Filed under: Japanese, Korean, Southeast Portland | Tags: Japanese, kimchee, Korean, paleo, restaurant, southeast portland
15 Southeast 9th Avenue, Portland, OR
Happy New Year! Sorry for the long hiatus. The holidays get pretty crazy!
Our first new restaurant of 2013 was not a complete bust we are happy to say 
They’re in the same building of Simpatica, so we’ve heard about it, but didn’t know much about it. Then over the holidays it was recommended to us, so we thought we’d stop by here for Happy Hour.
What we ordered: From the Happy Hour Menu: Chicken skewer, Beef steak skewer, “Bara” Pork Belly Skewer, Onigiri (Grilled rice ball), Yakionigiri (seaweed wrapped rice with pickled plum inside), From Regular Menu: Kani Salad (The Special of the day: crabmeat with arugula), Pork Kimchee Stew
How we ordered it: As is. We’ve added rice to our diet…. Though for no rice, you could easily get the pork kimchee stew without rice cakes if you wanted. Also, you could easily not order the rice balls or seaweed rice wrap as well 
What we received:
Small bowl of mildly spiced popcorn, they give everyone at the beginning of your meal.
Kani salad (crabmeat with arugula)
Chicken and Beef Steak skewer
“Bara” Pork Belly Skewer
Yakionigiri (Rice wrapped in seaweed with pickled plum inside)
Pork kimchee stew with rice cake
Grilled rice balls.
It’s amazing how the pictures look when you have good lighting! Gee…
Cost: Kani Salad (crabmeat and arugula)- $12, Chicken, Steak, Pork Belly Skewers – $2 each (happy hour special), Rice balls and rice seaweed wrap – $1 each (happy hour special), Pork kimchee stew – $7
Quality: Very high quality meat. They’re like the other restaurants in Portland, it’s hormone free, antibiotic free, natural…’n all that good stuff. Really tasty, really surprised at how good it was!
Quantity: Hmmm…how do you verbalize that look when you’re thinking, ‘I don’t think so” or “oooo! that’s gotta hurt”, and you suck air in your mouth with widened bottom lip….
MEAT-O-METER SAYS!!
The Kani Salad was described as a sizable salad. Eek, maybe we should have told him that we’re big eaters and I guess we should have told him we were sharing it. Considering how hungry I was, I would have eaten the entire thing in 6 bites. For $11, I was expecting it to be slightly larger. Though it was dungeness crab meat, so I guess that’s how it goes….don’t get me wrong though, it was very very tasty.
Which led us to be slightly worried about the size of the rest of our meal. The skewers, though single portioned, were incredibly well made: moist and tasty, really great meat. Since it was Happy Hour, we decided to get another Pork Belly Skewer. I think on the regular menu the skewers are $4 each, so a bit on the expensive side for our tastes.
For our sizable meat intake needs, Biwa didn’t quite meet them. Hence, the sideways thumbs. Happy hour is great here though!
If you didn’t want to eat rice, didn’t go during Happy Hour and wanted a really fulfilling meal, you will have to be ready to spend a bit more. You’ll be dropping some dollars for small portioned dishes as well as the number of dishes you’ll have to order to feel full. Though this is a Japanese/Korean restaurant with rice being a staple of the culture’s diet, not eating rice would be difficult here, but do-able.
When we left at 6:30 pm-ish, it was packed and a line had formed! So obviously a very popular joint with high quality cooking.
Overall though, we enjoyed it and we’ll definitely be back fro Happy Hour! Pork belly skewer…mmmmmm.
539 NW 21st Ave, Portland, Oregon 97210
Their gimmick is “All day happy hour”. I am perplexed at this advertising. The sushi is priced higher on the menu, so when you get happy hour prices, it lowers their list prices to prices you could get anywhere else. (See Saburo’s post). Though, it’s probably just really smart advertising.
It was disappointing to see Sansai is a chain, but we heard about their meat quantity in their Chicken Plate and decided we had to try it.
What we ordered: Chicken plate, Beef and Shrimp Plate.
How we ordered it: Asked for extra vegetables instead of rice. Pick from 4 different types of salad; we decided on the cucumber seaweed salad. We did not order any sushi rolls b/c we didn’t want to deal with the rice. Also, the chicken plate was highly recommended, so we went for it.
What we got:
Steak and Shrimp Plate
Chicken Plate
Cost: $9 – Chicken Plate, $9 – Steak and Shrimp Plate
Quality: The meat was sort of like the kind of meat you would get at the mall. Somewhat tasty, guaranteed no dryness, just about standard meat. Nothing special, nothing great, just OK. From a franchise restaurant, it’s the quality we would expect. I suspect their sashimi would be the same.
Quantity: For the price, the meat was substantial and was more than fair. Props for letting us substitute our rice for a large tasty salad.
MEAT-O-METER says!
Note the absence of the second thumb and the crooked-ness of the first. Nothing spectacular, just good ol’ solid meal. It wouldn’t be our first pick, but if they were open late (past 10 pm)… this would be a great Paleo-friendly late night eats.
We used our Entertainment Book to get one of our entrees for free!! It was a pretty sweet deal, I recommend getting one!
1667 SE Bybee Blvd, Portland, Oregon 97202
Yee-hawww! There’s no getting jacked of food here, for a sushi restaurant.
Largest pieces of sushi I’ve ever seen in a sushi restaurant so far…
What we ordered: 3 orders of Salmon Belly, one roll – Budokhan roll, 1 order of Striped bass, 1 order of Bonito, 1 order of River eel.
How we ordered it: Sushi restaurants are pretty easy. There’s not that much that’s processed here except for the rice. We would get the Sashimi plate, but it’s pretty expensive, but that’s what we would ideally like to order.
What we got: Some huge pieces of fish! Holy cow.
(yeah, forgot to take the pic before we started eating…)
Cost: Not bad for the amount you get. approx. $3.50 for sushi, approx. $6.50 for a roll.
Quantity: Holy shnikees, batman!
Quality: Pretty good.
Why the large mound of rice on the plate? Yes, we are Paleo, so no rice for us!
However, I have heard of people complaining that they serve too much rice. Well, did you look at the size of their sushi? Refer to above Quantity:.
Sushi restaurants in general are notorious for not a lot of quantity. However, it is seafood, the steak of the seas. But Saburos breaks the mold and actually gives you pieces of fish that are reasonable for what you are paying.
According to the Meat-o-meter, we have a winner!!
