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| - Delicious, home-style Japanese food -- if you think Japanese food begins and ends with sushi, this place will open your horizons with a variety of tasty options. The menu is tasty, subtle and offers a variety of meat, fish and veggie options with rich sauces.
Let's start with the coffee since the restaurant does include "Cafe" in its title. Cafe de Japon has gotten a lot of press in Las Vegas for its siphon coffee. The brewing of siphon coffee is almost ceremonial. It involves two glass chambers--the bottom one holding water that eventually boils and rises up into the coffee grounds in the upper glass chamber. As it cools, the coffee separates from the grounds and falls back into the lower coffee chamber. It's a hell of a lot of fun to watch, but as coffee, it's . . . decent. I've heard people rave about it, but it's just a light roast cup of coffee. It's smooth and lacks some of the bitter aftertaste of a traditionally brewed coffee, but it's merely a subtle, uncomplicated flavor.
As for the appetizers, Cafe de Japon serves up an excellent agedashi tofu appetizer--square of tofu topped with flavoring in the form of grated ginger and scallions with sauce on the plate under the tofu.
We ordered the hamburg steak with daikon and vegetable rice curry. The gravy sauce on the hamburg steak was surprisingly tart and reminded me of a German sauce, but much lighter. The plate came with a small portion of scalloped potatoes. Delicious and a wonderful combination with the steak. The vegetable curry rice had a good spice, but more subtle than a Thai or Vietnamese curry. The veggie curry did have an impressive, almost meat flavor to it. But it's got a spicy kick, so be warned.
Bottom line: 3 1/2 stars for tasty food and an extra star for very friendly customer service.
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