lunch special probably not truly representative. i went for lunch today because i had heard they have a sushi roll lunch special. i arrived at about 1:15 and somehow managed to arrive when on one was manning the host station. after a half-minute or so wait, i sat myself at the sushi bar which is right next to the host desk. there were two sushi chefs there but neither acknowledged me (it's been a looooooooong time since i haven't gotten a robust welcome from sushi chefs). at least they were both busy so it wasn't like they were staying around dinking off or something. i sat for several more minutes before anyone spoke to me when the hostess asked if i had been helped yet. she did at least apologize for not seeing me (not sure how 2 chefs and 4 or 5 servers didn't though).
once given a menu, my waitress (baylee) came right by and was polite and friendly. i was able to find the sushi roll special on the menu and went with the 3 roll version ($10.95). the 2 roll goes for $7.95. i got the tuna roll (requested it spicy), the smoked eel roll and the saba (mackerel) roll. both come with either miso soup or salad. i choose the salad with the house ginger dressing.
the salad came out quickly and was your typical sushi bar salad...fairly average. i was amazed at how fast the rolls were then delivered. they were brought to me in maybe 5 or 6 minutes! as i mentioned, both chefs were working but i'm sure they weren't making mine. i appreciate a speedy turnaround during lunch but these rolls had to have been pre-made. awkwardly, as i was arranging things to start, i noticed one set of rolls had cream cheese and i knew i had not ordered the philadelphia roll. almost at the same instant, one of the chefs and one of the servers realized they had swamp my saba for someone's philadelphia. fortunately, i had not touched anything yet and the chef replaced the roll with the proper one. i'm still not sure how i feel about that.
on to the flavor, spicy tuna rolls are one of my favs and a great way to benchmark a sushi bar (just like pad thai for thai and lasagna for italian). this version was dull and boring and definitely not spicy. the saba roll was a little disappointing in that the cucumber almost completely overwhelmed the mackerel which is hard to do given the strong flavor of that fish. my favorite of the three was the smoked eel what was both tasty and nicely presented with a teriyaki drizzle. i'm not trying to be super critical because i don't expect a sushi bar to pump out the high end versions of rolls for less that $4 each. i just would have liked a little more wasabi (tuna) and less cucumber (saba).
throughout the meal, the server was verygoodand kept my tea filled and checked on me perfectly.
at this point, i can't say red bowl is high on my list but it is close to my work, the people friendly, and the lunch specials are decently priced. i would probably go back and try other rolls, or more likely, give one of their other menu themes a shot such as thai, vietnamese or hibachi grill.