Sushi!

I ate a lot of sushi last week. First stop -- Sushi Axiom. Met A for a last minute dinner. I had had a bad day and was in a mood. I was headed to the gym to work out some aggression, so when A called to see if I was available for dinner, I gladly changed directions. Surely sushi would change my mood.

Must admit, getting there I was cranky. First, I cursed at having to pay a $5 valet charge on a Wednesday night before 8. Damn you City of Dallas for taking away my street parking across the street. Damn you strip center for not only making me valet but making me pay for it on a weekday. Grrr.

Needed to take an edge off so treated myself to a $14 glass of Stag's Leap chardonnay. That helped. The weather was fantastic (thank you fall for finally making an appearance) so we sat outside and enjoyed the patio. We were having one more joining us later and we wanted a bigger table and learned one problem with Axiom's patio -- most of the tables are bolted down so it makes bigger groups out there difficult. But we made it work.

Started out with our usual edamame. Forgot my coupon for free appetizer that the concierge in my office building gives out. Dangit. Then our usual spring mix salad with ginger dressing and extra sushi ginger. The salad is simple, but it's good and pretty big.

Before our entries came out, we got a very nice surprise. The gentleman who was eating dinner behind us had ordered a bottle of wine and only drank about a glass out of it. He didn't want to see the bottle go to waste, so he gave it to us. We politely declined it at first but he insisted. We think he's the owner, but yeah, free wine made my mood even better.

I was trying "make better food choices" (read: I'm on a diet), so rather than my usual Mustang roll (a favorite of many. order it and you'll figure out why), I ordered salmon sashimi instead. It was cut a little too thick, but it was fresh and good. That's the thing about Axiom -- it's good, fresh sushi which isn't going to break your budget. One of my go to places in Dallas. Mood much better. :)

Mood got even better on Friday because L was in from the OC! She wanted Tei Tei so to Tei Tei we went. Since there were 5 of us, we made reservations. We started early since we were going to meet people out later Our reservation was for 6 and they told us if we weren't there by 610, they'd give away our table. Well, we got there on time, and when we left at 730, place was still kind of dead. Hmpf.

We ordered several starters. I had the seaweed salad. It needed just a bit more acid to be perfect. There were 3 orders of the sea bass. They looked a tad over-cooked. Our order of mushrooms and scallops were also overcooked (and had a funky spicy sauce). But the tuna and avocado special was delicious.

I always get the "feed me roll". It's basically chef's choice. I always take a risk here. I don't like octopus and sea urchin so if the sushi chef chooses to use those ingredients, I'm kind of screwed. But luckily, no octopus or sea urchin today! I wish I could tell you what my roll was, but no one seemed to know and no one wanted to ask the sushi chef either. Hmpf. From what I could figure out, it was a tuna roll with something crunchy inside, topped with seared tuna and micro greens. Very, very good. But I was still hungry so I ordered a dragon roll to share with L. It was so very good. California roll, topped with eel and avocado. So very good. It's not on the sushi menu, so ask for it when you go.

Overall, Tei Tei was good but kind of disappointing. Service was spotty (although the busser was very attentive) and all the grilled items were slightly overcooked. Stick with the sushi and you won't be disappointed.

Cheers!