Mar. 13th, 2012 10:12 pm
New in the 'hood
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monshu suggested we head over to Cilantro. I counteroffered with Nori, the new occupant in the old Blue Elephant space (in fact, it still says "Blue Elephant" at the top of the receipts) and he was game.
I like what they've done with the space. The shop next door is now a large airy dining room with a sushi bar dominating one corner. With your back to it, your eye falls on some attractive storefronts which at that hour were catching the setting sun. As I told the Old Man, I regretted that they hadn't raised the floor a bit more so that we'd have a better view of the street. It's mostly a black-and-white scheme, without a lot of kitsch.
The food was good overall. The calamari was tender with good crunch, and I liked the dipping sauce, but it's a pretty modest portion for sharing. The noodles inmonshu's pad kimao were overcooked, but it was tasty and had the right amount of spice. When he was finished, nothing was left over. I wasn't too hungry, so I ordered one specialty roll, the Crazy Trio. (Rolled in green tempura crumbs, our server brightly informed us, to commemorate the day St Patrick deep-fried all the snakes in Ireland.) They were free with the hot sauce so it was hard to really judge the quality of the fish, but it seemed reasonably good. The green tea was shit: cheap Chinese bag tea I wouldn't brew in an emergency.
Some of the online reviews had faulted the service, so I was on my guard, but it turned out to be fine. Overall, it's definitely an improvement over our existing Thai sushi parlour, but it doesn't bear comparison to Indie, let alone a real sushi bar. I worry that there are already signs of cutting corners, like the bottom-drawer tea and my chipped dipping dish. We'll have to see where they are some months down the road when we make a return visit.
monshu suggested we head over to Cilantro. I counteroffered with Nori, the new occupant in the old Blue Elephant space (in fact, it still says "Blue Elephant" at the top of the receipts) and he was game.I like what they've done with the space. The shop next door is now a large airy dining room with a sushi bar dominating one corner. With your back to it, your eye falls on some attractive storefronts which at that hour were catching the setting sun. As I told the Old Man, I regretted that they hadn't raised the floor a bit more so that we'd have a better view of the street. It's mostly a black-and-white scheme, without a lot of kitsch.
The food was good overall. The calamari was tender with good crunch, and I liked the dipping sauce, but it's a pretty modest portion for sharing. The noodles in
monshu's pad kimao were overcooked, but it was tasty and had the right amount of spice. When he was finished, nothing was left over. I wasn't too hungry, so I ordered one specialty roll, the Crazy Trio. (Rolled in green tempura crumbs, our server brightly informed us, to commemorate the day St Patrick deep-fried all the snakes in Ireland.) They were free with the hot sauce so it was hard to really judge the quality of the fish, but it seemed reasonably good. The green tea was shit: cheap Chinese bag tea I wouldn't brew in an emergency.Some of the online reviews had faulted the service, so I was on my guard, but it turned out to be fine. Overall, it's definitely an improvement over our existing Thai sushi parlour, but it doesn't bear comparison to Indie, let alone a real sushi bar. I worry that there are already signs of cutting corners, like the bottom-drawer tea and my chipped dipping dish. We'll have to see where they are some months down the road when we make a return visit.