Sunday, December 21, 2008

SUSHI BOATS!

Ok, you know I don't upload videos very often, but this one is so worth it. And, they've made posting videos much easier now, so I think I'll be doing it far more often. Just click below...



We were visiting my cousin at the hospital in SF, which is located right next to Japantown. And rather than facing rush hour traffic, we headed over to grab dinner before going home. We had known about the conveyor belt sushi place, Isobune, but hadn't tried it yet, and so this was a good opportunity to check it out.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, this is how conveyor belt sushi works. Basically you have dishes of food going by you. Each dish costs a different amount of money, which is dictated by the color plate that it's on. As you eat, you collect plates and in order to calculate your bill, the staff with tally how many plates you have of each color. It's pretty easy.

However, this place was truly awesome. If you actually watched the video, you 'll see that it's not just a conveyor belt. The plates of sushi are actually riding atop sushi boats that are chained together and floating along a little body of water. How much more entertaining could it be?

Ok, as for the sushi, that's a different matter. The sushi at a conveyor belt sushi place is never stellar, because it's not made to order. The thing doesn't get eaten until someone picks it up. So sometimes, the same plate is just riding around, as the food dries out and doesn't look so hot. Ideally, you want to go to a busy place so the food is turning. We went to dinner a bit early. So there was a mix of fresh stuff and not so fresh stuff. I gotta say overall, the food wasn't too bad. I had some pretty decent sushi, and it truly wasn't that expensive (and certainly cheaper than Kirala here in the East Bay).

Tom accumulated far more plates than I did, and he enjoyed the octopus the most. He didn't feel it was the freshest and best fish ever, but he also liked the variety and the experience of going. I wouldn't say that we'd rush back to this place, but if we're in the area in the mood for sushi, it's certainly a good place to grab a quick bite, without blowing a ton of money on sushi.

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