Review: The Kimono Offers Sophisticated Japanese Without The Table Show

5426 Hwy. 280, Suite 13 and 14 (The Terrace at Greystone)
422-0403
www.thekimono.com

 

By Deborah Lockridge 

We'd long outgrown the thrill of having a tepanyaki chef juggle our food in front of our eyes, so we were happy to learn that Kimono offered Japanese food in a sophisticated restaurant environment.

We arrived with friends on a Saturday night around 7:30 p.m.  he restaurant was about half full; it's hard to make any judgments about its popularity, however, since we went on City Stages weekend, a perfect time to go out and avoid crowds.

The decor is sleek and sophisticated, with lots of wood and  several beautiful kimonos displayed on the walls. A sushi bar is located across the back of the room.

Unobtrusive music -- jazz, not stereotypical Asian -- played  in the background. Down the center, a built-up wooden platform  allows people to experience a version of the traditional Japanese  table. Instead of the traditional low tables where customers  sit on cushions on the floor, here there is space for your legs  in a depression under the table, and instead of cushions, there  are legless "seats" that are a classier version of  the portable kind you might use on stadium bleachers. Japanese  paper lanterns help provide diffuse lighting that is neither  too harsh nor too dim.

We were immediately brought water, chopsticks, menus, and  tiny square plates that yielded a few bites of a tasty marinated cucumber and crab concoction.

The  menu took a while to go through. It offers a full page of appetizers  (plus the usual paper-and-pencil sushi ordering form), a soup  and salad page, two pages of entrees, plus a lunch menu to confuse  things. Our waitress was young and charming, but not very helpful  in describing menu items.

We were disappointed to learn that the restaurant was out  of the two finer types of sake (rice wine) listed on the menu, and instead ordered the kind that our waitress said was the same thing you find at every other restaurant in town.

We started out ordering from the appetizer menu, with a shrimp-and-vegetable  tempura ($4.95), beef tataki ($6.95), "gyoza" beef dumplings ($3.50), and "crunch tuna" ($9.95).

The tempura and dumplings arrived first, each served with  a dipping sauce. The half-dozen dumplings were similar to pot  stickers, but a little smaller, and quite tasty. In the tempura  dish, two shrimp were butterflied in a way to make them very  long and thin. They and two thin slices of sweet potato, a piece  of red bell pepper and an onion ring were coated in the traditional,  airy tempura batter and fried. Everything was tender and delicious.

We were about halfway through these before the beef tataki  arrived. Very thinly sliced, tender beef was seared and served on the rare side, atop a bed of thinly sliced raw vegetables  and a cold vinaigrette-like "ponzu sauce." Essentially,  a beef salad.

The "crunch tuna" was described on the menu only  as, "special cuisine from our head chef." But the name was intriguing, so we asked our waitress about it. Tuna is wrapped in seaweed and then dipped in tempura batter. Unfortunately, we did not know when we ordered it that this appetizer came from the sushi bar, not from the kitchen. Because the sushi bar was backed up with orders at the time, we did not get this appetizer until well after the other three were eaten. Another waitress, who appeared to perhaps be a manager or at least older and more  experienced, brought it to us with a sincere apology and explained the sushi bar/kitchen disconnect.

Fortunately, it was worth the wait. The other appetizers were good, but the crunch tuna was outstanding. The tuna was still raw in the center, but the act of flash-frying the tempura coating acted on the tuna just enough to make it absolutely melt in your  mouth -- a wonderful contrast to the crunchy seaweed and tempura  on the outside. It was served in a delicious sauce that complemented  the dish well.

For dinner, we ordered some from the regular menu and some from the sushi menu.

Our Atkins dieter ordered a medium plate of sashimi, and enjoyed the attractively presented selection of raw fish with the requisite wasabi, ginger slices and soy sauce.

One of us was craving sushi, and asked the more experienced  server for recommendations. Upon hearing that he liked tuna and salmon, she suggested something that wasn't on the menu, wasabi tuna. This was prepared in a similar way to the crunch tuna, with the same mouthwatering results, but it was topped with a wasabi sauce that had just the right amount of nasal heat to complement the tuna without overwhelming it. The other recommendation was a salmon-lovers roll. This featured two different types of salmon inside the rice, with thin slices of cured salmon wrapped around it, and was also delicious.

From the "traditional" section of the menu, one diner chose the Nabeyaki Udon, featuring thick udon noodles,  shrimp tempura and vegetables in a hot broth soup. We saw two Japanese families at nearby tables eating this dish, which arrives in a small, very hot wok-type dish set atop a bamboo trivet. The noodles were thick, chewy and filling. The broth had a distinctive smoky flavor we could not identify. There were two shrimp tempura, seaweed, shiitake mushroom and an egg in the broth as well. It was a challenge to eat with chopsticks, but a hit for those wanting  something different.

From under "Kimono specials," our fourth entree  was grilled scallop kabobs served with teriyaki sauce and vegetables. Three generous kabobs with medium-size, tender scallops arrived atop a bed of onions and other vegetables on a hot-metal plate  like those used for fajitas or tandoori. It was tasty, but the onions and caramelized teriyaki sauce had a little bit of a burnt flavor that detracted from the dish.

The menu entrees were preceded by a salty and flavorful miso soup and a fairly standard small iceberg-lettuce and creamy-ginger-dressing  salad.

While overall the food was quite good, again, the dishes arrived at different times. The sushi arrived first, then the two menu entrees, and finally the sashimi. This, and the fact that they were out of the good sake, detracted from the enjoyment of our meal. That's why we couldn't give Kimono a higher rating, even though we enjoyed the food and the atmosphere immensely.

Published August 2004

Editor's Update, 2007: We've returned to Kimono a couple of times since this initial review, and have found the food to be outstanding, the atmosphere delightful, the service excellent -- but plan to share dishes, because they still all come out at different times. And this is not a place to be in a hurry. We have enjoyed trying different types of sake, too.