For Those Who Love Sushi, Samurai Hoes a Decent Roe in Solana Beach

I sometimes wonder if the allure of sushi doesn’t extend well beyond the basic flavors and attractiveness of these neat Japanese packages of garnished, sweetened rice.

There is the language question, for example. Diners whose tongues might be tied in knots by an attempt to order, say, cuisses de grenouille languedocienne, can revel in the easy pleasures of pronouncing such typical sushi names as tako , saba , anago , ebi , California roll, hamachi and uni . A trip to the neighborhood sushi bar can be a cheap (sometimes) and rather nifty way to impress visitors--from regions as yet unpenetrated by Japanese restaurants--with your facility in a complicated Oriental language.

Sushi also allows two or more diners to engage in a lively game of gastronomic king-of-the-hill. It plays somewhat like poker. If your companion says, “I think I’ll order some river eel sushi ( unagi ),” you raise the stakes by countering, “I’ll order the sea urchin sushi ( uni ), which you’re welcome to try, although I doubt you’d like it.”

Chefs Don’t Mind at All

These fighting words can lead to a flood of sushi garnished with such dainties as salmon eggs, octopus, smelt eggs, broiled salmon skin, giant clam, herring roe, sweet omelet and all sorts of raw fish. The sushi chefs never mind such contests of dare and double dare; they just brandish their utensils merrily and scribble new entries on the check.

The menu at Samurai in Solana Beach allows plenty of latitude to pronounce, contest and, yes, even savor sushi. The list runs to 37 varieties, and the chefs will oblige with off-menu specialties on request. For those who consider sushi primarily a first course, or who just can’t stand the stuff (it is an acquired taste, but one won without great difficulty), the menu continues with three pages of assorted Japanese appetizers and entrees.

Samurai returned to the scene about a year ago after an absence of some duration. Now in Lomas Santa Fe Plaza, Samurai formerly occupied quarters on Old Highway 101 that were lost in a spectacular fire just when the restaurant was about to reopen after an extensive renovation.

The new premises (which once housed an outpost of the Upstart Crow bookstore-coffeehouse chain) feature a curved sushi bar that extends halfway around the dining room, a double row of booths that provide privacy if not protection from the collective babble of a hundred voices, lots of California greenery and typical Japanese decorations. The style gets a bit overbearingly commercial at times, as typified by the busboys’ Oriental tunics, each of which advertises a brand of Japanese beer.

One of two recent visits was largely devoted to sushi sampling and concluded on a fairly happy note. Once one accepts the idea of sliced raw fish, the sushi garnished with it seem to go down the most easily, and offerings of both simple salmon ( sake ) and yellowtail ( hamachi ) came off well.

The essential question, as always, was the absolute freshness of the fish, a test that Samurai met. The chef hid a large lump of wasabi , or fiery Japanese horseradish paste, between the slice of yellowtail and its sticky-rice base, and this produced a pleasurable if unanticipated explosion of flavor and heat in the mouth; some diners might have found the dosage excessive. This was in addition to the wasabi already mixed by the guests into small dipping bowls of soy sauce; one takes this according to personal taste, because the rules of sushi specify that wasabi is a game of pinches.

Pungent and Refreshing

Other choices included a special request, a sushi of rice wrapped around yellowtail, split scallions and sesame seeds, which produced a pungent and refreshing effect; sushi garnished with salmon roe, which the guest who ordered it pronounced satisfactorily (some of us feel forced to draw the line somewhere); and a daring, cornucopia-shaped hand roll of seaweed filled with rice, salty broiled salmon skin and unrecognizable but intriguing bitter herbs.

As a caveat, be aware that the sushi marked crab ( kani ) actually is made with surimi , the processed fish paste that includes a bit of crab, and looks quite a bit like crab leg meat, but most definitely would not be recognized as crab by a genuine member of the suborder of crustaceans called Brachyura. The menu is most dishonest on this point; surimi should be identified as surimi , and not as the various seafoods it imitates. (Crablike surimi also turned up in the California roll, an otherwise likable congregation of vegetables wrapped in rice and seaweed.)

The menu actually becomes more amusing when it turns to appetizers and entrees, because it features a number of items not found on other Japanese lists in these parts. Among these is harumaki , a Japanese vegetable egg roll of great delicacy that one dips in hot mustard. Another excellent starter is the hasami age , a kind of deep-fried eggplant sandwich filled with salmon and whitefish and dipped in tempura batter.

There are also beef sashimi, or thinly sliced raw beef that diners dip in a savory sauce; various tempuras, of which the shrimp was sampled and found a bit oily; deep-fried soft-shell crabs; broiled yellowtail cheeks, considered a great delicacy; sakamushi , or clams steamed in sake; and gyoza , or juicy pork dumplings that are steamed and then lightly browned in a bit of oil. These last, which can be found in most Japanese restaurants, are a definite borrowing from Chinese cuisine, in which extremely similar and slightly superior dumplings are called pot stickers.

The entree list also features a dish that might--or might not--be a borrowing from the Chinese. This is the ginger pork, an entirely satisfactory stir-fry of pork, bell pepper, onion and a good bit of fresh ginger. It seemed somewhat like an adaptation of Cantonese pepper steak, and was in any case delicious. The menu also offers tonkatsu , or breaded pork cutlet, which is a real Japanese favorite; beef and chicken also can be ordered in the katsu treatment.

Beef Played Second Fiddle

Thin slices of rather dry, overcooked beef played second fiddle to the excellent noodles, assorted vegetables and sweet, delicious broth in the house version of sukiyaki. Served in a flat metal pan, the meat hid all sorts of treasures, such as mounds of savory shiitake mushrooms, tender braised chard, bamboo shoots, onions and even, rather surprisingly, a gathering of green beans.

Samurai can cook beef when it puts its mind to the task, however. An order of teriyaki steak featured buttery meat of superb flavor, which the sweet, thick sauce somehow intensified.

All meals include rice, of course, as well as bowls of miso soup, the cloudy daily broth of Japanese cuisine that is based on a fermented soy product; bowls of delicately pickled vegetables that serve as an effective whetstone to the appetite; and a simple iceberg lettuce salad doused with a powerful ginger dressing so good that it actually makes iceberg seem endowed with both character and purpose.

Dessert consists of slices of fresh orange brought with the check, and, in the Japanese context, they suffice. Cakes would seem out of place, particularly because many savory dishes are quite sweet.

Most sushi cost $2.50 for an order of two pieces, but specials are higher and assortments meant to serve two or more cost as much as $29.95. Entrees average about $13, with some of the fancier combination plates costing up to $19.95. Generally speaking, a full dinner for two, including a Japanese beer each, tax and tip, will cost about $35 to $65.

SAMURAI

979 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach

481-0032

Dinner served nightly.

Credit cards accepted.