I had high hopes for Yuzu Kitchen, it’s expensive like Alta Via and its entrance looks intimidating and high class. I didn’t realize until this semester that it was not just a bar but also a Japanese-style restaurant, so before leaving campus I asked my favorite security guard if he’s ever been there. In response, he said that when he went there they tried to sell him some chicken nuggets for $10.
Let me tell you that these $10 nuggets were the bougiest chicken nuggets I have ever had in my life. On the menu I ordered the karaage, so when the lady came from the back with like six nuggets, 3 pools of spicy mayo on the plate and a spotted seasoning on top I was confused. Honestly, I didn’t really know what I was ordering until I got it.
My next dish, the $13 chicken lettuce wraps also left me puzzled. On my plate I received an upside down bowl of lettuce and a pile of teriyaki chicken. At first I gave this dish the benefit of the doubt. It was so unique I had to ask the waitress how to eat it. She told me to scoop some chicken up and place it inside a lettuce bowl piece to eat it like a taco.
Although, I think it’s an offense to tacos to compare this dish to them.
Our co-features editor Ana compared the flavor of the chicken in this lettuce wrap to smokey salt water. I didn’t eat very much of the dish so I could save room for my ramen so I thought it was fine. However, when I fed my warm leftovers to our co-features editor Ana for lunch, I felt bad for almost poisoning them.
The last dish I tried from Yuzu was their $17 sapporo Miso which I believed to be ramen.
I’ve been looking for a place to try authentic ramen for a long time, so I was excited to hear that Yuzu had just that. It came with something in the broth called a 30 minute egg, which somehow tasted like bread, and the noodles were thick, delicious and smooth. I liked that there were also crunchy noodles added for texture in the broth.
When eating the cubes of chicken inside of my ramen, I couldn’t decide if they were intentionally dry or just too rough in texture all together.
I think that eating at Yuzu is about the experience. I paid $50.29 for three dishes and a $7 mocktail which was way too expensive, but the tastiest part of my experience.
When I was inside of the restaurant, my opinion of the food was way higher simply because of the aesthetics walking in. Rose blossoms cover the roof and the mirror behind the bar creates an illusion that the place is larger. Even my bowl of my ramen added to the aesthetic; the formation of the bowl was like a tall sand castle bucket, tapering at the top and getting wider at the bottom.
It was nice to try something new, but for the price I think I’m going to stick to my ramen packets for $0.75 in The Globe office. The flavors coming from that ramen were not only out of my budget but also a little too mature and out of my comfort zone.
