Tengu Sushi and Noodle House

So to kick off our new blog, I'll start with the restaurant that gave us the inception for this idea.

Tengu Sushi and Noodle House I believe opened on April 15, 2011 over the old Kyoto Sushi place. Located on Fort Hamilton Parkway and 60th Street, is in a very nice quiet section of Brooklyn, even while being so close to 100Fun.

From the outside, there is now a white brick facade, with very small windows. The black and red sign is a nice touch and makes the place seem more "chic." We went during lunch hours and the inside was surprisingly bright even for its small windows. The area was noticeably smaller than Kyoto was, and M pointed out that it was probably because the windows were like a foot deep. We sat in the back in a four seater, oddly way too close to the server station. The tables were a nice touch, black with glass panes. I love glass on anything, and at first it seemed like a nice touch to have the napkins, chopsticks, and soy sauce dish on the small glass pane at the edge of the table, but after moving those aside, M found it weird. The tables were still new, and had glue residue holding the glass in, and M felt that although decor is nice, having a glass pane right where you're eating is a little distracting and in the way. The tables are also very long, which is great for ordering lots of food, but we enjoy holding hands under the table while we eat, and the tables make our fingers just out of reach.

We noticed only one TV over the front of the place facing the inside of the restaurant, which made it so that only a small portion of the diners can actually watch it if they chose. The back of the room had J-Pop playing over the speakers, which is again weird when contrasted with the TV which later had a TVB series playing by the end of our meal. I noticed odd circular patches on the walls, and M said it might be just for extra lights since the wall was so empty, so the decor might not be completely finished.

I ordered a "sushi regular lunch" or Tengu Sushi, which comes with 5 pieces of sushi, a cali roll, and soup/salad. M had a sushi bento lunch box, 5 pieces sushi, 2 egg rolls, half a cali roll, and rice. The tea was just your average green tea, nothing too over the top, didn't even have the roasted rice smell. We both had a miso soup with our meal, and the spoons were a little odd with its notches, but was very unique otherwise. The soup we noticed did not have enough miso flavor in it and tasted a little watered down. M said it had a lot of green onion flavor to it. M noticed there was Thai Iced Tea so we decided to share one. The flavor to the Thai iced tea was not as strong as we are usually accustomed to, but was ok. M found it odd that a Japanese place should serve Thai Iced Tea.

When our entree came, M's bento box felt a little disappointing. There was a large section that just had empty space. Felt as if the chef could have added a little garnishing to fill up the box for a nice presentation. The bento box did not come with shumai either which just added more to the disappointment. The sushi rice did not have a strong enough vinegar taste to it, and crumbled really easily between your chopsticks. The serving portions were your average size. I noticed the Tuna had a fishy after taste, but M did not. The quality of the Tuna was about on par with Tenzan's. The other pieces did not live up to expectations. The salmon wasn't too great, and the yellowtail was oddly chewy. The California roll was sub-par as well. Overall the food wasn't anything to write home about.We have not tried the noodles of the "Noodle House" portion, and maybe we'll give it a more favorable rating when we go back again to try it.

The wait staff are all young and seemingly inexperienced. After we finished our soup, our empty bowls lingered for a while, even after I stacked them up and moved them to the side. While M was finished with her bento box, she still had a lot of rice left, and the waiter took the box away without asking. Although M was done, a simple "are you finished?" would have been a nice thing to ask first before taking away anything.

The bill came around to 18 dollars for our meals, which while cheap, is slightly above your average price for a Brooklyn sushi place, especially for lunch.

While the price was okay, I felt that with the poor food, inexperienced wait staff, and odd decor, made the place something I would not recommend. If you are around the neighborhood are and just looking for something new, Tengu would be it, but hopefully you'll have more luck with the noodles.