Uchiko: Restaurant Week and More

I love restaurant week. I love sushi. I love Top Chef. I loved winner Paul Qui this season (humble, talented and not dramatic). So, when Restaurant Week announced this year's participants, I was excited to see that Uchiko, where Paul is the chef, was on the list.

First off, the special wasn't that special after all (financially): 1) $35 bucks is what the meal normally would have cost and 2) I ended up eating way more than just what came in the restaurant week menu. For someone with my budget, Uchiko definitely is not a place I visit often, but when I do, it's worth the splurge.

Brussels Sprouts

I met two friends for an early dinner. We started out with two appetizers: Brussels sprouts and a grilled peas with kimchi.


The brussels sprouts were amazing: crispy with a roasted flavor and topped with a sweet lemon chili sauce. We finished the sprouts quickly and were disappointed that an efficient bus boy took the empty bowl away because we all wanted to lick up the sauce left in the bottom of the bowl.

Peas

The pea dish was mostly a hit with us. An alternative to a traditional edamame, the peas had a smokey flavor that paired well with the pickled kimchi flavors. I was proud that I was eating peas since I usually avoid them, and I would eat them more if someone cooked them for me at home. One friend said the pods were too waxy and that made the dish difficult to eat. I didn't mind, but I understood her point. This was a messy dish.




Read more about the meal, see more pictures of delicious food and hear about the one major flaw of our experience, after the JUMP!

Afin Modern Japanese Tapas

I first have to apologize for the pictures on this post. It was dark and I have a not too fancy phone. They do not at all represent the meal. Amazing pictures (provided by the restaurant, I’m sure) can be found on the restaurant’s yelp page. 

I heard about Afin Modern Japanese Tapas when a coworker checked in there on her Facebook page. I immediately googled it and found out it was a new sushi restaurant opened in north central Austin. I looked at their menu and decided it sounded like a place I would want to try. It seemed similar to the uchi/uchiko restaurants – interesting flavor combinations – but possibly a little more accessible. The following day the Groupon was for Afin! I instantly purchased it and was able to try it on the evening of August 5.

Calamari

My friend and I had $60 dollars to spend (I only spent $30 on it – hooray Groupon!) so decided to start out with the Calamari Tempura. It was drizzled with honey and sesame seeds – not too much- and was amazingly tender. I will forever be disappointed with other places’ chewy calamari.

Delicious escolar.

The second dish we ordered was the Karai Escloar. This was amazing. It was super white tuna sliced thin, topped with garlic chips, a dab  of Sriracha (I think this is what the menu calls a Korean chile pesto), a thin slice of chile, and served in sauce that made my friend and I wish sushi restaurants had bread baskets so we could sop it up. This was my favorite dish of the night.   

Choo! Choo!

We ordered two rolls: the Choo Choo roll named after Chef Choo and the Land and Sea roll (surf and turf sushi style). The Choo Choo roll was a spicy tuna roll with avocado and cucumber topped with seared peppered tuna, goat cheese and a honey wasabi sauce. The combination of the goat cheese and seared tuna was terrific. At first I was put off by the amount of pepper on the tuna but eventually the flavors melded. The spicy tuna in the roll was great. I normally dislike spicy tuna – something about whatever it is usually mixed with to make it spicy turns me off – but this on was a little more subtle. The Land and Sea roll was an albacore, jalapeno and avocado roll topped with seared thinly sliced filet mignon. I had to take the beef off and eat that separate from the roll because I wanted to taste everything and the roll was kind of clunky. My friend liked everything in one bite. Both rolls were delicious.

Land and Sea Roll

We also got 4 sushi orders: sea bass, tuna, salmon belly and yellow tail [sadly, no pictures of these]. I had the tuna which was topped with a mini parmesan crisp and a tiny dollop of honey sour cream and the salmon belly which had a basil-miso vinaigrette, lemon zest and pistachio. Of the two, the tuna was better but only because the accent flavors on the salmon belly were overpowering.

We were both stuffed. Our tab came out to $59.00 (completely covered by the groupon, sans tip). Had I paid full price I wouldn’t have felt cheated by portions or quality.