Food review blog from San Francisco.

Restaurant: Red Box Sushi (San Francisco)
Food description: Steamed soybeans chilled and tossed with salt and pepper
Food rating: 5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

I decided to check out Red Box Sushi this weekend after reading favorable reviews on Yelp. So it was off to a not-so-great start after trying the edamame, which I struggled to enjoy. First of all, the soybeans were sprinkled with black pepper, which I wasn't used to nor prepared for, being that it didn't specify this on the menu. I tried to keep an open mind and consider this new take on a classic recipe, but in the end I decided the pepper wasn't for me. I typically really like edamame in general, so the pepper thing was not that big of a deal. I did notice, however, that they didn't taste fresh. They were served cold and I noticed a slight "refrigerator flavor", which meant they'd been sitting in the fridge for days or perhaps in a smelly fridge overnight. Either way it was unpleasant! The crispness of the bean was just right, but all this water came out when you bit into the pod, which watered down the flavor. It was obvious they'd been stored improperly and were swimming in a bowl of water just prior to serving. This is why I prefer edamame served hot--that way I know it was freshly cooked. And to top things off, I love salty edamame (it brings out the flavor), but it was just barely salted. When we asked for "salt", meaning a salt shaker, he took the entire dish back to the sushi bar and retossed the beans with more salt. It still needed a little more salt, but I simply gave up at that point. We ended up eating them all except a brownish one, which looked really sketchy, and shouldn't have been served. Since this was my first time having edamame at this restaurant, I might give it another shot, but my hopes are not very high...