I had just gone to Sampan for a regular meal, but after finding out about their happy hour, I decided to go check that out as well. There are a number of small plates for $2 and drink specials too. What’s to lose with $2 appetizers?
One of the cocktail specials… fruity… tasty… We got some seats at the kitchen bar, so you could watch all the action.
Up top we have the scallop with haricot vert, mustard, and almond. Delicious, and well cooked. Bottom is the chicken and shrimp spring roll. They serve it with mustard, but I really wish they just gave me duck sauce. I’m terrible that way. The roll it self was really good though.
The chicken dumplings with soy, sesame, scallions, and radish. Meh.
The chicken satay. This was bland. It was beyond bland. The peanut sauce was fine, but the chicken tasted like nothing. And the chicken had crunchy bits in it. I did not enjoy that. What was it, knuckle or something? Please skip this.
The korean bbq rib, which I got before, and liked before. I still like it! It’s still great!
The lamb chop! I’m not even into lamb, but this was my favorite dish of the night. For real! It’s got a little panko breadcrumb action going on with ginger and yakitori sauce.
The kobe beef hot dog! So yeah, I paid $2 for a hot dog. But the hot dog was made with kobe beef! But it still tasted just like a regular beef hot dog. It was a good dog though, don’t get me wrong. They serve it with mustard but I wish they would have just given me some ketchup. I know ketchup on a hot dog is for weenies, but that’s what I prefer! They broil these little dogs so the outside of them bursts when you bite into em and the rolls also have a bit of crunch. I would get this again! As far as happy hour deals go, this is a pretty darn good one! Get it while it lasts!

After eating mom’s cooking for dinner all week, we ventured out for a friday night dinner at Sushi Bistro Masa. It’s one of my bro’s favorite japanese joints in the Columbus area. The chef/owner has been in the japanese restaurant business for awhile, starting out in Manhattan Beach, CA. He came out to Columbus awhile back and opened a spot. When he moved to the latest location in Dublin, he sold the old name and opened up Masa, a bistro. Seeing as how it’s a “bistro”, it definitely does not have a japanese restaurant feel, other than the sushi bar. But I wouldn’t call it swanky, as it has colorful picture menus underneath the glass on top of the tables. The last time I was in Dublin, OH, for work, my brother recommended us to go eat here. But they weren’t open yet for dinner, so we had to end up eating at the Tim Hortons in the same shopping center. I love me some Tim Hortons, but omigosh, Masa is so much better!

My bro’s Noodle Special with shoyu ramen and sushi. You can pick the kind of noodle soup you want and you also pick an additional item. What a deal!

My ma’s Dinner Box with sushi with veggie tempura. It also comes with with side salad, a couple of other little sides, miso soup, and steamed rice. You can pick two items or three items for your dinner box. My mom only picked two, but damn, it was still a ton of food.

My katsu curry udon noodles! I love tonkatsu, I love udon noodles, and I love japanese curry, so here we have them all combined into one. The curry sauce ends up being the soup for the udon noodles, and the katsu on top goes great with the curry. And it’s tons of food! We’re talking about a whole entire pork cutlet on top of a big bowl of curry gravy and thick udon noodles. As usual, I stuffed my face. Great food, nice atmosphere, what more can you ask for? And at this japanese restaurant, it’s actually japanese people making the food. You can’t go wrong with that.

Columbus has some excellent japanese food because of Honda being located nearby. With all of the japanese transplants, you know they want to be able to eat some good japanese food, like at home. There are also a healthy number of japanese grocery stores as well. The one my brother likes is nearby Tensuke Market. They now have a little sit-down restaurant next door, called Tensuke Express. They serve standard quick japanese fare – noodles of udon, soba, ramen, rice bowls, teriyakis, and appetizers. They don’t have sushi, but they have everything else you would love. My sis-in-law got the pork cutlet. It’s an absolutely ginormous portion and comes with a side salad and miso soup.

My mom got one of the combinations, which is hot noodles along with a mini bowl. She got udon and a beef bowl. This is definitely the best value as you get your normal size hot noodles, plus a rice bowl! And it’s only like a quarter more than if you’d just gotten the noodles. So if you have a big appetite, this is definitely the way to go!

I got the spicy kimchi udon. I thought it was spicy kimchi ramen, but I just read the menu wrong. It was indeed udon, not ramen. No biggie there, as I love udon just as much as ramen. This was so good! This is a japanese restaurant, but the japanese definitely love their kimchi. I don’t know if they buy their kimchi or if it’s homemade, but the kimchi was great, and was perfect for the noodles. It just kicked everything up a notch and made it extra special. I like plain udon soup as it is, but it can be a bit bland, so the addition of the kimchi made it more delicious and spicy. But really, I could throw kimchi in just about anything and love it that much more. Try it yourself! Oh, and this food is mad cheap. I miss it already!