![\"Akai](\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/ohc_akai_hana_menu.jpg\" "\\"ohc_akai_hana_menu\\"")
<\/a>Akai Hana Japanese Restaurant<\/p><\/div>\n
Not five minutes after we left I realized I had forgotten my phone. I blame the new purse. Still getting used to it and it totally slipped my mind to snag my phone on the way out. We get to the restaurant about 10 after 6, and explained to the hostess that we were meeting another couple and didn’t know if they were there or not. She let us look around and once we established they were not there, we said we needed a table for four. They seated us at a table for six. We got seated right away though.<\/p>\n
We were sitting there, waiting. And waiting. The server was getting anxious. “Do you want to call your friends?” “Are you sure they are coming?” “Did you want to order anyway?” She asked us that one probably four times. Finally at a quarter of 7pm, the server explained that the table was reserved for a party of 6 at 8pm, so you know, “You can’t sit here forever and not order anything.”<\/p>\n
Um. Okay. For the record it didn’t sound rude or like she was giving us attitude, just stating a fact. Scott and I had planned two courses of action for the menu. One order if our friends showed up and another order if they didn’t. :p Sounds silly, but there are just some things you don’t want to eat in front of polite company, you know? Anyone else do this? We decided that they weren’t coming, so we went with that plan.<\/p>\n
My plan was to order some sushi. I’ve had sushi, but like WF<\/abbr> sushi, which as much as I adore WF<\/abbr>, it’s not real<\/em> sushi from a sushi house, you know? I didn’t care for the WF<\/abbr> sushi. By didn’t care for it, I mean I couldn’t even eat it. I had one roll and couldn’t do anymore. Since we were at an official Japanese restaurant that is ranked pretty high for quality, I decided to try some out.<\/p>\n Veggie roll combo<\/p><\/div>\n I wasn’t going crazy though! Still playing it safe. Off the little sheet of paper that they give you at the table, I ordered a California roll because I know what’s in that, and Scott got spicy tuna (his fav). From the menu I ordered the veggie roll combo. My tactic was to ease my way into sushidom. So many people love it, there’s got to be something to it, right?<\/p>\n Spring Rolls<\/p><\/div>\n We also ordered an appetizer of spring rolls. It came with three, one is already on my plate. However this made a much better picture than the lone one on the white plate. :p These were the best spring rolls I have ever had. The filling was spiced enough and had enough of a presence that it wasn’t overpowering. The wrapper was crisp and not too thick where all you taste is wrapper. So yummy! I wanted a second but only had the one.<\/p>\n Ichiban<\/p><\/div>\n When we fully 100% knew our friends weren’t showing up, we ordered some beers. Our friends don’t drink, so when out with them we stick to water. We decided to have a full experience and got the beers. Yes we could have tried sake because they had a whole section of choices but we’re not versed in sake and decided to try that another time. The beer was very yummy! Very beer tasting but not heavy. Very light and easy to drink.<\/p>\n Miso soup<\/p><\/div>\n Miso soup came with the veggie roll combo. I thought we were supposed to get another bowl of it but we only had the one. I had never had miso soup before and wasn’t sure what to expect. I don’t like it. There was some sort of flavor going on that I just didn’t care for. There was tofu in it, which I tried and did not like. There was also seaweed which I tried and really didn’t like. I wanted to like it because I was cold and was hoping it would warm me up! I passed it off to Scott, he had a couple sips and said he didn’t care for it either. The soup came out right away before the spring rolls. Probably because they have a huge batch of it going all day. I was playing with my chopsticks the whole time while waiting for the main course to come out. I cannot use chopsticks very well but didn’t want to be the silly American eating her sushi with a fork. I did okay but nothing to brag about.<\/p>\n California Roll<\/p><\/div>\n Our meal was starting to come out! The California roll is on the left and Scott’s spicy tuna is on the right. He didn’t realize that there would be so much, he thought he was only going to get like four or five. There were eight rolls.<\/p>\n Veggie combo<\/p><\/div>\n Then the veggie combo plate came out. Doesn’t it look pretty?! “Okay”, I told myself, “Here goes nothing!” I picked up some wasabi (with my chopsticks!) and put it on the California roll, dipped the roll into some soy sauce and popped it in my mouth.<\/p>\n “Oh my.” “Oh just get it down. Just get it down!” As I was struggling to swallow the roll, Scott asked me if I liked it and all I could do was shake my head no as I tried to not make a scene. There are some food items that cause me to have a gag reflex. Not many, but a few. Rice milk and rice flour both do that. When I ingest them, some flavor immediately hits the back of my tongue and makes me gag. It’s weird and thankfully it doesn’t happen often. The California roll had the same effect. All I wanted to do was gag and spit it out. Ugh. I picked up another one and decided to pick it apart and see what exactly was causing this issue. I had the crab, it was okay. Not great but okay. I had the avocado and it was okay. I had some rice and it was okay. It must be the seaweed then that was icky.<\/p>\n “Really? I can’t even taste the seaweed,” Scott said.<\/p>\n Out of the veggie combo I picked a cucumber and it was okay and had some rice and it was okay. Got to be the seaweed.<\/p>\n At this point, I must say, thank god for my husband. Because he ordered this:<\/p>\n Udon noodles<\/p><\/div>\n When we were discussing our course of action, he said he might get the tempura shrimp noodle bowl to help supplement his sushi. Remember he didn’t think he was going to get that many rolls, so he wanted something else to complete his dinner. I mentioned that I thought about a noodle bowl if our friends showed up, and the one I wanted had chicken and onions in it.<\/p>\n When we were placing our order, he ordered the noodle bowl except that he ordered the chicken one, not the tempura one! I didn’t know he did that. He said he ordered the chicken one because that’s the one I said I was going to get. So instead of having to spend the evening picking some rice out of sushi, I got to eat some udon noodles. This was the best noodle dish I have ever had. I will have dreams about this noodle bowl. It had so much flavor! But not so much sauce that it was drowning in it. So yummy! I had this and Scott had his spicy tuna and picked at some of my sushi. I probably had 1\/3 to 1\/2 of this bowl of noodles.<\/p>\n We boxed up a lot of things to bring home and I must say our bill was decent. Forty-five bucks but we got:<\/p>\n That’s not bad at all! We both agreed that we would like to go back again some time.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n