Masu, The New Kid on the Block

The new kid on the block in Northeast is Masu Sushi and Robata.  How about that... Japanese no more than a few blocks from our bat cave.  The place is nicely decorated with an industrial interior (making it a tad loud due to the hard concrete surfaces) and plenty of colorful Japanese touches to get yo in the mood for sushi.  Particularly interesting is the wall at the end of the dining room entirely covered with the eyes of a Geisha.  Nice touch...

Masu Maki Roll - The house specialty

The place was packed for a Wednesday, but since they opened less than a week ago, it is expected (and I am sure hoped by the owners).  We had a reservation for 6 and ended up having 11 people, but still were able to seat without much of a wait.  The menu has a variety of sushi, small dishes and noodles.  Most of us ordered sushi to start and then some noodles.

The sushi rolls were good, although they were not entirely what I was expecting.  The house specialty and namesake (pictured above), has all its seafood cooked.  The shrimp tempura style, and the salmon very rare but definitely not raw.

Spicy Arctic Char Roll

The Spicy Arctic Char Roll was good, but it had so much cilantro that it was pretty much all yo could taste.  One of the things I like about sushi is that with the fish being raw and the few ingredients usually part of the dish, you have nowhere to hide bad quality ingredients and as a result you get some of the best seafood available.  This might have been the case last night, but the fresh seafood flavor was amiss.    

Pork Belly Ramen

Having recently returned from Tokyo and having enjoyed some great ramen noodles there, we put them to the test.  I ordered the Pork Belly Ramen and Sharon ordered the Tonkatsu Curry Ramen.  OK, perhaps it was not fair to Masu... still, they did not fair too bad.  The pork belly was very nicely cooked.  Fork tender and flavorful.  The poached egg was a vice touch, although I prefer having a soft-boiled egg as we did in Shinjuku.   Overall a very successful dish.

Tunkatsu Curry Ramen

Sharon's Tonkatsu Curry Ramen was also good also not quite as impressive.  The curry, usually the star of a dish with its pungent flavor, was rather mild, but the coating was crispy and the noodles and broth were appropriate.

Overall my review may come across as lukewarm, but I was pleasantly surprised with the place.  Service was very good (even for a new place that is usually trying to come to terms with their initial success), the portions were large enough, the prices appropriate and the decor inviting.  It is not their fault that they caught us just a few weeks from a terrific culinary adventure in Japan.  Being as close as it is to home it could easily become a regular hangout for us.