Remember a year ago when there was all that mom is turning 60 hoopla? All the crazy meals? All the shenanigans? All the to-do? Well, it’s a year later, and that time again, but only 61 this time, which basically means nothing. Well, nothing other than I took my mom out for a birthday dinner. And without fail, what does she pick? Sushi. That’s what she always picks. Seriously, she’s a creature of habit.

The place is small and next to the vet. That’s just how I’ve always known it. Oh, Ginza, next to the vet, right? You get complimentary edamame. I love anything complimentary.

Moms went with sushi regular. The food came out nice and quick and everything was fresh.

I got a paradise roll, which had crabmeat, avocado, cucumber, eel, and salmon. Quite tasty.

I also got a tempura udon. It was a good sized portion and simple. It wasn’t too salty or too sweet, it was quite plain, but in a a good way. The shrimp tempura were a good size (not too huge) and nicely fried.

The service is pretty good. The host (owner, I think) is just about the nicest man ever. Strangely enough, during our visit, there were tons of kids there, and I mean young kids. It was as if it was family night at Ginza. I don’t know about you, but I’d never seen so many kids at a sushi place in my life. On a cute note, there was a little girl you was trying to eat edamame. It was hilarious, ad the slippery little suckers kept flying all over the place! Ginza is not cheap. In fact, it’d been a few years since I’d been, and while the food stayed the same (still good) it really did seem like the prices went up. That was a disappointment, but the food itself was great.

Ginza Japanese Restaurant
801 Montgomery Ave
Narberth, PA
610-668-9959

There are many sushi choices on the main line, and I’ve been to pretty much all of them in my life. But again and again, I go back to Sushi Land, the little gem in the heart of Bryn Mawr. It’s a cute little BYOB next to the Grog. And it’s always overrun with college students. And they have some of the best sushi on the main line. They have tons of roll options, and that’s pretty much what I’ve always gotten there. If you go here, you should really just get a slew of rolls and not even bother with any of the non-sushi choices.

J went with the mexican roll (bottom), lancaster roll (covered in cucumbers), philly roll (back right), and charley roll (back left). That’s a lot of rolls for one person, but as usual, he polished these all off with ease. We also got some miso soup. It’s pretty good here. I’d recommend it highly. The house salad on the other hand, I cannot recommend. It doesn’t have the regular ginger dressing. Instead, there’s a weird and not-so-pleasant nutty dressing (maybe pureed sesame seeds?) and I do not like it. I mean, it’s not terrible, but when I eat salad at a sushi place, I needs me some orange ginger dressing. And this weird beige paste just will not do.

Ok, so me? I got the villanova roll (back) and the cliff house roll (front). These are two of my favorites. The villanova roll is a favorite of many. And I hadn’t had cliff house in awhile, but I happily remembered how good it was. And I’ve always been a big fan of the mexican roll.

The only down side of sushi land is their spotty service. It’s really, really not that good. They take forever to give you your check, they don’t turn over tables very well (dirty dishes and spilled soy sauce will just lay at a table forever), and frankly, some of the the servers could use some lessons in smiling. It’s a good thing they have good food here, otherwise, the craptastic service could definitely drive people away. They also have all-you-can-eat nights here sometimes, if you can handle that. It gets packed with college kids trying to get their money’s worth, but they make it a fun time and keep the food coming all night long.

I’m usually pretty lazy when it comes to trying out new places. I let everyone else do the trying out, and then I’ll roll around after everyone and their grandmother have been there. Well folks, I’m changing it up a bit! I headed out to Yakitori Boy on a Friday night, the week they finally got their liquor license.

It’s really quite an attractive restaurant. All dark wood, everything is brand spanking new, and tastefully decorated. So there’s a bar downstairs, where the main dining area is. There are stools around the sushi bar. There are booths in the middle and there are some tables to the side. There are also more private rooms with rice paper doors. Upstairs, there is a lounge (21 and over only) along with an additional bar. And the karaoke rooms are here too. Ok, onto the food!

So they bill themselves as a “japas” restaurant – japanes tapas. It’s all about the small plates here. Many, many, many small plates. Between the five of us, there were probably 30 plates. Seriously. So what exactly is yakitori? Technically, yakitori is bird on a stick, but really, it’s basically grilled meats and non-meats on sticks. They gave us complimentary edamame… it was quite fine. Above? Squid legs. I dug this.

We ordered a crapload of stuff – yakitori, sushi, noodle soups, other appetizers… There is essentially no beef available on the yakitori section of the menu, except for the “karubi”. I think this is a bad romanization of korean kalbi, it is rib meat, but it didn’t taste like kalbi. It’s just plain meat on a stick, with essentially no seasoning. A little fatty. It was alright, but I wouldn’t order this again. Behold some eggplant, mushrooms, chicken, chicken and scallion, broccoli, corn, asparagus. Sorry, didn’t taste any of this, except for the corn. But it was probably all just fine. As for the corn? Not that exciting. But it’s corn. Hard to screw up grilled corn.

Here’s where the fun begins. H/A ordered this little fish on a stick. Don’t know what kinda fish this is… some thing sardine-esque, I think. Ok, from fish down: chicken liver, pork belly, chicken gizzard, chicken heart! T, adventure man, ordered all these innards. So the chicken liver was freakin good! It had some kinda sauce on it (most of the other things on sticks did not really have any seasoning or flavoring at all). Pork belly was alright. Chicken gizzard? Good! Chicken heart? Gross. It was crunchy and mushy. So so unpleasant. Do not get this!

Ok, so we also got other stuff… H/A got some sushi… and chicken ball yakitori. This chicken ball stuff was mmm, mmm, good!

A bazillion rolls… various stuff… rainbow roll, philly roll, volcano roll, mexican roll, green river roll. I ordered the green river roll, and it sure was tasty. And pretty big, even though it’s only 3 pieces.

H/A got the mini udon and I got a mini shrimp tempura soba (shrimp tempura came out separately, oops). These were good. Nothing extraordinary, but still good. The bowls were certainly pretty! The shrimp tempura, when it eventually came out, was quite good. Fresh, hot, full of grease. Yum!

Ok, so I can’t remember what these were called, but it was a chicken appetizer. Basically, tender pieces of chicken (not white meat), battered and deep fried and served with some kind of spicy sauce. The batter probably had a bit of spicy in it as well. Loved it!

As for me, I’d been craving takoyaki for awhile. Once when I was in SF, a japanese native made us homemade takoyaki. It’s a fascinating thing to watch really. It’s dough, with pieces of octopus thrown in, with a brown okonomiyaki sauce and bonito shavings on top. These were hot (temperature hot) and good. It might sound a bit gross, but it’s really delicious. Trust me!

All in all, quite a fun meal. And that’s what Yakitori Boy is, fun. The food isn’t particularly great, but it’s tons of fun, and there are things to eat here that you can’t find in other japanese places. And sometimes, being adventurous is just amusing. The service here was pretty good. Your food just comes out when it’s done, there’s no coursing at all. It just comes out… in droves…

One note… while waiting upstairs in the lounge area at the bar, the blonde bartender tried to pour a Sapporo and the tap was tapped… and it splattered beer all over me. Ok, it wasn’t terrible, but point is, it did land on me in several places. And dude, the girl did not even apologize to me. She didn’t offer me a napkin either. I had to ask the other bartender. Note to the bartenders at Yakitori Boy… if you spew beer all over a patron, apologize. Even if wasn’t your fault, it’s still your fault, so just do it. Because if you don’t, she’ll certainly blog about it…