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| - Nothing like a record breaking protest for democracy in Wisconsin to test the relative abilities of the restaurants near the capitol to handle big crowds. Takara did much better than most, they managed to squeeze us in within a couple of minutes, and overall, the service was polite, quick, attentive, and competent, by American standards. By Japanese standards, they were a little rude, no welcome ("irasshaimase"), or oshibori (hot towel to wash up with), or hot tea (ocha). On the way out, polite Japanese waitstaff always thank you (maido arigato!", or at least just, maido"!, if it's busy)". Not here.
A note for those of you who are trying to make sense of the rather wide range of ratings from the Yelpers here, the prices are a bargain for sushi if you're from out of town, but by Madison grad student standards, this is an expensive dinner; compared to sushi prices for Madison area Japanese and pseudo-Japanese restaurants, this place is about average. Yes, the staff is Asian, but no, they are most certainly NOT Japanese. There are various hints, like, for instance, they don't speak Japanese, and the menu has odd mistakes. For example, instead of tonkatsu, they have "katsu dipping sauce," and they provide spoons with the soups (Japanese soup should be eaten by bringing the bowl up to your face with the fingers of both hands), the food isn't always served in the appropriate (according to Japanese manners) bowls or dishes. So, if you're looking for authentic Japanese, you might be a little disappointed, there's this silly "Hibachi" open grill set up for entertainment-cum-Japanese-stereotype dinner, that should be avoided.
The sushi on the other hand, is pretty good. They have a good but not great selection of the standard sushi choices, they also have some original and inventive rolls, I liked my "samurai roll," though it was cut in an odd way. Japanese sushi should be eaten in one bite, so that the beautifully presented piece isn't aesthetically marred on the way in, but the roll I ordered was cut into pieces too large to get into even my big mouth in one bite. The unagi, tomago, and toro were quite good, the uni was slightly off (I wonder if it was microwave defrosted). The edamame was fresh and generous in portion size. You don't automatically get a bowl of miso first, you have to order it separately, although minor, I didn't like that, on a cold day, it's just good Japanese manners to warm your customers up with really hot miso, and if you're ordering a lot of sushi, the cost of "complimentary" miso is really negligible.
The tempura and katsu were tasty, but not quite right (the batter and frying oil weren't exactly right). Tempura is a challenge, the texture has to be just so, it needs to taste light and crispy, very hot, not greasy in spite of the fact that it's fried. If you've had a lot of Japanese food, you'll know what I mean, the tempura and katsu will be a tad disappointing, if you're not so familiar with authentic Japanese, it's not like the Takara versions are not palatable, they're just not exactly correct. When tempura is done right, the batter is made with icy water, prepared from scratch just before frying in sesame oil. If shortcuts are taken, a mixture of cheaper oils, batter made up before hand, lukewarm water is used, then the characteristic texture and taste is slightly off even if the rest of the recipe and cooking process is loyal to tradition. They're taking some sort of similar shortcut with the katsu, as the breading isn't quite Japanese panko, and they don't serve it cut lengthwise the way the Japanese like it, they've invented a kind of nugget variation.
The location is very convenient for either the capitol or the UW-Madison campus.
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