Fujiyama

We got a last minute invite to go out to dinner with another couple who lives in our neighborhood. We've socialized with them before, but never one on one...or two on two. ;) It was a lot of fun getting to know W & C a little bit better.

Anyway, we headed to downtown San Rafael and stopped for a beer at the Broken Drum Brewery. Its been there for several years now...I remember when they first opened. Boy does time fly! We each ordered a different beer, and they were all good. I had the pale ale and it was lighter than your average pale ale. We also shared an order of onion rings, which were light and airy and yummy! Not greasy and the crust was very smooth. It was served with Ranch dressing....I'm not sure what else I would have preferred instead. I guess usually I just eat those plain.

Next we headed down the road a bit to Fujiyama, where we had reservations, unnecessarily. There was only one or tables seated, and we were greeted right away by one of the owners. Apparently, its husband and wife owned and operated. I saw no other employees, in fact. We sat down and were served a small bowl of steamed soybeans...we had no clue where to put the shells, though. Then she brought us a small bowl of a spinach salad that was really delicious! It had a sesame seed dressing and a tan/brown-ish curly little vegetable that I have no clue what it was. It was kind of nutty tasting. I could have eaten the whole bowl myself. 2 orders of seaweed salad were ordered, too, but one taste and I was done.

Next came the sashimi: yellow tail tuna and albacore tuna. I preferred the albacore. We had to wait quite a while before I finally got up and asked for some plates.

We all sort of agreed to order some large rolls: the Marin Roll, the California roll with real crab (ordered by me), and the Rainbow roll. The problem was that we forgot to order all of them with real crab. That put a huge damper on things for me. So, I ended up going home hungry since all I had was a few soybeans, a few bites of the spinach salad, 3 pieces of sashimi, and about 3 pieces of the roll. I didn't want to be assertive or offensive by ordering something more to my liking. Also, I would have tried more if they hadn't used imitation crab in the rolls. And clearly, there just wasn't enough to go around, anyway. I mean, I didn't want to eat all 6 (only 6!!) pieces of California roll.

Although the service was for the most part very attentive, I felt that the sushi was just average. I don't think we will return. The owners were most gracious, though.