samurai boston for sushi

We had dinner at Samurai Boston last night before heading over to see the Monterey Jazz Festival All-Stars show at the Berklee Performance Center. We scored a parking spot right on Boylston Street near the restaurant (thank you, parking angel!) which was awesome because I was stupidly without a winter hat and gloves that night. This was the third time I have been to the restaurant (read about our previous outing here) and I was really looking forward to the yummy sushi to be had.

We decided that this was our Valentine's Day outing, so we splurged and got a little bottle of Sayuri Nigori sake ($17) to share. It is a cloudy, cold sake that is nice, sweet and refreshing. It's also dangerously easy to finish the whole bottle in a short amount of time!

Then we shared an appetizer called Hamachi Kama Yaki ($10) which is lightly salted, grilled yellowtail collar served with a deliciously sweet ponzu sauce. It was so yummy!

The portion was much bigger than I had anticipated which is always a nice surprise. It seemed so simply cooked and seasoned but tasted amazingly good. We both really like yellowtail as sushi, so having it cooked was a nice way of enjoying it too. I have to admit, I was sucking the last bits of fish off each of the bones, it was that good!

Tony had the rainbow roll ($13) and the negihama maki rolls ($5.50), which were very good.

I decided to get the chirashi ($19) bowl of rice with sashimi on top, one of my favorite things to get when we splurge on sushi. I love the sweetness of the sushi rice at the bottom of the bowl and the freshness of the fish on top. They also put a little mound of ikura (salmon roe) on top which doesn't always happen when I order the dish elsewhere, so I was super psyched.

It was delicious and as always, quite filling, but I have to say that I don't care for imitation crab meat. (What is imitation crab meat anyway, dare I ask?!) The best part was that I had Tony eat a piece of eel (unagi) and he liked it -- of course, he didn't know what it was until I told him afterwards!

We ended dinner quite full and content, although they were out of the green tea mochi dessert so were a little disappointed (probably better for our cholesterol levels though). I like this restaurant because they serve consistently good sushi, the atmosphere is fun, and the people that work there are so nice. It might not be a place to go to for sushi everyday, but for special occasions and special guests I think it's well worth it.

samurai boston

We had dinner at Samurai Boston last night, and this was the second time I had been to the restaurant. It's a Japanese and Korean restaurant on Boylston Street that has a lot of great dishes and excellent sushi. It's a lot bigger than I thought with a private little room in the back of the restaurant, and it has nice decor. The sushi bar area is nice and bright, while the wooden bench seats have cute little butt pads to sit on.

The section we sat in wasn't full when we first walked in a little after 7:30 pm, but by the time I went to and from the bathroom it was completely full. It was great to see that the place was constantly busy - definitely a sign that other people liked the food too. It has a great atmosphere but can get pretty loud, but I guess that all depends on the people sitting nearby too. (Yes, we were quite happy when the table of young kids talking obnoxiously loud finally left - LOL - we're getting old!)



We shared an order of the shrimp shumai (steamed, $5.95) and the fried soft-shell crab ($8.95). Both were delicious, although we were laughing at how you only got 3 pieces of the shumai. The crab dish made up for it in portion though because they gave us so many pieces on the little plate. It was so yummy and had such a rich flavor. It was served on top of a light wasabi sauce and had a little pico de gallo on the side which, for an Asian restaurant did seem a little strange.


Actually, I really liked the fried crab, I have to admit it. It was so nice and flavorful, especially the crunchy batter on the outside. Mmmmm. What was even more surprising was that Tony liked it and had a nice portion of it even though he usually won't eat soft-shell crab because (as he states it) a) you're killing a little crab and b) the shell is still on there. Needless to say, we handed back empty plates.

And then we both had sushi. Tony had the White Dragon (I think?) roll ($12.95) which had spicy yellowtail on the inside of the roll with some avocado, and white tuna wrapped on the outside. I had my usual Negihama maki (yellowtail with green scallions, $4.95) and maguro maki (tuna, $4.50). Both were delicious and devoured alongside the fried crab. All were washed down with a nice hot cup of green tea.

This is definitely a great spot to get some really delicious sushi and other Japanese and Korean fare. There were two Korean girls sitting next to us and they got the kimchi soup that my mom and sister love to eat. I loved how the smell from their dishes wafted towards us and I could kind of taste the spiciness. Yum. Definitely somewhere I'd like to take my mom to the next time she's in Boston. :)