text: We decided to stop by this place because we felt like continuing our sushi quest yesterday it was close and it has good reviews I was not expecting a whole lot however since it was the East Valley and the first thing I noticed was the lack of an actual sushi bar and visible sushi chefs Plus there was techno music playing I HATE when they do that Sorry but I want an authentic experience complete with Japanese dudes chopping up my fish in plain sight and th century Japanese music with pan flutes and hand drums or whatever they use A samurai trained in the bushido tradition standing by the door in order to slice up unruly guests would also be a nice touch but I will give them a pass on that onennAnyways we sat down at the table and started with the miso soup This was some of the strongest miso I have had It was almost like they were trying too hardnnSo I was not real hopeful although they had some nice cuts of fish on the menu Halibut toro uni etc Nothing crazy but still some good stuff Unfortunately they were out of all the interesting stuff The live specials were only available on weekends and by Monday they were all out Cool that they have them but unfortunate that we could not actually try themnnI also wanted to try the beef tataki sashimi style but for some reason it was only available in nigiri Why You can put a strip of seared beef over rice but you cannot serve them alone This did not make sense to mennWe ordered a couple of the special sashimi items some hamachi dish whose name I do not recall and the Screaming O as well as white tuna sashimi albacore sushi red snapper sushi surf clam sushi and the Sixty Nine RollnnThe hamachi was overly stepped in citrus I mean it was so citrusy that you were basically eating lemons with the texture of raw fish I am the kind of guy who likes to taste fish when he eats fishnnThe Screaming O was pretty good despite its overpowering spice and marinade Also masked the tuna flavor but it was a seared dish so it was not as bad It would have been better had they dialed it down a notch but it was still tastynnThe sushi and sashimi was typical Basically what you would expect from a standard sushi placennSixty Nine Roll was pretty good It is basically softshelled crab and shrimp tempura on the inside and fish I believe it was the standard tuna yellowtail and salmon on the outside Good filler to finish off the mealnnFinally we ended with some tempura ice cream and tempura cheesecake for dessert The cheesecake was nice and thick but also pretty much frozen and impossible to cut with a spoon The tempura batter was all wrong it was thick and crunchy not light and flaky like tempura is supposed to bennAt the end of the day I decided that this place is good for what it tries to be Its appeal is not for those who love sushi It is sushi for people who probably like to eat at Chipotle Zupas or whatever the newest trendy chain place is but every now and then want to eat some raw fish It has enough to perhaps expand the horizons for those who do not often eat sushi but not much that will interest those who like a new adventure every meal