I've never been to the original Bushi-Tei restaurant in Japantown, but I was still happy to come across Bushi-Tei Bistro, a more casual, affordable offshoot of the main restaurant that opened this year. The style of cuisine is still the same -- French California Japanese fusion -- but from a quick menu comparison, the food is less dramatic and considerably cheaper. Which is fine with me, especially since everything tasted so great!
Asparagus, prosciutto, and smoked mozzarella ($6.80)A delicious appetizer to start off our meal. Tender-but-still-crisp spears of asparagus wrapped in prosciutto slices and topped off with smoked mozzarella cheese and almonds. Just a mouth-watering blend of nutty, salty, and creamy flavors in each bite.
Scottish salmon ($12.80)The miso-marinated salmon was grilled for just the right amount of time, with a light peachy color on the inside. The bed of ratatouille underneath consisted of sauteed eggplants, zucchini, and bell peppers, all tasting wonderfully fresh. And the arugula and cucumbers perched atop the fish were a cool, refreshing contrast.
My friend ordered the squid ink spaghetti, which is basically just spaghetti enhanced with squid ink so that the pasta becomes a coal-black color. The pasta was tossed with shrimp, scallops, squid, roasted paprika, and enoki mushrooms in a yuzu dashi broth (yuzu is a citrus fruit, and dashi is a Japanese soup stock).
Squid ink spaghetti ($14.80)What I loved most about the food was the complementary blend of Western and Asian ingredients and flavors. Considering how over-the-top some fusion restaurants can be, Bushi-Tei Bistro keeps its cuisine relatively simple. Some other things on the menu that caught my eye:
- Yatko - chilled tofu with marinated spanish sardine, dried bonito flakes, and tapenade
- Shrimp cake - chopped shrimps and crispy vegetables, citrus beurre blanc sauce
- Kurobuta pork - thinly-sliced sauteed pork with parsley and caper sauce
- Hotate scallop - sauteed hotate scallop with kiwi fruit vinaigrette
Guess I'll have to come back here! And I'm looking to give the original Bushi-Tei a try as well.
Bushi-Tei Bistro
1581 Webster Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
Bushi-Tei
1638 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
www.bushi-tei.com
4 comments:
GOOD PICTURES!!!
That salmon looks so yummy and I love all the pretty colors of the veggies! I'm not too sure about the squid ink pasta though. That black color kinda scares me!
I've been meaning to eat there for quite sometime! I think you've convinced me
You are right on with your review. We just ate here two weeks ago and it was fabulous. I had the salmon and the blend of flavors was superb! And as we were a party of 5 I was able to "sample" other dishes as well and they all were wonderful. Highly recommend this restaurant!
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