Tai Show (North)
316 Main Street
East Setauket, NY 11733
(631) 751-2848
Happy Holidays, everyone! Whether it is Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa, or something else that you may celebrate! I hope everyone has a safe, loving, and joyous time with family and friends. I know I am lucky to have a wonderful family, boyfriend, and group of friends who I can count on to keep a smile on my face year round. Now, on to the food! I am not Italian, but in the spirit of things and to follow some sort of tradition known to many of my friends, Christmas Eve is the night of seven fish. So, my visit to Tai Show with Fiona and Rich is quite appropriate for this day! Enjoy!
Fiona is not only my lovely sister, but also a great go-to for decent restaurants. She had been to Tai Show with Julie, another anti-big chain restaurant girl (no offense, TGIFriday's) and they loved the atmosphere and raved about the sushi. Located in scenic north shore LI, Tai Show offers something for everyone, from hibachi to sushi, and other Japanese fare. Walking in, I was immediately excited. They have a separate room for hibachi, but in the main restaurant, you can request to sit in a room, where you are immediately transported to a Japanese room complete with authentic looking Shoji divider doors enclosing your party in your booth. Mucho points for atmosphere and interior design!
As for the food, I was so impressed by the variety's of sushi rolls they offered. I don't know why, I just was, but they had great flavor combinations and it was super fresh. I have found, throughout my sushi-trying years, that yes, sushi is definitely an acquired taste that has only increased with intensity, for me, at least. And a great way to try different fish is to order a roll with other fish that you've tried before and like. It's like taking baby steps. So far, it has been a no-fail way for me to try different sushi.
Another good way is just to sample what your friends order, which is precisely what Fiona, Rich, and I did. We started with the pork shumai appetizer. Although shumai always looks so pallid and rather boring to me, there's was still visually boring but tasted wonderful. Then again, I guess it's kind of hard to make pork dumplings look truly appealing. Anyway, it was perfectly cooked and the sweet and salty dipping sauce is a great paring. I also had miso soup, which I love and it was nice here, too. Rich ordered Shrimp Asparagus- rolled in panko and fried and served with an interesting dry salt-herb mixture. I thought it was a bit plain tasting, but the herbs added the saltiness which it needed.
Finally our rolls came and they were visually spectacular. It's one thing to plate something visually appealing, but I am always amazed by the way food is presented in some Japanese restaurants, such as this. They are truly works of art... literally edible art, and you can really appreciate the time that the sushi chef took to make the roll. I ordered the Diamond roll (tuna, yellowtail, cucumber, avocado with salmon on top), Fiona chose the Amy roll (tuna, salmon, yellow tail, spicy mayo, tempura flakes topped with avocado), and Rich got the Dynamite roll (tuna, fluke, scallion, caviar, cucumber with spicy scallop and tempura flakes). As for all of the rolls, I really enjoyed them all. I absolutely love the salmon sashimi on top, as it is one of my favorites and the crunchy cucumber with the soft fish and creamy avocado were wonderful with the wasabi dipping sauce, which I traditionally make a bit spicy. As for the most different, it was Rich's dynamite roll. His was partially cooked (the scallop top) and I'd never had it with sushi before. It was a bit ginormous to eat in one bite, but a big flavor roller coaster in your mouth!
Overall, the dinner was great. Here, I had the full sensory experience: Visually, olfactory, tasting, texturally, it was all appealing, which I believe takes a restaurant to a higher caliber/top-notch (change wording). And, it was not too expensive for a sushi night.
