Sushi Time at Meiji Cuisine

Image from MeijiCuisine.com

 

This past Thursday, I asked three of my friends to join me for a night of sushi and a movie in Waukesha. They all agreed and I was super pumped to use my LivingSocial deal for Meiji Cuisine. (If you aren't a member of Groupon or LivingSocial, you really need to get on board. I know that there are mixed reviews from retailers that they can be more hassle than they are worth, but if the consumer reads the fine print and understands what they are buying AND the retailer explains the offer to all their employees prior to the deal starting, they are great deals.)

The deal asked that I make a reservation and because we were planning for a 7:10 movie, I made the reservation for 5:45. When we entered Meiji, I could not believe from the outside how beautiful the interior is. I would never picture this from a strip-mall style business in Waukesha. Meiji is located right by Home Depot in Waukesha in front of Texas Roadhouse on Hwy J. The entrance is a little unique to get into, but there is ample parking.

Back to the interior. You walk in at the middle of the restaurant and we were immediately greeted by three smiling faces welcoming us for dinner. There is a beautiful fountain and blue glass light sculpture in the waiting area. Obviously on a typical Thursday night at 5:45, I don't think you would need to make a reservation, but by the time we left, the place was filling up. We were set at table in the middle of the restaurant side right across from all the chefs making the sushi. Tables are dark wood with tan placemats, white plates, burgundy cloth napkins and chopsticks. The art is modern Asian if that makes sense all in the black and tan color palette.There were 2 hibachi rooms located off this main dining room that I could see but neither were in use while I was there.

They asked us what menu we wanted to use. I had read some reviews on Yelp and heard from friends that if you don't know what you want and you get all the menus, its really overwhelming. I asked my friends to preview the Japanese sushi menu online so we could minimize being overwhelmed. We got 4 sushi menus and asked for the Chinese menu too to just see what else they have to offer.

Then came time to order. One of my friends ordered a sake and they suggested she drink it warm. I had never heard of that before but she took the suggestion and said it brought a whole new level to the sake experience. The rest of us just had water with lemon because with us getting older (haha) we thought sitting in a movie after a cocktail or two might make us sleepy or give us a headache (yep we are getting so old :) ). Our server gave us a few moments and then we were ready to order.

My friend Tiffany ordered an appetizer for us called wasabi salsa (which I didn't get a picture) that consisted of cucumber strips w/ salmon, tuna or yellowtail and topped with tomatoes, onions and a little wasabi. I'm not sure which one I had, because we dug in before asking, but the cucumbers were lightly pickled and then the seafood was wrapped around the cucumber. It was absolutely delicious. I am not one that has experimented too much in the world of sushi and never had sashimi, but this is going to become something in my repertoire! And this might have made me interested in trying sashimi sometime.

Next came the rolls, I decided to go with the Sexy Girl Roll to step out of my comfort zone. It was fried lobster inside the roll and spicy tuna and chef's special sauce on the top. They were wrapped in a pretty pick rice paper (so fitting for me). The fried lobster was delicious but the special sauce was pretty spicy on top - maybe a sirracha sauce concoction. Other than that, the rest of the roll was good but without that red dot of sauce the roll would be pretty bland.

Tory ordered the Outstanding Roll which was spicy tuna and tempera bits with eel and avocado in a green rice paper. This was absolutely delicious and my favorite roll of the group. I'm a sucker for avocado. The tempera crunchiness was just enough to make it a complete roll. I'm going to look for this in future rolls. I didn't try the sauce in the middle but check out that super fun presentation and Tory really enjoyed it. 

Tiffany ordered the Mummy Roll which was tempura shrimp and cucumber on the inside, tuna and lobster with tobiko sauce and a sweet/sour sauce. The sauce was much calmer than mine but went very well with the roll and enhanced the flavor a lot.

Shauna is new to the sushi world but she was adventurous. She ordered the Boston roll which was shrimp with cucumber and mayo. We were both curious about the mayo but it really just added a little smoothness to the roll and the shrimp and cucumber were a good combo. She also ordered a California roll because that one didn't have any raw fish in it and she knew it would be a safe bet. I didn't try one of those but seeing as we all ate everything, I think they were just as good as the rest.

Tiff and Shauna also ordered spring rolls with sweet and sour sauce. They said they were good but typical.

As you have read, I thoroughly enjoyed this meal. Even without the LivingSocial deal, it came out to around $20 a person and for sushi that isn't too bad (and we were all full). Sakura and Meiji are very even in my book but I have only been to each one once. I can't get past the amazing lunch deal at Sakura. I highly recommend both for your sushi enjoyment and maybe I will get a group together to check out the Hibachi table soon as this is something on my hit list for 2012.

We finished enjoying all the sushi fun in about an hour and headed over to the Majestic to see New Year's Eve. Unfortunately we weren't the only people using our Spotlight discount from Marcus as they only had 4 seats left in the movie -- thus we would have to search all over the theater and not sit together. While we decided what to do, 2 tickets were bought and that settled the idea for us -- no movie. So instead we went to Tiff's apartment and played Just Dance 3 on her Wii. Not that sushi is a super fattening meal loaded up with calories but I was glad to not just sit after I ate (a resolution for me in 2012) One of my friends earned the nickname "Wind Up Toy" that night for her never ending energy in the game. It turned out to be a really great night.

Until my next post, Happy Eating!