Maybe this should be posted in chains? Is Katusya a chain?
I had a really bad lunch there for $75, but I guess I should have known better (even though this was my very first experience at a SBE restaurant so I had no true warning).
The restaurant looks rather “classy” when you walk in, but that’s about all the good I have to say about it.
I was solo and didn’t have a reservation so I was seated at the sushi bar and was the only person at the bar for the entire hour I was there. Warning for anyone who goes, the seats at the sushi bar are pretty uncomfortable.
I was really in the mood for a glass of wine, but the wine by the glass list was so bad, so unimaginative, so straight out of Pavilions supermarket that I passed.
The waitress came by and pushed hard for the special “Katsuya” roll, which she said was just like a rainbow roll, and for the tuna on crispy rice, which she said was the best crispy rice sushi she had ever had. Since I’m neither a rainbow roll or crispy rice person, I passed on both.
Because I already sensed that the sushi would be mediocre at best, I decided to go with the $38 prix fixe, which gets you one appetizer and one cooked dish. The waitress informed me that most people leave hungry with the prix fixe since the portions are miniaturized, so I decided to add on a vegetable roll (on the theory that in a mass market Japanese restaurant, you are better off skipping any actual raw fish).
On to the meal.
Starter of miso soup. Took one sip and pushed it aside. Tasted straight from a mix. If I wanted miso from a mix, I could have made it myself at home.
First course: crispy brussels sprouts, with balsamic soy, toasted almonds and almonds. It was edible. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a solid 3.5, possibly a 4.
Intermezzo: $21 “Yasai” roll. This was a mistake on my part. The Yasai roll is braised shiitake, tempura asparagus, takuan and avocado puree. The flavors did not work. If there was tempura asparagus I missed it and the shiitake was flavorless. I didn’t read closely and missed that this was not actual avocado, but an avocado puree. The dollop of avocado puree looked very pretty sitting on top of each piece of roll, but it was so flavorless, that I ended up scraping it off because it actually made the roll taste worse, not better. I would rate this roll about a 2- 3.
Hoping to cleanse my palate, I ordered green tea. I wasn’t expecting competition grade Gyokuro tea, but I thought I would get actual Japanese green tea. Nope. I got a teabag of Bigelow “Green Tea Classic.” I normally don’t take photos in restaurants, but here I had to in case people didn’t believe me.
Katsuya Green Tea.
I should have known what was up before the waitress laid down the pot of Bigelow tea because rather than bring a Yunomi like in a real Japanese restaurant, she put down an American style tea cup with a slice of lemon. Lemon! Had to snap another picture.
Slice of lemon.
I was feeling quite depressed about this tea thing until I remembered that I had in my bag a Zojirushi thermos of home brewed sencha that I had packed for a morning meeting, but hadn’t touched. Since I was alone at the sushi bar and since I had paid for the Bigelow tea ($6), I thought there was no shame in pouring the Bigelow back into the silver pot and then pouring my actual sencha into the cup. So I managed to drink Japanese green tea at Katsuya. Katsuya is definitely a bring your own tea kind of place. 
I sat at the bar for close to one hour without any sign of my main course – Squab Yakitori. When it finally came I had no interest in it so had it packed up to go. I ate it later. It was okay – maybe a 3.5 out of 10. Here is a picture that I snapped and yes that is not the leftovers, but the whole dish.
Prix Fixe Squab
For anyone interested, they tack on a 5% “Wellness Fee”, which it says on the bill is to pay for employee health insurance and workers’ compensation premiums. Not necessarily against these kinds of surcharges because I understand why restaurants do them, but 5% is the highest I’ve seen.
Restaurant wasn’t full, but not empty either. Average age seemed to be ‘20 something. I actually felt sorry for them. When I was their age, I was eating good sushi before sushi was so common and before decent sushi had become mostly an unaffordable luxury item.
