Sekisui Midtown
For our anniversary we decided to go to Sekisui Midtown in Memphis for dinner. I can summarize the whole experience with two words: it sucked. We came for an early dinner, so when we arrived there was no wait for us to be seated. We were put in a booth in the back. That was no problem as we were happy to be in a quiet place. The light was low, but not so dark as to be a problem. The table was well used. It was quite worn, covered with stains and scratches. The veneer was getting thin. That doesn’t exactly make for an attractive environment for what one would think of as upscale, but it’s livable. The service had something to be desired. The waiters and waitresses seemed to spend quite a bit more time at the other tables refilling drinks and whatnot than ours. It was almost to the point that it seemed they were intentionally avoiding us. Maybe I’m imagining things, but at the minimum, we were left hanging on several occasions. The menu was quite large with many selections. It took us quite some time to get through them all and make a decision on what to order, but in the end we both decided to get the Sekisui dinner. The description from the menu is as follows:
Shrimp Tempura Roll, & individual pieces of Tuna, Salmon, Yellowtail, Shrimp, Eel, & a Sashimi Assortment
Sounds delicious, right? The menu indicated that it also came with a soup and salad. It came as you see here.
It looks quite good, but it was quite truthfully some of the worst food I’ve ever eaten. The salad probably would have been fine without whatever it was that they put on it. The miso just wasn’t miso. I don’t know how to describe it, but it wasn’t miso. It sucked. The “salad dressing” tasted exactly the same. I couldn’t eat more than a few bites of the salad and sips of the soup before pushing them away. That’s saying something considering how broad my idea of what “edible” is. Next, the waitress brought out the main course as you see here.
Presentation is quite an important part of the restaurant business. It is especially important for sushi. It’s part of the essence of sushi. At first glance, that wood tray was quite enticing. It was beautiful at first glance. Look a little more closely at the tray itself. You’ll notice stains, spots where the finish was worn to the bear wood, large knife cuts, and scratches. In fact, I actually got a little concerned as to the sanitation factor considering that they served raw fish. Well, we ate anyway. Let’s start with the wasabi. The wasabi was a little bland. It wasn’t as pungent as I would expect and I actually used up all of my allotment. Now to the food itself. The amount of food was huge. I actually didn’t finish it all, but I did at least try everything. The sushi and sashimi were quite good. The tuna was much more fresh than I’m used to (which is a good thing). I usually don’t like tuna sashimi very much, but I enjoyed this. Everything else was quite good as well. I especially enjoyed the eel (as I usually do). Overall the value was good. Considering the amount and variety of the fish, it is well worth the price.
For dessert, we had the red bean ice cream. Sadly (but no surprisingly), we dove into it before I remembered to take a picture. It didn’t last long. It was okay. I prefer green tea ice cream more, but it was sufficient.
