July 16th 2012: Dinner at Umai, Boston

Today after work, I had a meetup dinner at Umai, a Japanese restaurant on Newbury Street in Boston.

I managed to find parking along the street near the old First Spiritualist Temple on 181 Newbury Street.

Old First Spirtualist Temple

The restaurant itself was very small but quaint, complete with a fireplace as it used to be an apartment complex.

After looking at the menu, I decided to go for the unique stuff as usual, ordering the Smoked Salmon Bomb appetizer, comprising torched smoked salmon wrapped around Japanese potato egg salad, the Baked Alaska Maki consisting of eel, cream cheese, tempura flakes, avocado, cucumber, tobiko with spicy sauce, and topped with a layer of salmon melt, and finally the Sunflower Maki, made up of a light wasabi crawfish mango salad, topped with salmon, avocado and tobiko.

Smoked Salmon Bomb (left),
Baked Alaska Maki, (center),
Sunflower Maki (top right)

I have never had potato salad with sashimi before, so the appetizer was an interesting but delicious experience, while the Alaska roll surprised me with how tantalizing it was with its smoky flavor, as I usually don't go for sushi with cream cheese in them. Surprisingly, it was the Sunflower Maki that turned out to be the losing dish this time, tasting good but not fantastic or anything amazing.

Although I did not accomplish much else today, I'm glad I came to try out this restaurant.