Azuma on the Lake

Oh Groupon, you never cease to amaze me. Our certificate for Azuma on the Lake was about to expire, so we stopped in on a quiet Tuesday night. The place was almost completely empty and very nicely decorated. There is a small rock garden, lots of wood and plain white ceramic table-settings. We kind of wanted to sit outside (the patio is located on the lake, and the weather was perfect), but the hostess didn't give us the option, and (oddly) put us way in the back of the restaurant, by ourselves.

We eschewed typical starters and went for the carpaccio. It was ... different. The beef was very thinly sliced, but definitely heartier than that in your typical Italian carpaccio. I liked the soy and ginger dressing on top; it was spicy, crunchy and bright. We finished it easily and moved on to yellowtail sashimi and hot sake. The fish and booze were typically wonderful.

Next we tried some rolls. The list is extensive, with some very interesting choices. We decided to have the Smoked Dragon (eel and cucumber, topped with smoked salmon, citrus salsa and a nori foam) and Queen of the Sea (spicy salmon and avocado, toppped with red snapper, ponzu sauce and wasabi). The Smoked Dragon was definitely the standout. Don't get me wrong, QotS was good too -- something about the texture and flavor reminded me of a really amazing seafood salad, and heat from the wasabi was nice. But Smoking Dragon's citrus salsa took that roll to a different, pleasantly sweet level. My only complaint was the foam. It was too dense, more like an aioli than a foam, and it was tasteless. I didn't know what nori was going in, and after eating this foam, I still was clueless.

We took a chance and got a dessert -- Bailey's Irish Pudding. Usually desserts at Asian restaurants aren't very good, and this was not an exception. It was very dense and didn't have any Bailey's flavor. The ice-cream it was served with was nice, but there wasn't enough of it. Then again, the whole concept didn't make sense. Bread pudding isn't an Asian dish, and Bailey's certainly is not. So yeah -- it was probably our fault for trying it.

Service was amazing. Our waitress was available without being pushy, and we certainly didn't want for anything. The prices were a little on the high side, we thought -- but then again, we did eat a lot of very fresh seafood, and we did have a Groupon. So that helped. Azuma has three locations -- two in the city, and one out in Sugarland. I completely recommend that you find the one closest to you and try it. Just skip dessert. Or replace it with some sake.