Restaurant Review: 八太郎 (Hachitarou)

Hi everyone!

Again, it seems like I was swept away by school. It’s been an incredibly crazy past month or so, and I really feel irresponsible when I can’t update as much as I can. I’ve gotten a job recently with the University, so I’m a full time student plus a staff member for the school!

But, because I’m a student, that also means we get…that’s right! Spring Break!

This break couldn’t have come at a better time since I’d been scrambling with papers due the entire week before. For Spring Break, my roommates and some friends of ours took a road trip to Toronto. It’s about a five hour drive from Ann Arbor and pretty much the opposite direction of Chicago. I think in terms of culture…well, in my opinion, there wasn’t much of a difference. Toronto, though, is probably about the food.

So our first stop was at Hachitarou (photo from Yelp by Jennifer K.)

Joy Sushi

My friend and I went out for sushi the other day and, well, it was pretty darn good!

I’ve never done a restaurant review before, but since I haven’t been cooking lately (after another shredded nail), I figured this was a better way to update my blog. : ]

Joy Sushi’s located at the edges of San Mateo’s downtown and is a bit “out there” in terms of restaurants. Less people walk this area compared to the other restaurants, which is a bit of a shame since Joy Sushi has a very unique menu that pays tribute to San Mateo’s features. Despite this though, it seems as if the restaurant has managed to get its name out there to customers since the ground floor was rather occupied and the top floor was about half occupied.

Joy Sushi, obviously, specializes in Japanese food. They have the standard temaki (handrolls), sushi, and bento, but, if you go to this restaurant, it probably should be for their specialty sushi rolls. As I mentioned before, a lot of San Mateo’s local specialties are featured. It was pretty amusing to see a “Caltrain roll” or a “2nd Ave roll” on the menu, and my friend and I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out which was the best to try from the sheer variety offered by the menu. In the end, we managed to settle on three type of sushi.

Crispy Cool Salmon Nibbles

So maybe I’m a liar, and I don’t really nibble, but you can nibble these snacks! I’m usually too impatient, so I shove the entire thing in my mouth and bite. I used to be so proud of this until my dentist praised me (ironically) and told me, “You have a big mouth! We like that around here!”

My mom got a kick out of that.

But I digress.

Back to what I originally planned to say. I’ve been having terrible cravings all week, and I finally decided to whip this one up. It’s super duper easy (like everything else), and passable for a quick craving (although I went and dug something else up again anyways). It’s also simple and delicious, if a bit plain for those master chefs out there.

More photos and the super duper easy recipe behind the jump.