Tag: sushi

Food Review: Naru in Conway

Environment

A shopping center used to be seen as a place no good restaurant could be found. Maybe it still is to some people. However, I have found many good restaurants across the U.S. that are amazing and found in shopping centers. While this one isn’t amazing, it is worth checking out.
The interior, though…lime green walls everywhere, even the bathrooms. The specials were written on dirty chalk boards and were barely legible. However, at 3 p.m. on a Sunday, several of the seats were full. I thought…this should be interesting.
Once we sat down for a couple minutes, we all realized we were freezing to death. I am very hot-natured and I was shaking. We all went to get coats out of the truck pretty quickly.

Menu

                   

WAY too big. I swear it took us over 30 minutes just to decide what we wanted. There is sushi (way too many of those to choose from as well) that includes fried rolls, baked rolls, specialty rolls, and then the usual basic rolls and sashimi.
Then, there’s everything from salads and fried rice to Thai dishes and bibimbop. I didn’t know where to go with this place!
On a positive note, I am sure there is something for EVERYONE here.

Drinks

Hallelujah! 2 for 1 ($6, so $3 each) margaritas, on the rocks only, at a sushi/ Thai/ who-knows-what-else restaurant? I’ll take it! They made each one by hand and the regular margaritas were pretty good, and a nice size for $3. The strawberry one should probably be avoided, unless you love that fake strawberry syrup.

Food

FREE Onion Soup

I love anything free, but this soup was pretty large and very tasty. Plus, it was very warm, which warmed us up quite nicely in the frigid environment.

FREE Fried Spring Rolls

Something else, free? This is great! While there was no sauce to dip them in, as our other eating companions complained, I don’t care. Dipped into just soy sauce, these were light and crispy and very appreciated.

 

House Salad, $4.95
Description: Fresh Lettuce, cucumber, daikon, and sesame seeds with ginger peanut dressing

While this was a nice sized salad for $5, big enough to split as a started between two people, this house salad was nothing special due to a pretty inferior dressing. I love ginger dressings at most Japanese restaurants- whether it is thick or thin, I love that gingery twang. This definitely lacked that. It also lacked any real peanut flavor. It was just a unique tasting vinaigrette. Not my favorite. Though, I liked the pickled daikon on the salad, I would not order this again.

Thai Pineapple Spicy Fried Rice, $14.95
Description: Fresh spices and pineapple with beef, chicken, shrimp, and fresh vegetables.

This was by far my favorite thing (even though I didn’t order it) ordered at our table. It was HUGE and piled high. This was probably the most flavorful fried rice I have ever tried. It didn’t need any extra soy or spices, it held up all on its own. The yumyum dipping sauce didn’t go ignored, though, because it’s yumyum sauce!
There was also a ton of steak, chicken, and shrimp, all cooked very well. The veggies were also perfectly seared but still al-dente.
Plus, this came with a side salad with that same vinaigrette and just some iceburg lettuce, so nothing special, but a nice addition.
For $15 (almost the same price of many of the rolls on the menu) this is a great deal. I’m sure there are 3 meals to be had in this one dish.

Hendrix Roll, $13.95 (Top)
Description: Thinly sliced and marinated beef, crab, daikon, tamago, cucumber, avocado, and spinach

Especially for the price, I was a tad disappointed. Mostly because I hate rolls with the seaweed on the outside, it is so hard for me to eat. If I had known that, I would not have ordered it, even if it were only $5.
However, the beef inside was very flavorful, though a little chewy. And I pulled the insides out to eat it and I swear there was only beef, cucumber, and daikon. I couldn’t find any tamago, crab, avocado, or spinach?

Hollywood Roll, $11.50 (Bottom)
Description: Tempura shrimp, crab, and cucumber. Topped with white tuna and tobiko with spicy aioli and creamy sauce.

This  was my favorite roll I tried (besides these two and Lori’s two, mentioned below). It tasted very fresh and the cucumber gave it a little crunch, which I need in a sushi roll. Though, it was nothing to write home about, so I would try other rolls next time.

Miami Roll, $12.95 (Top)
Description: Baked roll with crab, avocado, and cucumber, topped with scallop, crab, masago, and spicy aioli

While I love a good baked roll, mostly because of the top with baked scallops and crab and sauces, this roll was just a little mushy for me. Again, I have to have some texture balance in sushi and there wasn’t enough here. But if you have never had a baked roll, you must try it, they are some of the best!

Crunch Munch Roll, $9.95 (Bottom)
Description: Spicy crab and avocado topped with cooked shrimp and crunch

First of all, I don’t believe this was the roll that was ordered. This roll lacked both shrimp and crunch and was just a ball of mush. No thanks.

Overall

*IMPORTANT*
We were told by the waitress that now on Wednesdays and Saturdays (11-9) they have 1/2 off sushi.

This changes everything. I will definitely be back to try different sushi rolls, to get those cheap margaritas, and to get a take home box of that Thai fried rice!

 

Food Review: Fujiyama on the Wheels, What a Deal!

I have seen this new, somewhat randomly placed, food truck in Morgan, on Hwy 365, right next to the Kum N Go. I finally decided to see if there were any reviews of the place yet, and there could only be a few found on their Facebook page. Though, all of the 27 FB reviews rated it 5/5. So, I had to get dinner there. Here’s the breakdown:

The Truck

The people were extremely nice and they got all the food I ordered (3 meals, including sushi) out in about 12 minutes. That is pretty fast! So, the experience here was great.

The Menu

I was pleasantly surprised by how affordable everything was. At a regular hibachi restaurant, hibachi chicken would be well over $10 dollars ($14.95 at Maumelle’s only other Japanese restaurant). I was also pleased that there was actual sushi! Though with all of it being cooked sushi, and most of it fried, it isn’t very authentic. However, it seemed cheap, so I had to try some.

The Food

California Bite Roll ($2.99)- top
Description: Deep fried California roll with 3 special sauces.

I was surprised at how much fried sushi I got for only $3!!!! The five pieces were very large and they sliced the sushi BEFORE frying it. So each piece was fully coated in tempura batter and deep fried. Then, it was covered in three sauces, though I could only detect two: spicy mayo and eel. It was good, though hard to eat, because it was so large. Nothing special, except for what a bargain! And if you love your sushi really fried, you will love this.

Seafood Special Roll ($7.95)- bottom
Description: Tuna, crab, shrimp, with yummy sauce deep fried with 3 oshin sauces. (all cooked)

The 8 pieces of this sushi roll was even larger than the California roll. They were packed full of the seafood filling, which mostly tasted of yum yum sauce, not that I’m complaining. The fry on this roll was different, it was crispier than the tempura batter as it appeared to be made of “crunch” and other breadcrumb breading. (If you know Arkansas sushi, you know what “crunch” is.)
I definitely liked the crunchiness of this roll. And there were definitely three sauces on this one, one being sriracha. So, I liked the sweet and slightly spicy combo of the sauce and seafood filling. It was definitely better than the California roll, but $5. But still, $8 for a huge sushi roll? I don’t hear of that anywhere else either. Still cheap!

Hibachi Vegetables ($5.95)

Holy moly, this was a ton of food! The entire to-go container was  packed. The fried rice only consisted of rice and a bit of egg, and it was very bland. Though, it was the perfect texture, not overcooked like many others. The veggies included broccoli, onion, carrots, and zucchini. These were still very al-dente and also weren’t swimming in flavor. However, a cup of yumyum sauce also accompanies each entree. This $6 “meal” (more like 2-3) may be the best deal in Maumelle.

Hibachi Steak ($8.95)

While this again, was quite a deal compared to other places, this was the most disappointing item I bought. The steak was ordered medium-rare, though it was a little overcooked and there wasn’t much flavor. There also wasn’t much of it, period.

With the rice and veggies needing a little extra, I took both hibachi entrees and put them into my larger skillet, added four eggs, soy sauce, and the yum yum packets and made a very delicious fried rice with the veggies and steak mixed in.

While Drew and I ate some suchi, we couldn’t finish it all. We only had a few bites each of the rice and veggie mix. So, now we have those two to-go containers completely full of delicious leftovers. This will easily equal three- four more meals. WHAT A DEAL!

Overall

I am so glad to have this addition in Maumelle! Cheap, heaping amounts of Japanese food? Yes, please! I would order the shrimp hibachi entree instead of the steak. The reviews on that are it is delicious and perfectly cooked. I would definitely get the hibachi vegetables again, even if I have to mix them up and add soy sauce, big deal? And while it will be pretty darn hard to pass up $3 sushi, I may go with trying a couple of the other rolls. Their $5 crunchy shrimp is temping, and I heard people in line saying how good the Maumelle roll is. Will I be back? Definitely. And then I’ll eat for days.