A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

Over the years I had been to Jae’s a few times. For some reason when I went to Buddachen last night I thought it would look the same. From the outside it doesn’t seem like much. You walk through a sun parlor/bar area to get to the main dining room. Before, Jae’s was dimly lit with big bubbling fish tanks that separated the room. Buddachen, while still dimly lit, is nothing like Jae’s. The room is very New York chic, some may say ultra modern. There are clean lines, an open floor plan, white banquettes, red lattices covering the windows and a long table runs down the middle of the restaurant leading up to the big buddha statue at the end of the room. A+ for decor.

We arrive at 6:30 and the place has one other table seated. Is that ever really a good sign? So we order appetizers, the edamame and the miso soup. I make edamame at home all the time. I buy the frozen bags from Trader Joe’s and steam them, but somehow, they never really come out as good as they do when you get them in a restaurant. That’s how I felt about these edamame. They were on the smaller size and less firm than I would have liked.

I asked the waiter about the fresh lobster roll (LOBSTER MEAT, AVOCADO, CUCUMBER, MANGO AND TOBIKO WRAPPED WITH RICE NORI APPLE SAUCE). I ask if the apple sauce is really apple sauce consistency, because frankly, I can’t imagine how that’s going to taste on sushi. He informs me that they just opened the day before, and he hadn’t tried all of the rolls yet. So this makes me think a) that’s weird that this is their grand opening and there are only 2 tables seated and b)they should be on top of their game because 1. there is no one else there and 2.you want to make a good first impression. I don’t think it’s in their best interest to send waiters out to customers that aren’t well informed about the choices you offer. So what the heck, I try it anyway and go for the spicy red dragon roll (SHRIMP TEMPURA, CUCUMBER TOPPED WITH SPICY TUNA).

So let’s start with the lobster roll (8 pieces). The lobster didn’t taste fresh, it was a bit on the dry side. It comes in a fresh wrap which gave the sushi sort of a squishy consistency. There was a sweet taste when you got into the middle of the sushi, the mango, which was a nice addition. The apple sauce was on top, I think I may have missed the apple taste.

I thought that the dragon roll would be wonderful-I love shrimp tempura sushi and add on the spicy tuna on top, sounds like a match made in heaven for me. Here’s where I thought it fell short. I love the shrimp tempura at Gari-so I compare everything to it. This tempura was thinner than the ones at Gari and it didn’t have as much of the crunch that I enjoy so much. The first piece was super spicy and the rest fell short.

The special rolls are around $13 each. So two special rolls, plus two rolls of spicy tuna (that my dining companion ate), and the two appetizers $60. A little on the pricey side for a mediocre meal. I may go back for some of their other “modern asian cuisine” choices, such as a hot pot, a noodle dish or the korean short ribs-perhaps those would be better. I have to say that after eating there my stomach felt less than solid, which isn’t something I look for in a sushi restaurant. As we were leaving, it was good to see that about a half a dozen other tables had sat down to eat.

Buddachen

1223 Beacon Street Brookline MA

www.buddachen.com

617.739.0000

Tags: asian, restaurant