So one night I was told we were going to a cheap sushi place for dinner. Fine. You all know I am not a sushi fan, but if I’m going to eat it, it should at least be cheap. Somehow we wound up at Asakuma Restaurant in Brentwood, which was not cheap at all. This wasn’t the fault of the restaurant, but still I can’t understand why sushi is expensive. I fail to notice a difference between expensive and cheap sushi. In fact, some of the best I’ve ever had was also some of the cheapest I’ve ever had. Wow, do you readers ever get tired of me griping about sushi? No? Good, then read on about some Asakuma.
Despite the high prices, I found a pretty good-looking unvegan dish called Spicy Tuna Watermelon on one of their special menus for 10 bucks. This didn’t have a vegetable in sight and was loaded with spicy tuna and fried. The name confused me, but I like watermelon, so I figured I couldn’t really go wrong. When it came, I realized that it was called watermelon because of the way it was cut into wedges, rather than having any actual watermelon in it. This would have been okay except that there were only four pieces and they were pretty small for 10 bucks. No extra crab legs hanging out or anything else. They had a semi-spicy and sweet sauce on them and were covered in tiny little crunchballs, which were actually a nice touch.
After we all finished, the bill came. There were about eight of us at the table and someone decided that we would split the bill evenly. Ordinarily, my roll and beer would have cost me about 20 bucks, including tax and tip, which is already ludicrous. But when other people ordered multiple drinks and rolls, my cost came out to more than 30 bucks. This was not Asakuma’s fault, but it taught me a valuable lesson: Never order something cheap in a big group. You will get screwed. In truth, 10 bucks isn’t a lot of money, but it’s more of the principle of me paying for someone else’s drinks or sushi, which I didn’t intend to do.
The service was spotty at best, and I know we were a big group, but it would be nice to order a meal within 20 minutes sitting down and get the bill within 20 minutes of finishing. I don’t like to be rushed while I’m eating, but I would at least be able to see the waitress if want something.
Anyway, Asakuma made some decent sushi. Perhaps one day I will discover sushi that will blow me away. I just don’t really see that happening.
I can’t it when people want to split the bill evenly, and refuse to do it every single time. I don’t do it to be an ass or anything, but I’m not going to partially foot someone else’s bill for them. Nor do I want them to do so for me. When I eat out I normally order from the lower priced menu items and skip the overpriced appetizers. I shouldn’t have to chip in extra because someone decided to get a $20 steak and an order of fried cheese sticks.
…and $10 is a good bit extra to pay when it comes to this sort of situation. That’s a 12 pack of beer, or a six pack of good beer. That’s enough to be another meal elsewhere at another time.
Agreed. It’s not so much the money, but what that money could buy me in terms of meat and beer. Why should I be penalized for having cheap taste?