Mom made the big 8-0 this year so as usual, I asked her if she wanted to go out for a meal and if so, where did she want to go? You see, even on birthdays if it's her "scheduled" house cleaning day, she'll pass. I previously tried to convince her to do the cleaning on another day since she IS retired and has been retired for over 20 years... no such luck. So I ask now and if she passes, I don't push the issue. But we were in luck because next week is the house cleaning so I asked her to select a restaurant. Her usual choices are either Ruby Tuesday or Chili's but low and behold, she chose Gyotaku! Surprise, surprise!
We started with the Crab Cake Lettuce Wrap ($13.95), 5 fried crab cakes on finely julienne cabbage with lettuce leaves to wrap along with a sweet chili sauce. A good starter with real crab.
I also had a half portion of the Nattochos ($7.95) or natto, yamaimo, ahi and mnced white onions on fried won ton chips topped with avocado, nori and sprouts. Not really for Mom since she doesn't like "slimy" foods like natto and tororo and doesn't eat raw fish or raw onions... but I enjoyed it! The Mrs felt it needed a little more seasoning.
Mom had her second choice of Tenpura and Zaru Soba ($13.95). She originally wanted tenpura and noodles - "Mom, they have tenpura and soba"... "I don't want soba". "Okay, they have tenpura and udon"... "I don't want udon". "Okay, soba and udon are the only noodles dishes so you'll have to choose something else"... So she then selected the California Don and Tenpura ($15.95) but our server informed us that their crab order didn't come in so they were substituting surimi or imitation crab but it was the same price so he recommended against that dish (kudos for his honesty). So then Mom tried ordering somen... "Mom, they don't have somen"... Our server even offered plain saimin noddles but Mom didn't want that either so settled on soba. I also ordered Mom a side of 3 extra tenpura ($6.95) since commented "only 2 pieces" with her order but ended up eating 2 of the extra pieces.
The Mrs selected the Oriental Chicken Salad ($10.95) but she was disappointed because the photo had strips of poached or roasted chicken when in reality it was chicken karaage... oh well...
I thoroughly enjoyed my half portion of Salmon Skin Salad ($8.95 half, $14.95 full) and would order it again in a heartbeat since those slices of salmon skin were like fish flavored bacon... And it paired nicely with a glass of Estancia Pinot Noir...
So Happy 80th Mom! I would have taken you to Vintage Cave if you wanted but I know you wouldn't have enjoyed it especially since you can't wear shorts to dinner there... though it would have been hilarious having you comment to the server "is this all the food we get? why are the plates so big if you only serve 1 bite of food?"... or "why isn't my wine filled to the top of the glass?"...
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