micastio Anonymous

Food: 1/5  Vibe: 2/5  Service: 2/5  Value: 1/5  Overall: 1/5

I really think this is the worst sushi in Dallas, the most overpriced and the restaurant most in need of a reality check - namely that just because you're in a trendy location with a somewhat modern looking space doesn't mean you can charge outragious prices for mediocre food.

It begins, as the previous poster mentions, when the valet guy tells you it'll be $100 without validation. What in the world? And its true, they park it a few feet away. Maybe the arrogance from this dampened my enthusiasm before I even entered, but it is what it is.

The food is okay, purely average sushi. We have a few things we get each time we each sushi - salmon sashimi, eel - and it was poor here. The rest of the meal was similarly forgetable.

6 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DC Anonymous

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 2/5  Service: 2/5  Value: 3/5  Overall: 3/5

We decide to make it a Sunday evening event. Thanks to some unforeseen travel issues, we are free of some house guests. We call on our comrades from the Teppo mission to join us on the attack on Kenichi. Admittedly, the last time we attempted this, there was no environmental control and no sake. As such, it was aborted early. This time, they were a little better prepared. 8:15 reservations. Arriving essentially exactly on time, we still got the have a seat at the bar routine. I describe the hostess as “cranky looking philipina.” The restaurant is divided into roughly three sections. On the main floor the entry is bar style with the obligatory big screens and a variety of low tables. The rear of the room is the dining space and behind a screen of grass you can find the sushi bar. Upstairs is more bar situation. I’m a little nervous considering the back stage the actual sushi and chef has in comparison to, well, everything else in the place, but for Victory, it’s about what I would expect.

Once we’re seated, out frosty tipped server offers us the obligatory edemame option – well, you can forget that, bean boy! HA! Not happening. The sake menu is extensive varying in all decent grades and choices. In some ways I might think it is almost too much. If you weren’t familiar, there’s no where to start. We go for a Dragon Slayer and Drunken Heart. Why not the Divine Droplets, you say? Well, they have it, but just the previous night we had Hawk in the Heavens, White Deer and Divine Droplets, so I’m interested in the mid – range on this particular evening. She takes a glass, I ask for the masu. The glass is fine, but the masu is debatable. I think I fall into most modern sake fans who appreciate the woodwork of the cup, but unless it is lacquered, the wood can leech into the sake after a couple of minutes. As such, I would expect at least the option to have the masu packed with ice and the glass cradled in there. Unfortunately, it’s not the case tonight and I get it in unpacked wood. Since we’re dining with the same pair that we have our no herpes death pact with we are starting with the hot rock plate. The chef’s choice platter has three each of beef, sh!ttake, scallop and tuna, undoubedtly all kobe style, even the mushroom. The server starts by basically cooking one of each. I try to tell him to get lost since if we’re going to cook it ourselves we’re actually going to cook it ourselves, but he’s gone. Each piece is excellent, especially the tuna. However, there is no utensil for cooking, nor applying the spices, so your chopsticks are covered in them. Also, about two thirds of the way through the dish, the rock is basically cold. We find this out as a slab of beef is just sitting there waiting against hope to be put out of its’ misery. We flag down our server who brings us another rock. This one is about twice as hot as the first and nearly burns everything. I half expected at least another slab or two of beef since we basically ruined one in the half cooking ordeal. No such luck. Also, with the second bastardly hot rock, our table is heavily smoked, Korean barbeque style.

Next up we go for a couple of rolls. One rainbow as the standard and one bonsai for the house specialty. Either one is reasonable. The bonsai roll has a strawberry on it for extra awesomeness, I guess. There’s also what appears to be an oyster sauce style dip for the bonsai roll. However, with only one dish of it, we have to rotate it around the table.

More sake! (Glasses this time).

To follow up from this one, we move into the entrees, or at least try to. They are apparently out of the oysters and also out of the ono. This elminates half the choices from the table. On a second shot we go for scallops, venison, cod, and tuna.

In the meantime, one of the chefs surprises us with a poke platter. There are three small dishes presented in order with an excellent progression in heat and texture. This is really an excellent dish, if somewhat difficult for sharing. One of the servers stops by and I have to ask for new plates since ours have been through a few courses. Much eye rolling ensues. The scallops and tuna are presented with a variety of greens and both are very good. The tuna is just barely grey to the outside and what appears to be a ponzu base is a nice balance to slight saltiness of the fish. I would say both of these were good.

The cod itself is nicely done. It flakes with just a nudge. However, it is served on a couple of crusty tofu looking logs. I presume they are to keep it out of the sauce which is a heavy sweet moat. Probably a quarter of the sauce volume would have been fine. The venison I ordered pink, no blood. Like most game the reduced fat content means be careful vs beef. In this case, it’s borderline. Certainly it’s on the over done side, with the sauce carefully covering some of the more well done slices. However, it hasn’t completely killed the slight bitterness of the wild side of the meat. Overall, good.

At about this time, our server tells us that he has to leave us to go set up his equipment to start as the DJ upstairs. Well, excuse us, Mark Farina. He hands us off to someone else who tells us the kitchen will be closing, something something, I think in internet lingo this is called GTFO. The front and upstairs is filling up with the sorts of people who wear brand new Yankees baseball caps jauntily sideways. Somehow, I don’t think that they are all tragically ironic. Yes, it smells like douche and as the curtain is drawn on the sushi chefs, the true nature of Kenichi is revealed. Damages? About 60-75 a person including drinks. So, we conclude the meal and bid goodnight to our friends until the New Year. And now, the tale of the battle. Clearly, this one is going to be a Kenichi Teppo showdown for supremacy. Let’s break it down: Round one: sake: Kenichi undoubtedly has a larger menu. However, I wouldn’t say the quality varied much. Presentation and price, edge to Teppo. Round one: Teppo Round two: menu variety: Kenichi certainly has a greater entrée selection, but the actual sushi selections, robata items and plate size don’t compare. Round two: Teppo Round three: service. Ouch – this one almost put Kenichi down for the count. The mediocre interest our server had for us, including the ongoing issue with the dirty plates and not being able to finish the service because he had to tune the stereo to XM 857, would have been about what I expect from Victory. However, when compared with the updated actually friendly (if at least appearing) service we had at Teppo, Kenichi is bleeding badly above the eye in this one and the fight doctor might have to stop the match.

Round four: price and after effects. We spent basically exactly the same amount on these two dinners. More food and more drinks means more happy. We got this at Teppo. We left Kenichi feeling like we were stupid for going there to eat instead of just having a single roll and 4 $13 dollar sake-tinis – yeowch. It was decided on the street outside Kenichi got K-O to the D in this one.

It’s not a terrible choice, but it’s not quite enough for the crown.

8 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DC Anonymous

Food: 1/5  Vibe: 1/5  Service: 2/5  Value: 1/5  Overall: 1/5

Friday - call for a reservation, no problem for 7:30. On itself, not too unsettling.

Pull up on the back side of Victory whatever and drop the car with the valet, who promptly warns me that if I don't get my ticket validated at Kenichi, it's $100, but if I do get it validated, it's $8. He then proceeds to park the car about 12 feet from where I got out. I guess it's about around a dollar a foot.

Whatever, I love sake, and I would love to see some more quality sushi in the raw fish wasteland of Dallas, so I'll admit, I'm looking forward to this.

We're meeting two others, who have all ready made it. As we're walking in, they look kind of, well, sweaty.

Coming inside, we see why. No AC. Those two all ready have drinks, so we take a seat at the bar.

I planned to order a bottle of Takasago Ginga Shizuku to enjoy - it's the only junmai daiginjo made in a huge ice dome, no wind, fantastic finish.

The bartender is clearly perspiring as well, and gets us a couple of ice waters. I ask to see the sake list - there's no sake list - what no sake??

Apparently the AC is not a temporary problem for the night, as some sweaty individuals are bringing in some very large fans.

Well, it comes down to this - open about two weeks, no sake, no AC. She's wearing a silk dress and he's blowing on his ice cubes to cool down - this isn't looking good overall.

It's off.

I mean, sure I'll be back to give it a second try, but I'm not one for eating sake-less undersized, overpriced sushi in a Dallas broiler.

Until next time, look forward to "How to Spend 125 Bucks on Penne at Nove."

1 year, 4 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )