New Food Fridays - Ra Sushi

This outing didn't actually happen on a Friday, and it was an unscheduled event, but we are counting it as this week's food adventure.

Sean was supposed to be out of town, but his trip was cancelled because of weather. And I was supposed to be at the gym, but when I got there, I realized that I had left my gym bag at home. So we made a last minute decision to go out to lunch. After a couple of rounds of the usual "Where should we go?" and "I don't know." or, "It doesn't matter to me." we somehow ended up on the way to Bryant's 'hood... The Shops at Legacy.

We first headed for Jasper's, but then changed our minds and ended up at Ra Sushi. I'm not sure who gets credit for this pick; unfortunately, it wasn't me. But Sean paid, so we'll give it to him. In any case it ROCKED. I think it's my new favorite sushi spot. Too bad it's almost in Oklahoma and I get nosebleeds that far north. Still, it's SO good that I'd be willing to make the road trip again sometime. You know, when I have lots of time to kill.

The space is very sleek, chic, and cool. All dramatic red and black, with lots of hardwood and steel. Good music, lots of attitude. Looks like it would be a fun happy hour spot.

Disclaimer: Although I claim to love sushi, I'm not really a "purist". I only started eating the raw stuff about a year ago, and I still don't venture much beyond tuna or salmon on the raw end of the spectrum. And I don't care much for sashimi; I'm more into the rolls. But with that said, I really do love sushi, and I'm broadening my sushi palate as I go.

Anyhoo, we started with edamame. It was good. Just your basic version of edamame. So far no version has topped the Spicy Edamame at Firefly. But then the rolls started arriving. First out was the Viva Las Vegas roll. These were HUGE pieces, and really delicious. According to our waitress, Gail, this is their most popular roll. I can see why; it was fantastic.

It was a little tricky to eat, but we managed.

Next came the Ultimate Shrimp Tempura roll (back) and the Tropical roll (front). The Tropical roll would have been great except for the fact that the mango salsa on top contained the dreaded raw onion. I didn't realize it at first, because I sort of lost my grip with the chopsticks enroute to my mouth, and the salsa fell off... saving me from the displeasure of raw onion. But I wasn't so lucky on the second piece. The Ultimate Shimp Tempura roll, on the other hand, was perfection!

The final round inlcuded Scallop Dynamite rolls and Crazy Monkey rolls. I loved the Crazy Monkey rolls (right), and wasn't crazy about Scallop Dynamite (below). But Sean and Bryant really liked them. They were basically Califonia rolls topped with scallops and a spicy creamy mushroom sauce and broiled. The first bite was good, but then the plate seemed really oily and the scallops seemed tough. Maybe I just don't like my sushi hot.

Also worth mentioning, although Ra can't take credit for it, was the Republic of Tea bottled iced tea. We had Rasberry and Passionfruit. Yum! I'm going to have to hunt this stuff down in the store. Most flavored tea is sweetened, but this isn't, and it's great! You can kind of see it in this picture of Bryant and Sean.

Overall, this entire outing gets 2 big thumbs up. The food was delicious, the atmosphere was great, we had plenty of time to relax and enjoy it, and it was an unexpected surprise. I had expected to be gasping on a treadmill during lunch, but instead, I had this fun little travel adventure. I hope they open one of these in my neighborhood... Their website has full descriptions of what's in each roll; all of the ones mentioned above are in the "Signature Sushi" section.