Solana Beach Samurai Has More Than Sushi

Bars, and not just those that serve drinks, seem to bring out a certain loyalty in their clientele.

The face-to-face interaction between server and served probably accounts for much of any bar’s popularity. At the Samurai Japanese restaurant in Solana Beach, regulars demonstrate their regard for the sushi bar and the cooks who toil behind it by scrawling signatures, epithets and sketches on the aging paper globes hung every few feet over the lengthy counter.

The reasonably inclusive sushi list and attractive presentation must contribute mightily to the popularity.

The various types of sushi (which, as everyone must know by now, are bundles of sweetened rice garnished often with raw fish, but sometimes with a square of omelet or other cooked items, especially broiled eel) recently sampled on a nigiri assortment plate all were carefully and handsomely composed, and dressed with slices of very tender, extremely fresh-tasting seafood. The tidbits included tastes of tuna, yellowtail and halibut, all quite raw but very sweet and yielding to the tooth.

The sushi bar would be the place to sit if you wished to make a meal exclusively of these colorful bites, but the standing menu offers a full selection for table service, which means that you can snack lightly and continue with various traditional hot items. If the party is large enough (or if sushi simply is excluded from the evening’s schedule of events), the menu offers quite a long list of alternative appetizers, including small portions of items otherwise served as entrees, such as shrimp, scallop and beef tempura.

The gyoza , or steamed and fried dumplings stuffed with a savory ground pork filling, are long and thin (most Japanese restaurants make gyoza short and stubby) and deeply browned on one side, just like the Chinese pot stickers they imitate. The negima , or thin slices of beef that are wrapped around scallions, broiled and served with teriyaki sauce, taste a little greasy and much like the meat in the sukiyaki; it seems likely that precisely the same beef is used for both.

Somewhat less familiar starters include hamachi kama , or broiled yellowtail cheek (the fleshy cheeks of several species of fish are regarded as specialties in numerous cuisines, if not too frequently in America); the “oyster special,” or a sauced oyster casserole fleshed out with scallops and crab; hasami age , which is stuffed, deep fried eggplant, and a dressed-up sunomono garnished with shrimp, octopus and other seafood.

A plain but agreeable sunomono salad opens all meals; many restaurants interpret this Japanese staple simply as thinly sliced cucumber in sweet rice vinegar, which is indeed a refreshing combination. Samurai makes a better version by adding shredded onions and carrots, and bits of noodle. Meals also include the usual miso soup, based on fermented soy and the daily broth of Japan, and a dull salad of iceberg lettuce and shredded red cabbage somewhat enlivened by a sweet-sour-savory dressing of sugar, vinegar and soy.

The entree list sticks to basics but offers them in profusion and in quite a large number of combinations, including elaborate combination platters arranged for a minimum of two guests and priced, relatively expensively for this menu, at $13.95 to $20.95 per person. The standbys rule the list, which besides entree-sized portions of sashimi would be chicken, beef and salmon teriyaki; chicken or beef sukiyaki; shrimp tempura and a more extravagant lobster tempura, and pork, beef or chicken breaded and fried katsu style. There also is chicken yakitori (nuggets threaded on skewers and grilled), grilled salmon steak and yosenabe , a traditional dinner-in-a-bowl of assorted seafood, chicken and eggs swimming in broth.

The entree preparation at Samurai these days truthfully seems standard and acceptable, but not at all above the norm. The beef sukiyaki was stingy both in the amount and quality of meat, and there even seemed relatively few vegetables submerged in the great dish of sweet, smoking-hot broth. A combination of chicken and beef teriyaki was plentifully portioned, but unevenly glazed with the thin sauce, while the platter, garnished only with rice, had too spare a look. The breaded pork cutlet ( tonkatsu ) and the shrimp and vegetable tempura were perhaps the most satisfactory offerings, both served crisp, hot and in more than generous amount. Chunks of batter-fried banana hid among the tempura vegetables, and although these have become fairly common in recent years, they nonetheless were a sweet surprise and quite delightful.

Samurai

979 Lomas Santa Fe, Solana Beach

Calls: 481-0032

Hours: Lunch weekdays, dinner nightly.

Cost: Entrees $8.95 to $21.95; dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $30 to $70.