Yanagi

http://www.yanagitx.com/

Located in Southwest Austin, we found a place
that had the best quality sushi for a decent happy hour price.

Let's start things up with the sushi bar:

We sat up here and ordered,
and with the quickness, 3 sushi chefs rolled us up 6 rolls.
The place looks fancy.
The regular prices on the menu were way out of
our league.
Good thing that we did our research and went
during happy hour. We even had our list ready to go.
Just walked in there like we own the place
and dropped the list to our waitress.
"Bring the sake, please.
And extra wasabi."
We literally ordered extra wasabi.
I guess it wasn't as lethal as other places.

Let's get on with the rolls:

We had a few variety.

The favorite:

Tempura Roll
This had a nice meaty mixture but it didn't taste fishy.
A little crunch by some of the veggies.
It was filling and great flavors that made us want more.

Spicy California Roll

The best California roll we've had. A little strong

and was the cheapest on our happy hour menu.

$3.95 for this roll. Beat that cheap quality H.E.B rolls.
Well, to be honest, there's some H.E.B. locations

that make them better than others.

But the point is, something like this would cost

6 to 7 bucks somewhere else.


The Las Vegas Roll

This looks exactly the same as the Tempura Roll.

The difference, this one has cream cheese.

Can't go wrong with cream cheese.
Whoever invented putting cream cheese on sushi

is a true genious.
Fried rolls are always good.
This was the most expensive roll on the happy hour

menu ($6.95).

Above here we have a Philly Roll and to the right is

Spicy Salmon.
The Philly roll hit the nostrils with the wasabi.

Nothing else to say about the Philly,

but it was good.
The Spicy Salmon roll almost killed us.
Just a tad of wasabi was enough to bring a big kick

out that salmon.
Almost had to call an ambulance.
Life flashed before our eyes.

Are we ever going to get to that next roll?

We sure did:

The Crunchy Roll
It was a good idea to try this one after that lethal

spicy salmon roll.
This one had a sweet kick to it.
Not sure what it was.

But, it was nicely balanced.

There you have it.

These were great quality sushi and

they were on the happy hour menu.

We glanced over at the regular menu where

they have like 20 other special rolls.
If we thought we were in heaven

with the rolls on the happy hour menu,

imagine how the others rolls would be like.

Heaven times 300.
But, we're low budget, so we held our head up high

and walked out.

Other Random Pics:

We had sake for the first time

in this sushi adventure.


A gong by the sushi bar.


The soy sauce container.

Final words:

For the price of happy hour, this is the best quality

sushi we've had yet.

Midori

Website: midorisushiaustin.com/
Located in Northwest Austin (on 183 and Anderson Mill).

It's been 3 months and some change since our
last sushi entry.
Basically, we blog our sushi experience everytime
we go to a place we 've never been before.
Since we're on a low budget, one of our main focus is,
to find decent sushi at an affordable price.
So, let's review Midori Sushi.



This place was a little too fancy for us.
But, they gave us a very good presentation.


We sat in the sushi bar and within minutes of ordering,
the sushi chefs got to work on it quickly.
The main chef used a very sharp knife to slice an apple
for the sushi presentation.

Two Favorites:

Midori Boca Raton Roll

(Deep fried roll with smoked salmon,

cream cheese, crab, and special sauce)

Spicy Thai Roll

(Shrimp, jalapeño, cucumber w/ spicy Thai peanut sauce)

The other rolls we tried:

Spicy Tuna Roll

Mango Fandango Roll

Phoenix Roll

Price: $3.50 - $12.00

They have very good specials Mon-Sat from 11am-2:30pm

Comments on sushi:

This was a little expensive.
But, you get what you pay for.
The rolls we tried were awesome except

for the Phoenix Roll.

The Phoenix Roll was a little too fishy.
It was okay, but for the price, should of been a lot better.
Spicy Thai Roll had a nice crunch and kick to it.

Wasabi: Not lethal.

Free Appetizers: You get a nice little bowl of Miso soup.


The Sushi Bar Shot:

Random Pics:

There's 3 different seating arrangements:

You can sit at the bar, sit in a regular booth or table,

or in an enclosed table booth where you sit lower.

More Comments:
Well, if you're looking for sushi for a special ocassion,
then this could be a decent option.
The staff was nice (just like other sushi places).
The atmosphere was a little cozy, but the music
sucks. We haven't found a sushi place yet where
they play Asian music.
It's out there somewhere.
As for low budget sushi, this wouldn't be a good place
to get sushi.

How Do You Roll?

Site:http://maki.us.com/
Located in North Austin (Mopac near Braker).

Before we share our opinions on this place,
let's give you the facts.
This is a Subway type Sushi place.
Meaning, just like how they prepare your sandwich
at Subway, that's how they roll here.


Doesn't this look like a Subway to you?
Except, instead of yellow and brown, it's green and brown.

You walk in and you choose what wrapping
you want.

The people here don't physically put rice on the wrapping.
They have a machine that does it in 3 seconds.


You choose up to three veggies which include some fruits as well.


After you choose your wrapping and veggies,
it's time for the good stuff (the meats).




Then you choose any toppings you want on top
or on the side.

And that's about it. You pay.
You sit and enjoy.
Fast and easy.
The hard part is deciding all those veggies
and combinations.


Comments:
We actually enjoyed this place.
It's definitely, low budget.
The staff wasn't your usual staff you
see at sushi bars, they were more like
college students or something.
The presentation of the sushi was just plain
and casual. They put them in baskets
and nothing fancy.
The atmosphere is casual and modern.
The sushi is great for the price.
There was not one sushi roll that stood out.
They were all equally great.


Price: They charge for the wrapping
which includes up to three veggies.
One wrapping is 3 bucks
the other 4 bucks.
The meats range in price.
From 2 dollars to 4 dollars.
Most toppings are free.
So you're looking at about $5-$8 per roll.
That good thing is each roll
comes with 10 pieces.
When you go to an actual sushi place, they
serve you an average of 8 pieces per roll
for a little bit more money (unless it's happy hour).
There was three of us this time,
so we ordered 6 rolls (60pcs).
The price was the same as ordering 4 rolls
at another place.
Shoot, this is even cheaper than sushi you get at H.E.B.

This is how we Roll (Rolls we made up and tried):
We chose traditional seaweed wrapping for all rolls.
In the picture below, the left roll is
a combination of regular salmon, cream cheese,
avocado, and sprouts with tempura crunch flakes
on top (cheesy with a little crunch).
The roll on the right is a combination of spicy tuna,
jalapeño, and strawberry (weird, but spicy as hell).


Here we have a roll with a combination
of crabstick, double avocado, and cucumber
with sweet chili sauce.
Next to it: Shrimp Tempura with cream cheese
and jalapeño. Both delicious.

Regular tuna with cream cheese and cucumber

with japanese mayo on top and smoked salmon

with cream cheese and jalapeño with wasabi mayo.

Nice and deadly with wasabi.

We didn't really taste the fish in these rolls,

the veggies and the rice stood out more.

But, they were there.

So good enough for the price.

Fast and original.

We ordered more than enough rolls, but

with patience we knocked them all out.

That's just how we roll.