Last week was a stressful one for both A and I. But we were glad that it ended well for both of us. So we decided to relax and have someone else serve us dinner. In order words, we just went out to eat…again! Ahh…the joy when you don’t need to think of dinner or play a game of rock paper scissors to decide who does the dishes!
A was craving for sushi so we decided to go to Kiku Bistro (formally known as Mt. Fuji) in Uptown Minneapolis.As soon as you enter Kiku Bistro, you notice the place is pretty dark and small. One side has a bar area and the other side has a regular booths. As I walked in I found a whole new area exactly the same with bar and booth setting.
As with any sushi place, I ordered a seaweed salad and gyozas to start. I actually liked the gyozas. I am not sure if it is just me or are gyozas getting better everywhere? I remember times when I didn’t like gyozas but recently I have been liking gyozas from all restaurants. Either my taste bud is adjusting to bad gyozas or they are actually getting better! Basically what I am trying to say is they don’t taste like you are chewing a flour dough but you can actually taste the filling inside the dumplings.
A and I also got some drinks to wind down to weekend. A got a hot sake and I got Mai Tai. I have never tried a Mai Tai before so I was pretty excited to try one. I can’t say if it was good Mai Tai or a bad one but I can say it was pretty strong. Let’s put it this way, things started getting a little light. That might also be because I was drinking in an empty stomach. You decide!
For food we went for sushi rolls that we went for the mix of specials of Kiku Bistro and the usual suspects: Vegas Roll, Dynamite Roll and Kiku Spicy Tuna Roll.
Vegas Roll is pretty interesting. It has salmon, avocado, cream cheese and some special sauce. The whole sushi was deep-fried and topped with a slice of jalapeno boom! I usually don’t go for sushi with cream cheese because I just find the combination very weird and I think it taste weird too but this one didn’t taste weird. I am not sure if it was because it was deep-fried which took the majority of cream cheese taste away or the jalapeno. Whatever it was, it was good. If you don’t like cream cheese on sushi, try this one. It might surprise you. Plus the presentation is really cute! They look like giant buttons *squeal*
There was nothing special about the Dynamite rolls (pieces on the center of the plate). But there was something that I noticed. The menu says it comes with kaiware, cucumber and lettuce. To be honest I didn’t taste or see any greens in the sushi at all. And judging from the picture you can see that some of them have avocado in them which was not listed in their menu for Dynamite roll. Plus we got 8 pieces instead of 6 as mentioned in the menu ( YAY to two full extra slices!). It just looks like there is some discrepancy between the description in the menu and the actual dish.
Talking about Kiku Spicy Tuna roll (ones on the 4 corners of the plate above), I actually really liked it. It was packed with the usual ingredients for a spicy tuna roll but Kiku one had masago and spice sprinkled on them. This gave the rolls a flavor boost and I think that is why I really liked it.
Yea it was below freezing temperature outside but how can you say no to green tea ice cream. I went for the mochi version.
Overall I liked this place. It is conveniently located and food items are moderately priced. Because of its booth and bar setting, you can come with friends or come alone and watch some games while you have your meal.
What I like most about this place is that they have longer happy hours (till 7:30 pm) which is bound to make everyone happy! Nobody wants to rush to make it to HH! I also like the variety in their HH menu.
The only thing that I didn’t like which is really not the restaurant’s fault was parking. It was a pain to find a parking spot during dinner time but then isn’t it the case with most restaurants that are located in the heart of a bustling city?
Have you been to Kiku Bistro?
