San Sai Japanese Restaurant

      On Friday night Karen and I visited the newest restaurant to open in Burlington, San Sai.. Promising big city dining (The chef owned a successful Japanese restaurant in NYC), we were very excited to try something brand new to us, Omakase, or chefs choice. This is a brand new concept here in Burlington. You, the diner, sets the price, ($30.00 each in our case) and the chef provides the courses (6 in total for us).

     The building is a beautiful brick warehouse down on the waterfront. Old brick walls, warm wood beams and floors, contrast nicely with the stainless steel table tops and flowing Japanese banners.

     

       We were seated promptly (we did have very early reservations of 6;15) and quickly decided on a Sauvignon Blanc from France. This was a BARGAIN at $18.00 and went very well with almost all the courses, (OK nothing goes well with Miso Soup, please correct me if I am wrong). After a short wait our first course came out, WOW crispy salmon skin salad and was it GOOD. We were amazed at the flavors , textures, taste , it was perfect. Was this a glimpse of what was to come, would every course be better and better,  would we eventually fall in a comatose food coma..........Umm no, but things certainly didn't fall downhill, just that this first course was the best of the night.

                                        

        The first course was followed QUICKLY  (this would be a theme for the night, course spacing was a major problem), by our 2nd course. This was the most unique offering of the evening, thinly slices soba noodles wrapped in nori and served as a sushi roll, each section topped with a tempura vegetable (2nd theme of the evening , our server not knowing what exactly was on the plate), and all this topped by another mass of tempura noodles? leeks? onions?. So as you can see we were not entirely sure what we were eating, even as we spent minutes contemplating the dish as our server had forgotten share plates and then disappeared (theme three for the night, for those of you counting). Eventually the smells got to us and we said heck with share plates and just dug in, Delicious, this is what Japanese food should be all about, multiple textures, multiple flavors, in every bite. so two course in we were smiling  very huge smiles, (The bottle of wine didn't hurt either).

                          

      Our server finally showed up with our share plates, we were done by this time, and proceeded to ask if we wanted soup or salad. UMM we already had a salad so soup please. Our 3rd course was a cup of Miso Soup. It was OK Miso not great , not bad , just normal. Not enough tofu for my taste and too salty for Karen's but all in all not bad, (no picture c'mon its soup).
        After quite a long wait, our 4th course came out and this was the low point of the evening for both of us.  A large round of daikon was topped with a thick layer of sesame paste.For me the problem was the texture. the daikon was baby food soft and the sesame paste only served to emphasize the texture. Karen's problem with this dish was the taste, she said the daikon reminded her of turnip (which she hates, but as I have never eaten a turnip I can't comment on that). Later, I saw other tables were being served the daikon along with a skewer of grilled, marinated, chicken, (Yakitori), that is exactly what this course needed. A different texture, and flavor to offset the bland daikon. Not sure where ours went but we never got it.
             
       

         Now the waiting really began, (OK at this point I need to say our server was the sweetest, friendliest server but had obviously been thrown into the pressure cooker of a holiday weekend, July 4th, unprepared.) We found out on our way out that a server had decided at the last minute to head to Vegas (hope he gets canned) and left the restaurant short staffed, on a holiday Friday night at that. BUT that is no excuse, a high end place like this needs to have reserves in the wings who can come in a rescue them , we saw a table sit for over 30 minutes before being ACKNOWLEDGED, that is unacceptable at this price point (or any price point really). OK back to supper, the 5th course arrived and was a serving of picked squid, this was new to both of us and REALLY yummy.

            Again a HUGE wait for our last course, which was a beautifully composed platter of 6 sushi offerings. Not really sure what they all were as our server couldn't tell us all of them, but we had yellowtail, o-toro, salmon, snapper, maybe white tuna and no idea on the last one eel maybe?? All really good but not great sushi. I've had better and I've had worse. Finally since we had never had it before we asked for an order of sea urchin, again we waited (but we were not charged so its OK). After waiting, neither of us are sure if we like sea urchin or not. maybe it wasn't totally fresh, maybe there was too much of it, or maybe we just aren't used to such a strong flavor. No pictures of the last two courses (OK it was a WHOLE bottle of wine), but here is a great shot of Karen with the sunset spilling through the windows.
             



        To conclude and rate San Sai, I am going to totally rip-off one of my favorite food blogs, What Mickey eats, ratings will be based on four factors, all rated from 1 EWWWWW to 5 YUMMY.

 Food,       Quality means much more to us than quantity.

Wine,        Since we are such wine geeks I have to have a rating based on value and selection

Service,     Speaks for itself
Ambiance  Does the look fit the food and pricing 

Price,        And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

       So after spending a bit more than $100 (with tax and tip) what did we think;

Food        4  Some was incredible , some ordinary, (no points off for the daikon it just wasn't our thing)

Wine        3  Great bargains, very limited choices

Service    3 This was tough, should of been 2 but she really was trying hard and it wasn't totally her fault

Ambiance 5 Beautiful building in a beautiful location

Price         4 A bit expensive overall, small portions but well prepared

Overall  3.8, We will be back big Yes. I can't wait to see how the chef keeps us from getting bored with his chefs choice meals, I would hope our next time brings 6 new courses, I will keep you all informed.

       And finally, we visited Breakwaters after supper and were treated to a gorgeous sunset