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| - You know those moments at lunch time when you're thinking, "I could eat the same, reliable things...Or I could take a risk and try something new." That was the exact scenario that led me to the Takumi Madison Japanese Restaurant for lunch. As it was the afternoon, we all ordered the lunch specials: Three Bento Boxes ($9.95 each) and one Choose Three Sushi ($12.95).
The place was pretty packed for a Thursday, but we were seated right away. Each of the lunches came with salad or miso soup -- we ordered both. The soup was pretty good, with small tofu pieces and plenty of wakame (seaweed). The salad had a miso dressing with one slice of tomato and cucumber.
The Bento Boxes we ordered were the chicken teriyaki, vegetable & chicken tempura, and the vegetable & shrimp tempura. Each of the boxes came with a small side of sushi, chef's special side (in this case, it was fried shrimp prices that looked like fried bananas), and fruit (canned pineapple and two orange slices). The sushi we ordered was the salmon skin roll, shrimp tempura and California rolls.
Let's start with the chicken teriyaki. In a word: Wrong. I've had plenty of authentic Japanese teriyaki meals, and they typically pride themselves on freshness and authentic flavors. This was not the case at Takumi. The chicken was not grilled, but looked closer to the Tyson ready-made chicken breast. Even worse, it reminded me of some of the not-so-fond MREs I ate in the military (meals ready to eat). Actually, I think I may have preferred the MREs. The sauce was completely flavorless and the onions were raw. Just awful in every way. Seriously, this is the worst chicken teriyaki I've ever tasted.
The tempura was clearly more of a comfort spot for the Takumi. It was actually pretty good, with large slices of fresh vegetables (sweet potatoes, broccoli, asparagus, zucchini). The Tentsuyu (Tempura Dipping Sauce) was also not bad. Then again, kind of hard to mess up on fried vegetables. The shrimp was also pretty good, all around.
Their saving grace was the sushi, which I'm assuming is what most people come there for. The California Rolls on the sushi plate were hands down the best on the meal, followed by the salmon rolls.
Now, I fully understand the whole "small delicacy" aspect of Japanese food. However, at ten bucks for the lunch special, I expect them to load up on vegetables (not the case) and get the main course spot-on. They missed it completely.
Bottom Line: Although the sushi was pretty good, it could not remotely make up for the terrible chicken teriyaki and unevenly balanced price-to-portion ratio. This is the risk you take for unknown lunch. For me, certainly not worth returning.
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