Temaki and Tea

I have to admit, it has taken me a while to eat here. Even when I was going to Northern Michigan University (who runs the restaurant), I never ate here because I always had it in my head that all they had was sushi, which at the time I hadn't tried, nor do I really like fish. It is one of my mom's favorite restaurants in Marquette though, so my husband and I decided to try it out one night that she ordered it. We still haven't been inside the actual restaurant but we ordered takeout.

To try out a non- fish sushi, we ordered the Crunchy Shrimp Sushi. The shrimp is battered in tempura, with cucumber, avocado, green onion, and rolled in tempura crunchies and drizzled with teriyaki glaze. It really wasn't bad. I think I am just not a fan of seafood, but all of the other flavors went really well together. I am a huge shrimp fan and it was delicious with that tempura around it. I think had it not had the teriyaki glaze, I wouldn't have gone back for a second piece. And I love ginger, so of course I had a big piece of sushi ginger on my slice.

I ordered the Shanghai Peanut. It has fresh veggies, udon noodles, peanut sauce and choice of meat, which I chose chicken. Their noodle bowls are delicious. Anything usually has me if it is in a peanut or peanut butter sauce. There was also crushed peanuts and sliced green onion on top for a nice crunch.

Now that I have it out of my head that there is more than just sushi I will definitely order from here more often. Everything was visually simple and tasted very fresh. Definitely a good replacement for the Hardees that used to be in the building.

Chau's Cafe

While visiting my sister-in-law in Killeen, Texas I needed to find somewhere that served bubble tea. I had been dying to try it for years but they don't have it in my hometown. Out of all of the places in the area that served bubble tea, Chau's Cafe was the highest rated on Trip Advisor and was already on my top 10 list of places to stop at while in Killeen.

The Boba flavors we ordered that are pictured above is Almond Chocolate with Strawberry tapioca pearls, and Chocolate with Blueberry pearls. I also ordered my husband a Pineapple smoothie with the Mango pearls. These, are some of the coolest smoothies I have ever had. Starting off by being entranced with the machine that they had to seal the tops of the glasses (I am easily amused....), the tapioca pearls were absolutely delicious. I was a little bit nervous of how they worked, and no one else that I was with had ever heard of bubble tea so it was very hard to explain, but the sensation when they pop added a completely new flavor to the drink and made it fun. 

Had we not just eaten lunch at a different restaurant, the food on the menu here looked delicious. I haven't had Pho in a long time and if I am ever back in the area, this will definitely be on my list of stops.

Chau's Cafe, Facebook Page

Mikado Japanese Steakhouse

The first night we got to Kentucky to visit my sister-in-law, we decided to go to a new Hibachi restaurant in Oak Grove, Kentucky. It had pretty good reviews and I love Hibachi, mainly because I get to see everything they are putting into my food.

Like my favorite restaurant in Green Bay, Wisconsin, they served a small salad with ginger dressing and a soup for a starter. The soup however, was a broth with small pieces of fried tempura batter. It was a decent soup, as far as broth soups go, and I love the ginger dressing on the salad.

All three of us ordered Hibachi. I was kind of disappointed with our chef, because he had absolutely no personality. He did the lava coming out of the stack of onions deal, but not a whole lot else. He didn't flip the shrimp tails, he didn't pretend to put pepper in people's drinks, nothing. My sister-in-law tried to joke with him to get him to loosen up, but that didn't work. He was nice, but no showman.

I ordered the chicken and shrimp hibachi. The shrimp, chicken, veggies and fried rice were all amazing. I don't know what people's fascination with 'yum yum' sauce is but I find it odd. It is too much like a mayonnaise flavor and doesn't at all remind me of any Japanese flavor that I've ever had. Although I appreciated the  noodles (instead of the bean sprouts, which I would have preferred), but the yum yum sauce was off putting.

This is not the best hibachi restaurant that I've been to, but it wasn't bad necessarily either. My meat was great and I still had that gingery mustard like sauce to dip into. If we go back to Oak Grove I think we will try to find the hibachi restaurant that we had our engagement dinner at. The whole reason you go to a hibachi place is to be wowed and dazzled, am I right?


Mikado's Main Site

Bambu Asian Cuisine

A few weekends ago we went to a surprise party in Houghton, MI. Everywhere on the main strip was packed, since it was a Saturday night, there was a home hockey game, and let's be honest the many many Tech students. We went up through town past the bridge, and decided to stop at Bambu Asian Cuisine, that I didn't even know was there because from the outside of the front of the restaurant, it doesn't even look like a restaurant. Although it does have a great weird industrial kind of architectural detail, but other than a sign by the parking lot entrance, there was no sign on the actual building that I could see. The lot was also packed, but the wait was supposedly only 15 minutes long and we were already running behind. Lucky for us, we only waited about 5 minutes and were seated.

For an appetizer, we ordered the steamed dumplings. I don't know what my deal is lately but I have been on a dumpling kick at every oriental place that we've been to. They are filled with ground pork and vegetables and are made in house. The side sauce was a spicy garlic ginger soy sauce. The dumplings were very good, and I will be attempting to recreate the dipping sauce because it was packed with garlic and ginger.

My husband ordered the Orange Chicken. What I like here is that you get a lot of food, but the way that they serve it to you makes it feel like a beautiful plate of food, rather than a trough that you very scarily shovel food into your mouth from. The chicken was very good, with a light breading on the outside. There was a great kick from the peppers in the sauce and a pronounced orange flavor, which funny as it may seem you usually don't get when you order orange chicken elsewhere.

My main course came out and was beautiful. I ordered the Chicken Pad Thai, filled with onion, carrot, egg, and bean sprouts in a Pad Thai sauce and topped with chopped peanuts! The peanuts gave the dish a great crunch and the sauce (which I ordered an elementary spice level) had just enough kick. The bowl doesn't do the size of this dish justice. This is not a normal soup bowl....it is like a dinner plate, that someone has curved all of the edges on. I ended up taking half of it home with me, which I am not complaining about because it made great leftovers!

My only negative comment about this place, other than the fact that they could use a sign up higher on the building, is where the waiter and waitress station was located. On the first floor, in the middle of the room, and I mean LITERALLY in the middle of the room, is the station. We happened to be sitting right across from it so I got to watch the chaos that was the staff (and completely not their fault). There were almost four to six collisions from people not being able to see around the station and four people trying to fit in a space made for one person, just to get to the kitchen or the other side of the restaurant. There are scuff marks all around this thing where you can tell people have had to quickly move out of the way and ended up briefly as part of the wall, or just plain walking into the thing. It is the strangest set-up I've ever seen. I'm sure when it was put there they had the thought process of "it's in the middle of the restaurant and conveniently located" but it is more of an accident waiting to happen.

The restaurant is beautiful on the inside, the noise level for a Saturday night was pretty tame and the food was delicious. Some of the best Asian cuisine I've had in the U.P. so far. If you can find it (or if you live here and know where it is, us persons from out of town had slight difficulty), it is worth the stop!

Bambu Asian Cuisine, Facebook Page
Bambu Asian Cuisine, Main Site

Nakashima of Japan

If you were to ask me where my favorite place in Green Bay, Wisconsin is to eat, this is in the top 3. I absolutely love this restaurant. Every time we visit I make a point to try and eat here. It is on the pricy side, but it is fantastic food. Hibachi is probably one of the only style that I like, because you can see all of the ingredients that they use while cooking, and you know it has been prepared right. The fact that they make a show on top of it makes it even more fun. The onion volcano is my favorite trick. It is hard to take pictures while eating in there considering how dark it is, and you can't really turn a flash on while they are doing tricks in fear of screwing them up and blinding someone else. But I managed to take a few pictures none-the-less.

My husband and I always get the hibachi for two, which is filet mignon, shrimp and chicken. They come with two different dipping sauces, and the ginger one is by far my favorite. Before they start cooking your meal, you get a salad with a ginger dressing, and a bowl of miso. For dessert, if you can find room, you also get either vanilla ice cream or orange sherbet.

This type of restaurant makes dinner fun and entertaining. All of the chefs that I have ever had have been very entertaining. They also have a sushi bar for those who love sushi. I haven't quite warmed up to sushi yet, unless it's all veggies. If you are in the Green Bay area and don't mind spending a little extra money for dinner, this is a fun and delicious place to stop! Be aware though, if you get there during the busy dinner hours, you may end up waiting a while for a table. They fill up fast!

Nakashima Facebook Page

Nakashimas Main Site

Teriyaki Bowl

I cannot tell you how many times I have seen this while driving through Marquette, and always wondered how it was. It looks like a little fast food style restaurant from the outside so I had never bothered to eat there. My husband and I had to run to a few stores in town and decided to give it a try. I am glad we did!

The inside of the restaurant, although small, is very clean and organized. The decor can be described as modern/rustic/oriental. There are wood accents everywhere, with oriental pieces thrown in, and fun chalkboard walls in the back. We decided to sit towards the back so I could get a good picture of the "Specials" board.

One of the drinks we ordered was the Thai Ice Tea. It was amazing! And I am NOT usually a tea person.

For an appetizer we ordered the pot stickers, pan fried (you can also get them steamed). They had a good crunch on the outside but the pork on the inside was still a nice soft texture and not overcooked. The dipping sauce that they give you is amazing. If I had to make a good guess what was in it, I would guess soy sauce, ginger, and maybe lemongrass? Great start to the meal.

My husband ordered the Chicken Teriyaki Bowl over rice, and said it was good. For my main meal I chose the "General Chicken Sesame" from the specials board. I did technically order it over noodles, not rice, but when it got delivered it was a "what the heck" decision to just eat it anyway. I ordered a "1" on the spice level and for me I'm glad I did because when the sriracha first hit my lips it was an instant heat wave. As I kept eating and throwing in the green onion, lettuce and cilantro, the heat started to mellow. I also added a touch of soy sauce, which they supply at the table, so that the rice was flavored with something.

I will definitely be going back here. I am not a huge fan of the random Chinese and oriental restaurants in the area, because they always taste over greasy and packed with frozen ingredients. Everything from the Teriyaki Bowl tasted fresh, and other than the sauces you can literally see every fresh ingredient used to make your dish. If you haven't tried them out yet and you like the type of cuisine, you must! It also looks like they are trying to start an "order online" option as well as online reservations.

A link to their main website and Facebook page are below:

Teriyaki Bowl, Main Site
Teriyaki Bowl, Facebook Page