Sushi Boat

Sushi Boat
3220 Dyer Street
Union City, CA 94587

To be fair, Nancy and I went here back in December and I just found my notes. We haven’t been back since, so that should say something. I believe we both agreed that we would go again, but not really go out of our way to go there, especially since it’s Union City and for that kind of effort, we might as well go to Sushiya in Oakland.

It’s a decent sushi place that is, like most other sushi places, open for lunch a set amount of hours and then open for dinner a set amount of hours. If you’re going at an odd time of day, you probably won’t end up with sushi. I believe they’re open for dinner at 5 or something to that effect. You can either sit at the bar and pick your sushi off the floating boats (much like the conveyer belt sushi places in the Seattle area that I enjoy so much) or you can sit down at a table and order exactly what you want. If you’re a visual eater, I suggest sitting at the bar since there aren’t any pictures in their menu. I like pictures.

We ordered the gyoza to start off with. It was good, but smaller than we’re used to, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They were extra crispy and served at a good temperature, which is very important to us.

I ordered a wakame salad, which was also good. It had a citrusy taste to it, probably because of a lemon garnish. There wasn’t anything special to it either, but that’s good when it comes to seaweed salads. It really served its purpose.

The miso soup was good because it wasn’t too salty. Finally a place with not so salty miso! You would think that miso would be a pretty basic item, therefore totally predictable, right? I’ve had it at other places and not been able to finish it because of the salt factor. I’ve also had it at other places where they add more unusual things to it, like noodles or potatoes. It’s all fine, but sometimes I just want to good not salty miso soup. By the way, at Sushi Boat, it’s just tofu and seaweed in the soup.

The tea was weak. Drinkable, but weak. Oh, and hot. Very hot.

Nancy had the nigiri combo. The fish was cut thin and the rice pads were small. There wasn’t really anything special or stand out about them. Everything was apparently edible because I don’t remember any comments about sub-par nigiri. I think it was just really average and nigiri needs to be spectacular.

We ordered several rolls, some to share, but mostly indulging my gluttony. Now the problem is that I don’t remember what was in the rolls at this point, but I can sum up my notes. The Simba roll was good and had nice textures. The spicy crab for this roll was served on the side, which was good so you could take as much as you want. The Osaka roll wasn’t anything special, just tuna and spicy sauce. Actually it was forgettable (I have that in my notes!). The Philly roll wasn’t anything special either, although it was only 3 pieces. The 49ers roll was…bright. Very bright. That’s because of the lemon. I actually remember this one. It’s a California roll with lemon and ebi. It was good and fresh, but there was too much tobiko. Waaaayyy too much.

Come to think of it, everything that came with tobiko had too much of it. Someone was a little heavy handed with it. You might want to ask for less of it if you’re not that crazy about it (like me).

Next time we go, we’re going to try the sushi bar, which I suspect would be the better route to go.

Wingstravaganza!

Wings wings wings! Oh delicious wings!

Please pardon the lag in posting about restaurants, but I know that I have had a one-track wing mind lately. I felt like I needed to do some extensive research (taste-search?) before posting my results. I’ve filtered out the no-need-to-mention-ables down to the following results:

Wing Stop
Union City and San Leandro locations
www.wingstop.com

Oh so delish, worth any waiting, AND endorsed by Troy Aikman. Not that endorsements have anything to do with where I’ll eat, especially Troy Aikman’s, but he might have some sway with others. I can see why he would say that these are the “best wings I’ve had in my life,” or so the web site claims. I’ve developed a soft spot and a constant craving for the tasty beauties and have even found excuses to pick up lunch from there (I need to run by Target quick for some display stuff!) So far I have sampled the following: mild, original hot, hickory smoked BBQ, garlic parmesan, and teriyaki. I really really really like mild, original, and garlic parmesan (only in moderation however – never more than 5 or I start feeling gross). BBQ had a weird flavor when I tried it - kind of a spicy smoky, but not in the good chipotle spicy smoky way. Teriyaki was a glorified BBQ sauce – totally not teriyaki AT ALL. Someday I will muster up the courage to try the likes of Atomic and Cajun. The fries are totally delicious and seasoned perfectly to boot (do they use a touch of sugar?!). The 10 wing meal deal is totally the right size too.


Hooters
Fremont location only
www.hooters.com

Never mind the short orange shorts or your waitress introducing herself as “your hooters girl tonight.” Hooters really does have some delicious wings and I really do go there just for the food. Yes, it’s totally targeting straight men with there gazillion flat panel TVs and hula hoop swaying ladies, but their food stands up and outshines their testosterone-tempting-ways. I’ve only had my wings in the medium sauce, but I have both breaded and “naked”. (Yes, they put naked in quotes on their menu. And right next to some busty blonde I might add.) I prefer naked as the breading tends to soak up a lot of the oil (the girls will almost always recommend breaded in my opinion). Both mild and medium are butter based sauces, so never ask for it on the side or you might end up with some congealed catastrophe. It is, however, very good on the piping hot wings so you kind of forget that you’re pretty much eating spicy orangey butter. From there, the sauces get much spicier. My last dining companion got some samurai sauce on the side for his chicken strips and it was quite tasty. Not as spicy as I had imagined, but I might change my tune if I get 10 wings slathered in the stuff. In regards to other things on the menu, they have decent sangria by the pitcher and a fully loaded bar (I had a blonde bombshell last time – YUM!). Oh and their curly fries are great!

Le Soleil
1515 E. 14th Street (next to Luke’s Grill)
San Leandro

Their wings are only considered an appetizer, but OH MY GOD are they a delectable one! They are dusted in curry powder (the yellow kind, folks) and then fried to a perfectly crispy crunch, but always juicy on the inside. I simply cannot pass these suckers up, unless my dining companion of the moment would really like something “healthier” instead. The curry powder adds that extra something and it’s just the right amount. Even people who aren’t normally that keen on curry have liked these. I have to post a full review of this place soon!