Kawasaki
413 N. Charles St.
Phone: 410-659-7600
Price: $25
Location: Mount Vernon
Hours: Mon.-Fri.: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Mon.-Thur.: 5 p.m.-11 p.m.
Fri.-Sat.: 5 p.m.-12 a.m.
Kawasaki's sushi was some of the best I've had, but given my college student budget and the very long wait, only the most determined of eaters should visit.
Located in Mount Vernon, Kawasaki's awning leads up to the restaurant. The atmosphere is comfortable, with standard tables and chairs in the back, and up front, a tatami room. Situated right behind the front windows of the restaurant, the tatami room provides a more authentic Japanese experience while eating Japanese food, however, the limited number of them makes them a luxury and not a certainty. More often than not, you'll be sitting at the tables.
Kawasaki really is just a sushi restaurant. While there are some other items on the menu, such as the dumplings, the selection is not very extensive. The sushi menu, on the other hand, is very long and broad. Covering everything from the standard tuna rolls to the exotic Kawasaki roll, the sushi selection provides possibilities that are not available at many other sushi restaurants, and at an often-unmatched quality.
Extremely slow service unfortunately marred the otherwise excellent meal. The wait to sit was not long, and drinks were brought out fairly quickly. But our food, especially the sushi, took over an hour and a half to prepare. Several calls to the waiter, who was not very easy to communicate with, took time, and yielded nothing. We did not take advantage of the alcohol selection, and given the wait we would inevitably have settled on free refills of water. Personally I went through seven glasses of water before receiving my first order of tuna rolls, and three more before the rest of my order was brought out. Other diners in the room experienced similar waiting times. The service may be much better at the seats up front, which are easily visible from the server's area.
As is typical with a sushi restaurant, sometimes the portions are smaller than expected, and combined with the long wait times and high prices, college students like us felt that we had not gotten our money's worth. Boasting prices that are higher than other sushi restaurants in the city, my meal at Kawasaki cost $30. Being prepared to pay a higher price for dinner goes with a sushi meal, but compared to other sushi restaurants, Kawasaki is expensive. Be prepared to spend more here than one would usually spend on a steak dinner with wine at a good restaurant in the area, or on sushi at any of the other sushi restaurants in the Mount Vernon area.
If you have a night, as well as patient sushi fanatic friends with whom you have lots of catching up to do and a little more cash than usual, go to Kawasaki. You will enjoy the food, and the possibility of kneeling seats are a treat, but be prepared for service that sours the delight, and a check that could be used on three equally filling meals.
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