rev:text
| - My favorite Japanese Restaurant.
In our family it has become tradition to go out for a nice dinner and let the birthday boy/girl decide what kind of cuisine to go for. For our son's 20th birthday, he opted for Japanese cuisine and after some research, we found Takumi in Madison. It came highly recommended by many, so we figured we would give it a shot. When we walked in, the light aroma of teriyaki and miso was very welcoming. The dining room was small, but very tasteful.Over on the right, there was a nice size sushi bar where all their sushi is prepared to order. Two separate rooms for Teppanyaki groups complete their dining setup. We started with Shu Mai, sushi and sashimi and got a mouthful of flavor. Their Shu Mai was absolutely perfect. Perfect seasoning, perfect temperature, perfect flavor, perfect doneness. The sushi tasted fresh and crisp. The sashimi was fresh, clean and flavorful. Their chef salad is simple, but delicious. I have been in many Japanese restaurants and often find the typical ginger salad dressing either to vinegary or too gingery. This one, however, was very nicely balanced. We moved on to our main dish. One of us had a chicken and vegetable tempura bento box, one of us had steak and lobster hibachi and one of us had chicken yaki udon. The only two minor flaws I can think of was that our dishes came to the table in shifts. The hibachi and bento box were only 2 minutes apart, but the chicken yaki udon did not arrive until 5 minutes later. Secondly, every dish, all the starters and all the main dishes all had one lettuce leaf and one maraschino cherry. It would have been nice to see some creativity with the garnish, but the quality of the food was so good, we quickly forgot about the garnish. The tempura was light and crisp, the lobster was plump and full of flavor and he steak, well let's just say I've had worse steak at restaurants that call themselves a steakhouse.
Out of the many Japanese restaurants I have eaten at, I have to admit, this one is the best one yet. It will be hard to top the quality of the food we had here.
Count on an average of $20 to $30 per person for a complete meal (starters, main and drinks). Well worth every penny.
|