We have waited, and waited, and waited for this moment. Good, affordable sushi closer than twenty miles away. It has happened with the opening of Rock -n-Roll Sushi in Lake Arrowhead's charming-ish Village. A chain of sushi joints catering to a young-acting, reggae listening, Coach bag carrying crowd. So was it worth the wait?
Rock and Roll Sushi sits next door to Papaya Bay, the Thai restaurant that has dominated the Asian cuisine scene here on the mountain (which isn't difficult) for a whopping two years.
So it's on now! Japanese versus Thai food. There should be room for both, right? Its probably a good thing the same company owns both restautants. Considering people in the mountains only go out to dinner for birthdays or with visiting relatives, its hard to determine what's what in the restaurant industry up here.
Are people really looking for good food, or just a place to relieve some of the cultural boredom of the mountains? I'm afraid I know the answer.
Let's take a look at the food:
From what we ordered and ate, it looks to be in the "American Sushi" style of rolls smothered in various salty sauces. Not bad tasting at all, but not tasting like much. Good sushi has that fresh, distinctly Japanese flavor. Good sushi is not afraid of itself, nor does it hide behind fancy eel sauces and store bought wasabi. When you can taste the 'special sauce' more than the fish, question this, said grasshopper.
It was my friends Lori and Mike's first time trying sushi - first time! How wonderful, so I was hoping it would be a great experience. I think we enjoyed picking from the 24 beers on tap selection more than the food menu.
We got the Psycho roll, (mike's choice, pretty adventurous for a first timer) the Red Dragon roll, and the Baked Lobster roll.
Tasty, extremely filling, well presented, average priced - but not what you would call "the best sushi I ever had."
How could it be?
They were out of endemame to begin with and the servers had trouble remembering the difference between spicey tuna and baked salmon - but they are trying.
The stainless steel, numerous flat screens pumping sports programming to the mountain masses, and the bright red and green of the interior solidifies Rock and Roll's place as a "California" sushi joint. Well, I suppose we'll take what we can get and be happy. I am looking forward to returning, (which is a good sign) and ordering sashimi and Udon. I will sit in the outdoor seating area and enjoy the lake view while sipping green tea, (which, come to think of it, they didn't offer. What's up with no green tea?).
I'm still waiting for a hole-in-the-wall noodle shop to open in Running Springs. It'll be called 'Little, Little Tokyo.'
