by Ben H. on It was the middle of the week and the goal was to aimlessly cruise down Buford Highway until we settled on some place with Asian cuisine. We didn't have anything too specific in mind - we were just in the mood for some Eastern flava. We passed Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese places. Then I thought of Hayakawa - I'd been meaning to check it out. So I decided to just pull over in a shopping center and look up some info on it to figure out where exactly it was. Then we discovered that the strip mall we had pulled into was actually the one that Hayakawa was in! Fate. The restaurant was definitely a little smaller than I expected and I could see how it could get crowded, but luckily it wasn't too busy and we were seated right away. The restaurant is pretty nice - it's bright, clean and simple. Anyway, water and some snacks (mushrooms, assorted rice snack mix) came quickly. We looked over the menu and I ordered an Orion (Okinawan beer) since I'd never seen it before. It was surprisingly good - it's basically a crisp, golden lager that went very well with everything we ate. I might try to hunt it down, but I imagine it would be a tough task. We ordered a couple of appetizers: butabura (pork belly skewers) and yakitori shio (chicken skewers). Both were really good (I'd probably lean slightly towards the butabura though). The butabura reminds me of grilled fatty bits of pork chop - really tasty. The mustard on the side is potent. I expected the yakitori to be overcooked and dried out, but it was nicely grilled and still juicy. These appetizers were impressive actually - I was kinda expecting them to be dull but they weren't at all. I could come back and just eat appetizers I think. I'm looking forward to trying gyoza on the next visit. Of course, we also ordered a variety of sushi as well. Now, I have to admit that I am not a sushi FIEND - I like sushi a lot and definitely get a craving every now and then, but I'm not really fanatical about it or particularly well-versed in it. My sushi palate is somewhat conservative and I tend to get pretty basic things wherever I go so take my 2 cents with a grain of salt if you're a sushi freak. Anyway, we had some salmon maki after the appetizers. Really good. The fish was definitely good quality but the rice was the key - nice flavor, excellent texture. One potentially disastrous problem with the maki was the salmon bone still in one of the pieces - there's nothing like getting a sharp bone dagger lodged in your esophagus! Fortunately, that didn't happen. I don't recall ever finding a bone before but I suppose it happens enough. They should probably be a little more careful about deboning their fish though. We also got some assorted nigiri (my fave): masago (smelt roe), hamachi (yellowtail), kanpachi (young Japanese yellowtail), sake (salmon), saba (mackerel), unagi (bbq eel), tamago (egg), and toro (fatty tuna). The masago, served on a little rice pillow with nori slivers, was pretty tasty. Hamachi is one of my favorites - this was probably the best I've had. I'd never had kanpachi before, but it was an awesome discovery and I liked it even more than regular yellowtail. The salmon was impressive too - definitely the best I've ever had. It had this crazy marbling on it that made it almost look like candy. I wasn't a huge fan of the saba - it had a much stronger fishy taste than the others. Unfortunately, I missed out on the unagi, but I heard it was good. I've read that a good tamago is a sign of a good sushi chef (I'm not sure how entirely true that is but whatever). I thought that the tamago here was very good. Nice flavor and not watery like it can be sometimes. The preparation was a bit unusual (lazy?) though - slit up the middle on the bottom and rested on the rice like a hat rather than being tied on with nori like I'm used to. It was pretty large so that also made it a little hard to eat, but it was still delicious. I also decided to be a balla (on a budget) and try the $8 toro nigiri. I'd never had toro before - it was definitely very fatty and you could really taste the rich, buttery flavor. That aspect of it was awesome. However, there was too much stringy excess fat in between the flesh on my piece and eating that wasn't too pleasant (I'm probably offending some sushi connoisseurs here, right?). Definitely a very flavorful piece of fish and I'd love to have it again, but I'd probably prefer a slightly leaner piece next time. All in all, it was a great experience - great rice, high-quality fish, nice appetizers, a new tasty beer. It was definitely a little pricey, but I felt like I was paying good quality prices rather than unjustifiably overinflated prices. The only negatives I can think of were the bone in the maki and the longish wait for the nigiri. Like I mentioned, I'm no sushi expert, but I thought that it was very solid and that it actually lived up to the hype. 4.5
