BIGRIG
Well-Known Member
You sir are a good man.
Beware of Great Wall Buffet
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JaceTheAce
Well-Known Member
Blue Moose was once okay. In 2006 it immediately went downhill in food service quality and quality of food.
Expensive but worth it? Are you serious?! How about expensive, low-grade sushi, and horrible service?
Kon Nechi Wa's is the epitome of the ethnic restaurants of Grand Forks trying to be what they are not, continually failing at what they do with little or no regard to maintaining food and cultural authenticity. They are doing nothing more than further enforcing the culturally-ignorant North Dakotan population's minds with fake and misrepresented "authentic cuisine," much like the famous Paradiso Restaurant.
My first experience with Kon Nechi Wa's was shortly after my arrival into Grand Forks in 2004. They had recently moved to the Menard's shopping center. I, being the dumb and naive Californian who assumed every part of the US had food as good as all the other great culinary wonders of the west and east coasts, happily moseyed my way to Kon Nechi Wa's for sushi. When I arrived I was greeted by a ditsy oh-fer-cute-17-year-old-obvious-Grand-Forks-native (I'm sure with the Pontiac Sunfire she got for her high school graduation) who led me to my booth through a cast of horrid florescent office lighting. Before I even tasted the food, I was overtaken by the Midwestern-style interior décor you'd noramally see in a sleazy rural North Dakota café or in the Lundegaard's house from the movie Fargo - you know, the overuse of 1980's oak wood furniture, forest green accents, brushed brass fixtures, and bland white walls - which totally confused me because I didn't come in for a greasy burger or North Dakotan interpretation of Italian food at Italian Moon. I came for sushi! Add in the random Japanese decorations among the shenanigans and I was asking myself what I got into.
The dumb blonde sits me down and hands me the menu, informing me of the sweet and sour pork special of the day. Sweet and sour pork?! WTF?! Did she all of a sudden teleport me to a Chinese restaurant? Strike 4,492. Everything at this point is going wrong at this place. Okay, so I know the North Dakotans are very elementary at anything cultural and anything different from their right-wing Christian conservative norms sets them off in a fit of raging disapproval, but I decided to continue to give it a shot. It's as if they have to lure the local North Dakotan residents into trying Japanese food by enticing them with greasy Chinese food - something they're used to.
I ordered miso soup (which was way overpriced and excessively salty), a volcano roll, and sashimi (hamachi and tuna). Sitting there listening to the buzzing florescent lighting above me, a la the movie Office Space (I almost swore I was hallucinating cubicles - was I in a corporate office?), I couldn't help but wonder why a Japanese restaurant would violate the tradition of having prominant open glass display of its fresh seafood. The sushi, in great disappointment, was prepared behind-the-scenes.
No sushi bar.
No itamae (sushi chef).
No flair.
Dull ambience.
Dull dining experience.
Dull service.
Dull everything.
The dumb blonde brings my food to me within 20 minutes.
No chopsticks.
No soy sauce.
No ginger.
No shoyo dish for my soy sauce.
Just a fork.
If you are a sushi connoisseur, you know that requiring your guests to ask for these necessary accompaniments is a huge violation of sushi restaurant etiquette.
The volcano roll wasn't so bad actually, perhaps the low-grade sushi was masked by the tasty spicy volcano sauce. The sashimi, however, was a huge disappointment. What can we expect though? We're in the furthest possible location from the ocean and furthest from any sort of civilization, so I have to give them some credit.
Kon Nechi Wa's, I appreciate the fact that your co-owner is from Japan, but please don't dumb down the sushi experience - it is a slap in the face to Japanese culture and misrepresenting Japanese cuisine is doing a disfavor to the already culturally-ignorant North Dakotan population.
Please excuse my run-on sentences. Don't get me started on Paradiso – it makes my half-Mexican blood boil. LOL
Sorry if I offended anyone - you are more than welcome to offend me back.
av8or91
Well-Known Member
Wow jace, couldnt have said it better myself. There truly is no reason for this place to even advertise sushi. I was talking with some managers in a suhsi restaurant in Newport Beach CA and they maybe got one kind of fish locally and the rest was shipped in from a distributor in HAwaii, and Chicago. This being said it really doesnt matter where the Restaurant is located, its a matter of authenticity and and the management to spend some money to make some money. Yuki Hana down in Fargo is very respectable. I try to make it there at least once month because they have quality fish that is not "HUGO fresh"
AngelFuree
Well-Known Member
lol, too bad I never went there.
JaceTheAce
Well-Known Member
I highly recommend Yuki Hana sushi. It's probably the best sushi you can get in North Dakota, considering how difficult and impossible it is to ship fresh sushi into North Dakota. It's not the best sushi comparing what you can get from the west coast, but they do the very best they can with what they have.
Kon Nichi Wa's on the other hand doesn't even attempt to make it all that it can be.
Bignellyxx
Well-Known Member
I know most of you don't think much of North Dakota or the people who inhabit the state. What can i say, in general it is a simple empty land like most of this Country. Obviously not where most of the people live, but it is part of that vast huge space between the holy coasts. I have lived on both coasts and have spent most of my time smack in the middle in Minnie.
A comment earlier mentioned how you can't expect to to get good seafood in the middle of the country. Generally true unless you want to pay a little bit for it. Now you can't go to a local crab shack on the side of the road like in Maryland but Minneapolis has a very good fish market. Obviously you can get the local Walleye, Northern and Salmon but you also get fish that are shipped in each day. You can get Seafood from all over the country that could have been caught the previous night. Also from what i understand some of the best sushi can be found in Bentonville, AR. Not going to explain why most people should be able to figure it out.
Jace i know you mentioned something about the sophistication of the coasts compared to North Dakota. Not going to try to say ND is anything like NYC but from my experience the sophisticated people must just be the ones you hang out with man. People on the coasts have their heads in the sand just as much as people in North Dakota. I just wish i remembered half the questions people asked me in DC about MN. Once was about snow in the summer. Very centric thinking on the east coast. Said it once before but i think a lot of people on the east could have done fine without all that land west of the Appalachians because they don't care.
Not trying to flame but i hate blanket generalizations
A comment earlier mentioned how you can't expect to to get good seafood in the middle of the country. Generally true unless you want to pay a little bit for it. Now you can't go to a local crab shack on the side of the road like in Maryland but Minneapolis has a very good fish market. Obviously you can get the local Walleye, Northern and Salmon but you also get fish that are shipped in each day. You can get Seafood from all over the country that could have been caught the previous night. Also from what i understand some of the best sushi can be found in Bentonville, AR. Not going to explain why most people should be able to figure it out.
Jace i know you mentioned something about the sophistication of the coasts compared to North Dakota. Not going to try to say ND is anything like NYC but from my experience the sophisticated people must just be the ones you hang out with man. People on the coasts have their heads in the sand just as much as people in North Dakota. I just wish i remembered half the questions people asked me in DC about MN. Once was about snow in the summer. Very centric thinking on the east coast. Said it once before but i think a lot of people on the east could have done fine without all that land west of the Appalachians because they don't care.
Not trying to flame but i hate blanket generalizations
Mtts422
Well-Known Member
Very good post BigNel.
Living in SoCal for a couple of years made me realize the same thing. Culturally speaking it was fantastic, and as Jace has so eloquently put it (no less than a thousand times) the weather and food is amazing. However, I also found that a good majority of the people have their heads wedged comfortably in their own asses. The mere thought of living anywhere else than CA is unfathomable to them. As a result, knowledge of areas anywhere outside of the 405 and I-10 corridor is just about zero.
Now back to the important stuff - sushi.
Anyone that is in LA (or visiting) and is a sushi connoisseur needs to head over to Yen Sushi - either in Belmont Shores (LGB) or off of Wilshire. Get the Snowcorn roll and report back - you won't be disappointed.
God I miss that place!
Living in SoCal for a couple of years made me realize the same thing. Culturally speaking it was fantastic, and as Jace has so eloquently put it (no less than a thousand times) the weather and food is amazing. However, I also found that a good majority of the people have their heads wedged comfortably in their own asses. The mere thought of living anywhere else than CA is unfathomable to them. As a result, knowledge of areas anywhere outside of the 405 and I-10 corridor is just about zero.
Now back to the important stuff - sushi.
Anyone that is in LA (or visiting) and is a sushi connoisseur needs to head over to Yen Sushi - either in Belmont Shores (LGB) or off of Wilshire. Get the Snowcorn roll and report back - you won't be disappointed.
God I miss that place!