I have to admit I don't understand the appeal of this huge shopping and dining complex unless you need some place to eat before a game at the stadium or the arena that lie adjacent to it. Yeah, that's not why I was there. I was staying at the Renaissance for a week-long business trip and didn't have a car, so dining options for me and my colleagues were limited to this complex. We had already tried the Yard House, so we thought we'd take a chance with this modern-looking Japanese restaurant. It's a large space that doesn't really look like any Japanese restaurant that I've been to.
The menu went on for quite a while with a heavy focus on rolls. I thought we could share a $12.95 Rainbow Roll which looked like it was slapped together in the dark (photo: http://bit.ly/2d7BvwV). Rainbow rolls are a good litmus test to see if the fish is fresh, and it passed that test if just barely. Somewhat better was the $13.95 Hamaichi Sake Box, which honestly looked like it was made with a sushi kit. It had layers of salmon and crab between the rice and it was topped off by pieces of yellowtail (photo: http://bit.ly/2cvIPBB). Again what I was missing was the creative aplomb a true sushi chef would have applied.
Filling up on the rolls, I just ordered the $6.95 Mixed Tempura appetizer as my entree (photo: http://bit.ly/2cGOwzC), and this was marginally the best part of my meal probably because my expectations weren't that high at this juncture even if the strange dark brown tone was off-putting. There was actually plenty of shrimp alternating withe the vegetables on my plate. In standard order, it came with a sloppy green salad and a bowl of miso soup first, but the highlight was the small $15.95 bottle of the Hakutsuru Superior Sake served on ice (photo: http://bit.ly/2cUl36O). It offered a nice melon fragrance that was unexpected but refreshing on a typically humid Phoenix evening. Regardless, a return visit doesn't seem likely.
FOOD - 2 stars...weak on most fronts with the sake the only real salvation
AMBIANCE - 2 stars...suburban contemporary setting doesn't feel very evocative of anything close to Japan
SERVICE - 2 stars...inconsistent at best
TOTAL - 2 stars...faux-Japanese