Critic's Review
This place started serving lunch, so on a crisp December day I wandered over for lunch.
They have a large outside space, but it was a bit windy and too chilly by Fort Lauderdale standards to dine outside.
Inside there's a hostess stand, but no hostess. Just one server/hostess in the place to service the 3 customers.
She tried to seat me in front of an open door, which kind of defeated the purpose of eating inside. Instead, she gave me a seat just behind the door. In an empty restaurant, I couldn't sit where I wanted, because only certain tables were assigned.
I ordered an iced tea and pondered the menu. It's really a terrible lunch menu; bento boxes are the only viable choice; there's really nothing else unless you just want an $11 roll. I ordered the Sashimi bento box.
The concept here is solidified with a wing nut holder for the chopsticks. Very edgy.
I didn't realize the box came with soup; choice of Miso or Miso.
Tasted like complete crap, like every Miso soup does. Japanese food is so innovative; there's only 1 soup and 1 dressing in their entire cuisine. Miso soup and ginger dressing. Or is it just that the people who run these fake Japanese sushi joints don't care? No Japanese people were spotted during my visit.
The box came out just as I finished my second and last sip of the soup.
I pushed the bowl of vile liquid to the edge of the table but my server didn't get the hint. She never took the soup away.
These boxes are just a waste of money; so little edible food. We start out with the salad; with ginger dressing of course (I'd ask if there was an alternative, but there wasn't).
The dressing wasn't bad as ginger dressings go; but eating weeds with chopsticks can be challenging. No way to cut the leaves and no fork was offered.
The main event, 7 skinny slices of "chef's choice" sashimi. I'd guess 3 oz of fish. Decent quality but some nice red tuna would have been nice in a $17 box.
The california roll was constructed by chimps; it took a steady hand to keep it together.
The sushi rice didn't really taste like sushi rice.
Also included is a blob of white rice.
The rice was completely worthless. Just unseasoned clumpy rice; you know, the stuff that comes in a box when you order chow mein from a Chinese restaurant. This is just filler; how about some fried rice or something with some taste? Sprinking some herbs over cold steamed rice is just insulting.
The "desert shot" was some sort of juice with frothed coconut milk or something; I had zero interest in even trying it.
This is what I didn't eat from the box:
Conclusion
I've had some decent meals in other cities in the past few months; I'd almost forgotten what a culinary wasteland Fort Lauderdale is. This was a very unsatisfying meal; bento boxes that are 3/5 filler don't provide a value worth recommending.
The place that was here before, Etaru, was much better than this. They had food choices for lunch. Bento boxes just seem like something sushi restaurants offer so they don't have to give you much sushi.
Adding insult to injury, their tableside checkout has tip choices that start at 20%. So you have to hit "other value" and type in what you want to leave while the server is standing there watching. Totally ridiculous.
Another bad $21 lunch in Fort Lauderdale.
