Samurai: Sushi and Simplicity
4424 Commons Drive East, Destin, 269-0185
Hours: Open Mon-Sat lunch 11am- 2:30pm, dinner @5pm
2/3

By Bruce Collier July 12, 2007 Issue

Samurai is located in a little row of shops near a very busy Destin intersection. The restaurant itself is small inside, with a tiny sushi bar and about eight tables. Outside is a patio with an awning and more tables. Lunch outside these days would be blazing hot, noisy, and perfumed with exhaust fumes. Inside it’s cool, and the staff is cordial.

If you want, you can eat nothing but sushi at Samurai either at the bar or a table. The server brings two menus, one just sushi and sashimi, the other a variety of cooked and raw items. There are lunch specials, and soups and salads. Beer and wine, bottled water, and soft drinks are dispensed from a cooler cabinet. The kitchen is small, and it looked like the chef and sushi maker were sharing the work the night we ate there.

As with most Japanese sushi places, the sushi menu is extensive and varied. As with most Japanese sushi places around here, more than a few sushi items were not available. Sea urchin (uni) has always been a favorite of mine, but I’m used to only reading it on the menu. Not surprisingly, Samurai was out that night. They were out of a few other things, too.

They did have salmon roe and baby octopus, both favorites of mine. I got them for starters. My friend got a shrimp tempura roll, filled with crisp fried shrimp, cucumber, and avocado. The sushi pieces were tasty, pretty, and gone in seconds. The roll lasted a little longer. The sushi menu offers some twenty pieces, plus assorted rolls, house specials, and blowout combinations, one of which, “Love Boat B,” costs $100. “Love Boat A” costs less.

I decided to order two other appetizers — fried dumplings and a sashimi sampler — for my dinner, plus a seaweed salad. My friend ordered one of the Samurai dinners, sautÈed fresh shrimp with vegetables, served with soup, salad, and fried or steamed rice. She also ordered spring rolls. The server brought out the dumplings and spring rolls shortly after the soup and seaweed salad. If you don’t care for the Japanese style of dining — everything on the table and pick and choose as you will — tell the server. Otherwise, stuff can sort of come at you all at once.

The seaweed salad was a good example of its kind, sweet and tart, with strips of crunchy greens slick with sesame oil. The soup was OK but my friend had to liven it up a little with various condiments. Both the spring rolls and dumplings were substantial little meat-filled tidbits, with various dipping sauces.

Other starters included breaded and fried tofu, soft shell crab, fried calamari, skewered beef, chicken and shrimp, tempuras, and grilled beef or tuna with dipping sauces. It would be easy to compose a meal at Samurai by the piece, using both menus.

My friend’s shrimp came out. We didn’t stop to count, but she was pretty sure there were at least a dozen. The medium-sized shrimp were peeled (except tails) butterflied, and sautÈed with a slightly sweet, salty, and smoky glaze. The grilled vegetables were well above par, and the kitchen was generous with them.

Other main course items are shrimp, seafood, or vegetable tempuras, meat, chicken or seafood with noodles, Samurai dinners of chicken, teriyaki beef, salmon, lobster, scallops or filet mignon. There’s a list of paired dinners described as simply “steak & shrimp,” “steak & salmon,” “shrimp & scallop,” etc., in most possible combinations. Grilling and frying seem to be the cooking methods of choice, in keeping with the Japanese taste for simplicity of preparation. Interestingly, filet mignon is among the items on the kid’s menu. No chicken fingers.

Samurai offers three desserts, two of which were available the night we ate there. We split two orders of tempura ice cream and “mochi,” ice cream wrapped in little pillowy cakes. They were out of the green tea ice cream.

The ice cream tempura was not hot, but if you thought of it as a kind of ice cream cake, it was a nice, not overly heavy. The mochi were chewy on the outside, like ice cream with unsweetened marshmallows.

Samurai’s location makes it a likely spot for a quick lunch, a snack before home, or a full meal. You can follow the menu, or just improvise.

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