King's Fish House - Green Valley at The District

VERDICT: A decent seafood chain for Las Vegas.

Greg and I decided to go wild and head to the opposite side of the city to shop at The District, next to Green Valley Ranch.  The District is such a strange area: condos over stores of a outdoor mall.  The really strange part is all the people with dogs in the mall.  Seriously, go and look, they just hang out for hours outside in the mall with their dogs...and they aren't homeless.

I noticed that the Coffee Bean has free Wi-Fi.  If you were going to have a condo in The District, I would have it above the Coffee Bean, then you would never have to pay for internet.  Of course, people that can afford condos in The District and can afford to hang out all day with their dogs in a mall, well, those people can easily afford internet.

Anyway, we were going to go to Lucille's Barbeque, because everyone raves about it, but there was a wait.  We were instantly drawn to King's Fish House.  The outside is decorated with posters declaring lobsters for sale and ichiban sushi.  It was a nice day and Greg immediately said that he wanted to sit outside.  I need to point out that Greg always wants to sit outside at every restaurant and in every weather condition.  I've sat outside in 50 degree weather and in 113 degree weather with Greg.  My knee jerk reaction is always to say "no" to sitting outside now, but today was really nice.  We went inside to get a table and the atmosphere was wonderful with small black and white checkered tiles lining the floor with dark wood walls and furniture.  It reminded me of a traditional fish market restaurant I frequented.  The waitress then walked us through another door into the sushi room, which was decorated more whimsically, but still enjoyable.  Finally, we walked outside and were seated at our stupid table with the traditional vinyl red and white checked table cloth.

 

If you want atmosphere, eat inside.  It's really nice in there and you can be protected from the elements while you eat.  Greg admitted that even he wished he ate inside in the well decorated restaurant.  The glare from the sun on our menus blinded us, but otherwise sitting outside was decent.

The lobster bisque was average.  My taste in lobster bisque must have been tainted by having exceptional bisque in Maine.  Every time I have lobster bisque now, I'm disappointed.  I was disappointed again.  The flavor was slightly fishy and there was not much in the way of actual lobster bits in the bisque.  I know, I know, bisque is not suppose to have bits in it, but when you've had a lobster bisque with lots of lobster bits in it, you'll never want to eat anything else.  Really, you can't get in your face fast enough...it's that good.

Greg had the scallops, which he thought was superb.  The sides are a nice selection ranging from coleslaw (not the best I've had) to a house salad or steamed vegetables.  Most meals come with two sides, which really makes the prices at King's seem reasonable.  I had the King's combo platter, which was a deep fried platter with two scallops, two shrimp and one piece of cod.  In hind sight, I should have avoided the deep fried stuff.  I only choose it because it is usually safe as far as fish goes and well, I do like it.  Next time, I think that I will have no problem ordering something that might ordinarily not be good at other restaurants.  They appear to have fresh seafood and have the added bonus of knowing how to prepare it.

Sushi Loca

VERDICT: Shove it in your face hole - Xtreme Sushi for the eternally hip that don't have time to be bothered with anything that doesn't come with a warning.

My first problem with Sushi Loca is the name.  It sounds like Mexican Sushi, right?  For some reason, all I can imagine is a California roll deep fried and smothered in cheese and enchilada sauce.  Luckily, that isn't on the menu, however, it was a hindrance in getting in the door.  Greg also refused to eat at a place with such misleading name.  I had to agree with him.  I long ago set the rule that I never eat Japanese food from a restaurant that has Chinese food for the simple reason that Chinese people can't cook Japanese food well.  I am pleased to announce that there isn't a taquito roll on the menu.  There are some spicy rolls and perhaps that is the association with the name "Loca". 

The atmosphere is slick, red, bright, and ultra-modern.  The music is a soundtrack of dance songs that have annoyed me throughout time.  All the way from "Kung Fu Fighting" to "Everybody Dance Now" to the Black Eyed Peas song that seemed to be written solely to get played at every Bar Mitzvah from now 'til eternity.  Way to corner the Jewish market, Black Eyed Peas!  These songs are blasted, too.  To the point that Greg could not hear me very well and he's got super hearing.  So, he ended up devolving into a go-go boy that had to bop to the beat, which can be quite distressing for me to watch.

We got the Jackpot roll and the Megabucks roll.  The Jackpot roll was OK, but Greg thought it was too spicy.  The Megabucks roll was cold, like it just came out the freezer.  I'm used to sushi being room temperature and I didn't care for the icebox sushi.  So, I don't recommend their "fancy" rolls.  I had every intention in "going cheap" and only ordering traditional rolls, but I always get sucked into trying house rolls.  As far as house rolls go, there are a lot of them, but there isn't much variation in them.  They all appear to be various combinations of salmon and cream cheese or crab and avocado smothered with different sauces.  I really should have just gotten the good ol' staples.  The California roll I got was delicious.  Greg said that I should be ashamed because the California roll seems like such an insult to Japanese food (compared to the Megabucks roll?!?  Ha!).  Anyway, if you are going to order sushi in this dance club of a Mexican/Japanese restaurant than I suggest keeping is simple: tuna roll, California roll, tamago...etc.

Greg also got the tonkatsu.  They did not provide karashi, but they did put the tonkatsu sauce on the side.  Since Greg doesn't like karashi, it wasn't a big deal.  I, on the other hand, would have been bummed out.

Osaka - Sahara Location

VERDICT: The most authentic Japanese restaurant in Las Vegas.

I lived in Japan for two years and consequently I ate food there.  I grew to love Japanese food even more than before I moved there.  Not just the stuff you are used to eating in generic Japanese restaurants, but also the regular, daily food....the meat and potatoes, if you will.  When I came back to America I was devastated that I could not find any restaurant that prepared it quite the way that I had it in Japan, nor the types of food that I had in Japan.  For example, I did not have teriyaki once in Japan...OK, I had it once at McDonald's of all places.  They had a teriyaki burger, which was absolutely horrible.  Here in America, you would be hard pressed to find a Japanese restaurant that didn't have teriyaki. 

One of my favorite dishes from Japan was tonkatsu, which is a pork cutlet pounded thin, deep fried with panko, and served with shredded cabbage, karashi (Japanese hot mustard), rice and tonkatsu sauce.  It's very simple and delicious.  The combination of flavors is exquisite.  So much so that if I eat tonkatsu without cabbage, I don't like it.  It all goes together magically.  Osaka does tonkatsu right.  I hate it when I go to a Japanese restaurant and order tonkatsu and they dribble the sauce over the pork rather than serve it on the side.  It just isn't right and it lacks the right flavor.  The other thing that I hate is when you ask the waiter for hot mustard (or karashi) and they act like you're absolutely insane.  At least, where I lived, on Hokkaido, karashi was always served.

They also have various donburi, which is a staple in Japan.  Their oyakodon is exactly Japanese style.  Oyakodon means family bowl.  While that sounds like it is food for the whole family, it is called that because you are eating the whole family, chicken and egg, cute and morbid, very Japanese.

They have a teppanyaki room as well (think Benihana), and a sushi bar.  I prefer to eat my tonkatsu in the tatami mat rooms though.  They also have shabu-shabu, which is a boiling pot that you cook food in at the table.  Greg doesn't like shabu-shabu, because who wants to cook when they go out.  He does have a point.  I don't like Osaka's shabu-shabu because they don't bring the best assortment of boilable vegetables and noodles. 

They even have onigiri, another daily Japanese food (you have to ask for it, not on the menu).  Onigiri is a rice ball and it seems like you can make it yourself, but it never turns out right for me.  They make it perfectly.

Their sushi is good, but expensive.  I usually get one roll, the Oh-My-God roll.  I don't know what is on it, but it will make your eyes roll back in your head from deliciousness.