Nao Sushi

I've always been a fan of the Fast & Furious move franchise.  Sure, the fact that there are some pretty cool cars involved probably didn't hurt.  However, the more recent movies have dared to be bigger and more outrageous than the last.  With the untimely death of Paul Walker, I was pretty interested to see how they would deal with it in the 7th film.  But Viv didn't really feel like going so I convinced Miss Y to tag along.  The last one she watched was Tokyo Drift, which happened to be the perfect lead-in to Furious 7.  Of course we went for eats beforehand at nearby Nao Sushi.

We decided to start off with a couple orders of Oysters on the half-shell.  These were actually quite good with no bits of shell anywhere to be seen.  Furthermore, they were briny, sweet and of a good size.  With a squeeze of lemon, this was as simple, yet enjoyable starter. Continuing on the mollusk theme, we got the Asari Butteryaki featuring plump clams in a buttery broth.  Each and every large clam was open (no bad ones) where they benefited from mildly salty broth.  It was buttery, but not overly so. Again, not an overly complex dish, but good nonetheless.

Moving onto the Appetizer Tempura, it featured 2 ebi along with green pepper, yam and eggplant.  Although the batter was a touch heavy on some pieces, it was nonetheless crispy and surprisingly light.  They also did a good job draining the grease.  Next, we had the Grilled Cuttlefish which was not overly charred. Personally, I prefer a more aggressive char for appearance and an added smokiness.  With an appealing chew, this ate nicely with a squeeze of lemon and a side of mayo.

Onto the Deluxe Assorted Sashimi, it arrived in a large boat with nicely sized and sliced pieces.  They didn't skimp on the content as there was salmon, albacore tuna, hamachi, hokkigai, ebi, maguro, uni and fried shrimp heads.  The highlight was the crispy heads and the small piece of sweet uni.  So far so good until we reached our 2 sushi rolls (Natto Roll and King Crab Roll).  The rice was pretty crappy being dense and mushy.  Unfortunately, this had to the worst prepared sushi rice I've had in a long time.  Beyond the rice, the rolls weren't terrible, but disappointing nonetheless.

Lastly, we had the Chicken Kamameshi served in a sizzling hot pot.  Featuring chewy rice with a crispy crust, there was a significant amount of fairly tender chicken.  With the addition of the pickles, there was a nice balance of sweet, salty and tartness.  This was a good end to a relatively decent meal.  Interestingly, the sushi rice was a complete bust (in epic proportions).  This is no small problem since sushi represents a large portion of the menu.

The Good:
- Decent eats
- Fair portions
- Okay pricing

The Bad:
- Not sure what happened, but the sushi rice was terrible
- Service depends on which server you get