Pearl East Reopens at 323 Hope Street in Stamford

(From left) Ivy Bacher and Chef Ye will host the Grand Reopening of Pearl East on Thursday, August 13 at 5:30, 323 Hope Street, Stamford. There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebration. For details, visit http://www.pearleastct.com or call (203) 973-0072.

After a fire that broke out at Pearl East on Summer Street in Stamford, owners Bee (Ivy) Bach and Chef Ye were without a restaurant. And, the people of Stamford were without one of their favorite choices for dependable Chinese and Japanese. Comments poured into their Facebook page, offering sympathy and talking about how sad they were. But, people breathed a sigh of relief when they announced that they would, indeed, reopen.

Well, OmNomivores, that time is here! That’s because on August 13, Pearl East will officially reopen at their new location: 323 Hope Street in Glenbrook! The Grand Opening Party starts at 5:30 and will have a ribbon cutting at 6 that features Stamford Mayor David Martin and CT State Representative William Tong.

And, while you’ll still see many of your old favorites on the menu when you stop by, you’ll also notice some new soon-to-be-favorites, too. That’s because Chef Ye (with legit kitchen experience in Hong Kong) has updated the menu with dishes like “Flounder Filet with Ginger and Scallion,” the “Duck Crepe,” and the “Sizzling BBQ” which is a combination of filet mignon, shrimp, and veggies served on a banana leaf.

Prices range from $14-22, so that’s a very affordable sweet spot to hit, but if you stop by on Grand Opening Day, you’ll get 20% some of the menu items whether you eat there or take out. In terms of hours, check them out from 11-10 pm on Monday-Friday, 12-11 pm on Saturday, and 12-10 pm on Sundays. Plus, fret not: they’ll still have deliveries to Darien, Greenwich, and Stamford, so make sure you have (203) 973-0072 saved in your contacts. ;)

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Pearl East

323 Hope Street

Stamford, CT

(203) 973-0072

 

 

For that traditional Hibachi experience, check out Hana Tokyo in Fairfield, CT

We have to admit, we don’t get out for Hibachi very often. Ok, very often is an understatement . . .  we’ve actually only ever been once before in our entire lives, just a few years ago. Sure, it can be kitschy, but with the right group of people and a fun, talented Hibachi chef, a little kitsch can be a whole lotta fun! I mean where else can you see a knife and fire show, get food thrown at you, and have alcohol poured directly in your mouth without getting kicked out? And while you’re not going to get a fancy gourmet meal served in tiny portions on exquisite plates, you sure can get yourself some tasty, traditional Asian favorites that fill your belly for hours to come! So it was for these reasons we were excited to take Hana Tokyo up on their offer to enjoy their Hibachi experience with a couple of friends of ours.

Celebrate Hibachi Style with Westport Little League @ Sakura of Westport

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If you’re looking to have a fun night out with friends and family, checking out a hibachi restaurant is a smart choice. There are onion volcanoes, fun conversations, knives flying everywhere, lots of food flipped into the air and into mouths, and lots of sake flying to and fro. And, it’s with that exciting atmosphere that Sakura in Westport presents a special hibachi dinner (price and menu are the same) for the Westport Little League team. The special meal is happening 9/9, starting at 5:30. So, not only will you get to have some great food, but you’ll also get to meet the team and coaches and congratulate them one more time.

How well do you think the boys will be able to catch the food in their mouths? We’re gonna guess they’ll be flawless. Maybe the Hibachi Master Chefs will let the boys pitch in some shrimp, too? The only question is will it be a fast-shrimp, curve-shrimp, or slider-shrimp…

Sakura

Address: 680 Post Road East

Westport, CT

Phone: 203-222-0802

Enough Sushi for a Whale at Sushi X II – Stamford, CT

Not enough? Order more sushi and rolls!

Crispy spring rolls with a spicy sauce=yum

The BBQ squid was disappointing, but was a good attempt

My favorite…the crab wontons :)

Crispy shumai, ah

Leave room for dessert: ginger and green tea ice cream

So, two Italians walk into a Japanese restaurant on St. Patrick’s Day.  Oh, it’s no joke.  See, when the urge for sushi hits you, it’s nearly impossible to shake it even if it was St. Patty’s Day.  Yeah, we should’ve been eating corn beef and cabbage and throwing back some beers.

We wanted to try a new sushi spot, so Danny threw out the idea of Sushi X II:  a sushi lover’s paradise that is all you can om nom for $19.99 or $21.95 on weekends.  Immediately, I resisted.  Sushi…all you can eat?  Um, yeah, I wasn’t convinced it would be any good. But, I felt daring and adventurous so I agreed. After all, we had to be lucky, it was St. Patty’s Day.

How it Works

You can order all you can eat sushi from their paper menus or you can even order a la carte (or 品料理 in Japanese – yeah, we can copy and paste from Google translator, what?) off the kitchen menu.  If you’re lame, you order a la carte.  If you’re awesome, you order all you can eat:

1) There are two paper menus that you can order from.  Start by writing the number of each appetizer that you would like.  For example, if you want two crab wontons, write “2.”   Give  your choices to your server.

2) Pick up the sushi menu and circle your order of sushi, sashimi, rolls, and speciality rolls.  Give that bad boy in to the server.

Space it out however you’d like, but don’t take more than you can eat.  First of all, it’s a waste, but second of all, they’ll charge you for whatever you have left on your plate at the end.  We actually like that they do that so we were sure to finish everything on our plates.  Aw, our moms are so proud of us!

The Food

They’ve got salad, sushi appetizers, more appetizers, fried goodness, soup, and teriyaki dishes.  We went with some spring rolls, shumai, crab wontons, bbq ribs, and bbq squid.  The crab wontons were cream cheese-erific, had bits of crab, were not too crispy–a nice start to the meal.  The shumai was also great, but the same can’t be said about the bbq squid.  The flavors from the sauce were too overpowering and it came out tough and hard to chew.  The bbq ribs were similar, kind of tough and dry.  They were the kind of ribs that you needed to literally tear apart, not fall off the bone with a light tug like they should be.  So, half of the apps were good, half weren’t.  But, you go to a sushi palace to get sushi, not just apps, right?

Now, the sushi.  The fish here tasted fresh, smelled fresh and looked good too.  If you just want to try some fish, order some sashimi to get some slabs of yumminess.  If you want a bit more, you can order from the sushi portion of the menu.  If you like more of a flavor and texture mixture, stick with the rolls and specialty rolls.  We had some white tuna and red snapper sashimi and a peanut avocado roll because we were feeling HUNgry. All the rolls were actually pretty decent, but our favorite was the Winter Roll.  It had mango, cucumber, and avocado, topped with spicy crabmeat, crunch, and mango sauce.  The contrast of flavors and textures is what made this roll so great.  As for which rolls you should pick, that’s a personal matter that we need not pry into.  I, for example, will not have any eel or eel sauce because the texture freaks me out.  But, you, ya weirdos, might like it. hehe I kid.

Wrapping Up

If you’ve got a serious hankering for whale-portioned amounts of sushi, this is the spot to hit up.  You’ll pay one flat rate, pick out your apps and pick out how you’d like your sushi.  Granted, some of the appetizers can be avoided, but some of them are good.  You’d be wise to try a great variety of sushi and rolls rather than some of the apps.  Yes, this isn’t going to be the most amazing sushi that you’ve had (it’s no Fin for example) but for the price and the portions it’s actually decent. Shockingly.

Sushi X II

Noms: 3.25

Cost: $$

Address: 109 Atlantic Street

Stamford, CT

Phone: (203) 327-6888

Menu

Creative sushi dishes, a festival of sights and tastes. Matsuri–Darien, CT

Attack of the Monster Shumai!!!

 

As our nice little vacation dwindled down to its last dregs, we found ourselves sore from snowboarding at Windham in the Catskills.  So, what else is there to do but recouperate with the help of some sushi?  So, we took to the handy-dandy seamlessweb.com again and found Matsuri in Darien with high ratings and  food that sounded fantastic.  It was a hard choice because they have quite an extensive menu of rolls and Matsuri Signature Rolls.  So, we checked the hell out of that ordering page:

1) Homemade Shumai with steamed pork and shrimp, topped with masago

2) Peanut Avocado Roll

3) Chocolate Beef Roll with crispy scallops, asparagus, grilled rare beef, and a light and sweet chocolate sauce

4) Ditmark Roll with pepper tuna, avocado, spicy salmon, and toppings of salmon, peanuts, and chili sauce

5)  Curry Salmon roll with spicy yellowtail, seaweed salad, salmon, curry sauce, and chervil

Ditmark Roll and Chocolate Beef Roll!

Well, let’s start with the four shumai:  unlike typical dainty little shumai, they were quite plump and juicy with goodness. The biggest shumai I’ve ever seen.  They were a bit cold, but they did come from Darien to Stamford to get to us.  The taste, though, was good, though the pork was just a tad fatty, and it was gently highlighted with the delicate mustard dipping sauce.  I hate mustard and I didn’t even realize it was mustard (Howie, I hope I haven’t disappointed you) until Kristien mentioned it.  So, well played Matsuri!

Peanut Avocado Roll. This was the cheapest roll of the bunch at $5, because it was so simple.  Rice, avocado, and crushed peanut on top made for a helluva good roll!

Now, onto my favorite roll:  Chocolate Beef Roll, a culinary challenge that I knew I had to tackle.  I figured it wasn’t so crazy considering how great mole sauce can be, so I trusted all the friends who told me how great Matsuri is.  Well, this roll was really amazing.  To begin, you have a nice thick piece of grilled beef on top, cooked rare.  You don’t get that grilled taste until you’ve bitten through the crispiness of the asparagus and the scallops and it’s such a nice kick that I just kind of oozed down to the floor like a puddle.  But, just as you get that excellent grilled taste you get the subtle rich chocolatiness of the sauce on top.  This is a winner in my book, but it’ll cost ya $13–well worth it.

Peanut Avocado and Curry Salmon Rolls

Next up was the Ditmark Roll and this was a great one, too.  The saltiness of the peanuts on top mixed well with the spiciness from the chili sauce, pepper tuna, and spicy salmon.  Trust me, all of these were finished and Kristien and I stared each other down at a few points to make sure that the rolls were divided up evenly. :)  Kristien took the Curry Salmon Roll and did some omnoming of her own.  She thought this roll was also very good as well with fresh yellowtail and salmon, just the right amount of curry to give it a kick and chevril to balance that out. YUM!

The verdict?  Matsuri has great sushi, excellent actually.  The menu was unique, the fish was fresh, and everything was beautiful both in presentation but also in culinary creativity.  The cost is a bit steep, but the food is worth giving it a shot. And take a chance and try the Chocolate Beef Roll, that’s my major recommendation here!

Noms:  3.75

Cost:  $$$

Matsuri

Address:  390 Post Road

Darien, CT 06820

Phone:  (203) 655-4999

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