Food review: Super dynamite roll

Restaurant: Red Box Sushi (San Francisco)
Food description: Deep fried spicy sushi roll with white tuna, hamachi, and salmon in a spicy mayonnaise topped with kabayaki sauce, masago (smelt roe), and scallions
Food rating: 8 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Again - look at how beautiful that layout is! But this time, unlike the maguro, the flavor delivered. Yummy fried crunchiness on the roll casing, not too much mayo, not too much roe, and a yummy scallion layer. I would have given this a 8.5 or even a 9 if it had been a little less spicy, and please note, I realize that spiciness is a "to taste" flavoring. However, for me it was slightly overbearing on the mix of other flavors inducing a cancelling effect and could have been toned down just a bit. Regardless, this and the salmon were easily my two favorite dishes of the night and I will definitely be ordering this again if we go here again. Also I wanted to note that the dynamite rolls at different restaurants use different ingredients, I'm curious if the lack of maguro (red tuna) in this one is purposeful because they know its not as good... hmmmmm.

Food review: Maguro sashimi (red tuna)

(maguro is red)

Restaurant: Red Box Sushi (San Francisco)
Food description: Raw slices of red tuna sashimi
Food rating: 4.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Ok... before you flame me for giving something from Red Box Sushi a 4.5, as you can see I've only ordered this once, so I will have to check it again and update the post / post a new message if it improves. First off, I had such high hopes!! It looked so beautiful - really the presentation here is exquisite. So after admiring the layout it was extremely disheartening to bite into the maguro and get... mushy flavorlessness? I mean you know when you sometimes get that over-refrigerated or twice frozen feeling about sashimi. I got it. It was mealy and tasteless and I really don't have anything else to say about it. If you have had the Red Box maguro sashimi and it was good, please post your experience in the comments so we can get an idea if this is common with them - thanks!

Also, note for those who like Kirin beer, they do not have it here.

Food review: Rock and roll

Restaurant: Red Box Sushi (San Francisco)
Food description: Sushi roll with eel, hamachi, avocado, watercress, and wasabi mayonnaise topped with kabayaki sauce
Food rating: 7.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

The rock and roll was excellent at Red Box Sushi. I would have rated it an 8.0, had it not been for the wasabi mayonnaise. I appreciate what the chef was trying to do by adding this element, (adding creaminess and then offsetting its oiliness), but it was just overkill. The combination of avocado, eel, and hamachi was already rich and creamy enough (you wouldn't add mayo to guacamole now would you?) and the watercress was just enough radish to contrast the oil. I was totally savoring this roll until the wasabi mayo kicked in and started obscuring the flavors. I think the typical recipe only uses eel and avocado, but the addition of big chunks of hamachi was a good call by the chef. Maybe I can get him to make it special for me next time sans the mayo!

Food review: Hamachi sashimi (yellowtail)

(hamachi is white)

Restaurant: Red Box Sushi (San Francisco)
Food description: Raw slices of yellowtail sashimi
Food rating: 6 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Judging purely by looks alone, I thought the hamachi was going to be stellar, but was surprised when the texture left something to be desired. Each piece was strewn with chewy tendony tissue, usually more common in tuna than hamachi. I'm not exactly sure the exact cause of this--I think it has something to do with the area of the fish--but it's something I'm very critical of and think chefs should be ultra conscious about. These inferior cuts of fish are totally fine when used inside sushi rolls, but shouldn't be served alone as sashimi. On the bright side (though my jaw was a little tired afterwards), I enjoyed the freshness and delicious flavor of the hamachi and would love to see if the chef uses a better cut the second time around. It definitely has a lot of potential, but is difficult to recommend after this first pass.

Food review: Sake sashimi (salmon)

(salmon is orange)

Restaurant: Red Box Sushi (San Francisco)
Food description: Raw slices of salmon sashimi
Food rating: 8 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

This beautiful sashimi arrangement was my second dish at Red Box Sushi, and what a relief that it was to be nothing like the edamame! I have to admit, when the dish arrived, the presentation was simply arresting--the vividness in color, the salmon sculpted into a rose, the leaf concealing the wasabi and ginger, and the meticulous arrangement atop a tiny bamboo mat. Though I can't add points for presentation, it's impressive to see such a small establishment upholding the aesthetic standard for sushi, an aspect that is commonly becoming an afterthought in some places. It was really a shame to mess it all up, but I couldn't look at it forever. I had the salmon first, so I'll review that first (plus it was the best of the three, hands down). First the bad news: I noticed there was a thin strip of the skin lining the edge of each piece (you can see it in the photo). It gave off a subtle metallic flavor and didn't melt in my mouth like the rest of the piece, so I would have preferred if the chef would have removed this part. Other than that, the salmon was excellent: the flavor rich and buttery, the texture semi-firm and tender, and color bright and fresh. Out of the entire meal, the salmon was my favorite and I'm looking forward to having it again. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I always have a bowl steamed rice in between sashimi bites, but we tried to order some and they said they didn't have any. What kind of sushi place doesn't have steamed rice?

Food review: Edamame

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...