelp, and found one that actually had 4 stars: Sushi Taka. I was excited to try it out, but unfortunately, it is available only for lunch, so I didn't try it out for my team dinners, and I eat lunch at work most days.
However, on Fridays, lunch at work is always insanity (not in a good way), so I've been looking for an excuse to avoid it, and go out instead. (I know I shouldn't complain, but our office population literally doubles at lunch on Fridays, and our cafe just can't handle it. They try valiantly, but the food is usually subpar, and the lines, full of everyone's 10 best friends and strollers, move at a snail's pace). So, I decided to (gasp!), leave the office for lunch, and sushi seemed like just the answer.
Sushi Taka is not a standard sushi restaurant. It is located in the financial district, and as I mentioned, is only open for lunch, only on weekdays. It thus caters to the business lunch crowd, takeout only.
The concept is all rolls, neither nigiri nor sashimi are available. The rolls are cut only once in half, rather than into many pieces. This works for the grab and go style, as you just unwrap each half and eat it, rather than requiring chopsticks. When I first read about Sushi Taka, I expected it to be more like Sushirrito, the other big takeout sushi roll place in the area. But while the idea is similar, they are executed very differently. Sushirrito really is far more sushi-as-a-burrito-style, with huge, very large diameter rolls, whereas Sushi Taka is standard diameter, just longer than usual. Both give you a full meal in a single roll.
The menus are also quite different. Sushirrito also has a limited menu, offering only 4 seafood rolls, a chicken roll, a pork roll, a veggie roll, and a salad. All have lots of components, including creamy flavorful sauces. Sushi Taka has 15-20 pre-configured seafood rolls, and of course teriyaki or buffalo chicken versions to satisfy your crazy co-workers who dislike seafood. And just like Sushirrito, some of the rolls have crazy sauces, ranging from sweet like the aforementioned teriyaki to spicy, with some mayo based sauces in the mix. So, if you really want a buffalo chicken "sushi roll", or something dripping with mayo, you can get it, but for the most part, Sushi Taka is more traditional, whereas Sushirrito is more Americanized.
But Sushi Taka's main concept is customizing your own roll. In this way, it reminds me of U-Sushi. In fact, their options are fairly similar, but of course U-Sushi serves them as standard cut rolls, albeit cut by a "robot".
Anyway, first, you pick a main protein (or go half and half if you can't pick just one). The choices are fairly plentiful, including cooked options like buffalo chicken, teriyaki chicken, teriyaki salmon, and shrimp tempura, and more standard salmon, tuna, spicy salmon, spicy tuna, unagi, and tofu. Not tons of variety, but enough.
Then you pick 2 premium sides (or more for an additional fee). The side items were the most interesting components. Some were fairly standard like roe or kanikama. But you could also add tomago or seaweed salad, both things I am used to seeing in sushi restaurants, just not inside my roll. They also offer takuan, kimchi, pickled jalapeño, and guacamole. Yes, guacamole. Since I'm allergic, I couldn't add that, but I almost wanted to just to see what they meant. Avocado is common, but guac ... not so much. Wasn't I just saying that they were more traditional sushi? Whoops.
Continuing along the not so traditional lines, you can then pick as many sauces as you want. They have mild miso, teriyaki, and unagi sauces, or soy mayo. Or go spicy, and pick from wasabi, buffalo, sriracha, and spicy miso sauces, or chili mayo.
And then, for veggies. Standard cucumber, and optional green onion, carrots, spinach.
Unfortunately, the DIY rolls, most of the pre-configured rolls, and the sides are not available when you order on Seamless. Only the "Signature Rolls" are, which is a selection of 3 versions of their namesake "Taka Roll" or variations on a California Roll. When I asked about this, the owner explained that the other items were in limited quantities so he couldn't put them on Seamless. This makes sense for some of the sides, but I don't really understand it for the rolls, particularly as the rolls are all available on OrderAhead and GrubHub. Shouldn't Seamless be the same? I know Seamless supports DIY style, as I used it at U-Sushi. And some of the sides are available on OrderAhead and GrubHub too (seaweed salad, edamame, soup). Why not on Seamless? This was pretty disappointing, as I really wanted to create my own!
Speaking of Seamless issues, the first time I went to order, they were closed at 12:15pm. I thought they must just be closed that day. Then, I tried again another day at lunchtime. Closed. I was pretty confused, as I was sure I'd seen them online when looking earlier in the day. And their own website said they were open until mid-afternoon. After several failed attempts, I figured out what was wrong. Seamless had them listed as closing at 10:45am. While I appreciated that they were offering sushi so early in the day, that wasn't quite when I wanted it :) So I contacted the owner asking about it, and he quickly replied, even on a Sunday. It turns out it was a mistake, and he had it corrected the very next day. I'm glad I spoke up! I imagine his business will do much better on Seamless now that he is listed during actual lunch hours!
Speaking of the owner, Nick, he was amazingly nice and friendly. Prompt to reply to my e-mail, and when I went to pick up my order, he was welcoming and friendly. You can tell that he cares deeply about his business, and really made the pick-up experience pleasurable. A nice break from my crazy work day.
The overall experience was quite smooth, ordering online with Seamless ridiculously easy, and my roll was waiting for me with a friendly smile by the time I got there. I'll be back, but I really wish I could design my own roll, or get a seaweed salad!
Nicely packaged up, with soy sauce, wasabi, ginger. |
Inside the outer wrapper: Miso Sushi Taka Roll. $8.99. |
I ate my first half by just peeling down the wrapper, burrito style. I added soy sauce and wasabi as I went, but found it a bit awkward to eat. Maybe my teeth just aren't sharp enough, but I had a hard time biting through the seaweed wrapper, kinda making a mess. So I brought the other half back to my office and cut it into standard pieces.
Inside the Miso Sushi Taka Roll. |
The cucumber and takuan (pickled daikon) added a great crunch to pretty much every bite. I always love takuan, so that was a big selling point for me.
I always get seaweed salad when I go to sushi, but I've never had it inside my roll before. It turned out to be a great addition, and I would have welcomed even more of it.
The tuna was good quality, and there was a decent amount of it. Again, standard sushi roll amounts, not like Sushirrito where it is insane diameter. I was impressed at this point.
But then I pulled out a chunk of salmon to try it own its own, to really evaluate the quality of the fish. It was not good. It was stringy. I could barely bite through it, it was so chewy. It would never be served as nigiri. It was really quite bad, and I removed the rest of it from my roll. This was really disappointing, since every other aspect of the roll was good.
Back to the good. Rice is always an important part in judging sushi. The rice was sticky and nicely seasoned. It turns out Nick uses green tea powder in the rice itself, sorta incorporating tea service into the roll. The tea flavor was subtle and I probably wouldn't have identified it, but I think it did enhance the overall flavor.
So, besides the chewy salmon, everything in this roll was a success. But, the astute reader will realize I said it would have kanikama, aka, crab stick. No, I didn't forget to review it. I think the person who made my roll forgot to include it :( It isn't visible in any of the photos I took, and when I cut the second half up into pieces (and when I removed the salmon), I looked for it, and it certainly wasn't there. Boo. I actually like kanikama!
Anyway, this was overall satisfying, and the $8.99 price tag is good for a lunch in the FiDi. Cheaper than Sushirrito, although it did have much less fish than Sushirrito. For an additional $2.50, I could have gotten the deluxe version, with double the fish. I'll probably go back sometime, particularly if they add the DIY options!
0 comments:
Post a Comment