Mursasaki Restaurant
West Hartford, CT
Our first review trip was in 2006. Murasaki is located in a strip mall area in West Hartford's shopping district. It is a very small location, with only a few tables, but it is nicely laid out. There is a lovely hanging-chain motif on the ceiling, and the waitstaff is extremely helpful and attentive.
There is quite a nice selection of sake choices for those who want to expand their authentic Japanese experience. I had a Yamadanishiki for $10, and those who want to try "every one" will have to return numerous times.
We began, as I always like to, with gyoza. I am a huge fan of gyoza. I foudn these to have a soft, mushy inside. Normally I like gyoza if they have a crisp outside and a delicious but relatively solid inside. I'm not a fan of very mushy insides for gyoza.
Next came the miso soup ($2.50), another one of my favorites. The presentation was very nicely done - small black bowls, which actually seemed too small for the spoon. So a nice idea, but poor implementation.
I enjoyed the idea of the crunchy tuna rolls, but the tuna itself was dry without much flavor. The sushi in the same manner was not very rich, but it was pretty.
The salad, at $6, was nice with a nice dressing, but not exceptional. The blackened tuna at $8.75 had a nice ginger sauce with it that I enjoyed. The Tuna tataki was $8.50.
I have to say that I really expected "the best" because of some of the awards I'd seen posted here. I would be quite happy to pay top dollar to get that level of food. It just wasn't that top of the line. It was certainly GOOD and I did enjoy the sake selection. But for them to really deserve those high end awards, the quality of the sushi needs to come up a bit, compared to other restaurants in New England.
I returned to Murasaki in 2007 as part of an 11-person dinner group. We took up about half of the small restaurant, and the organizer of the group was a loyal customer. He had called ahead to set this up and to ask for both sakes and sushi to be featured for us. The restaurant still had the lovely hanging-chain motif along with burgundy tablecloths and Japanese newspaper-decorated walls.
Once again I had several of my favorites - blackened tuna ($8), gyoza ($6), miso soup ($2), tuna tataki ($8) along with some Ozeki one cup sake to give it a try ($6 for the tiny bottle). The food in general was much better than on the prevous visit. The gyoza was nice and fresh, while the blackened tuna had a delicious flavor. The layout on all items was quite lovely.
On the other hand, the service was far worse. We had asked to learn about the sakes brought to us (we normally do wine tastings) but we barely got a one word description of each. Our featured item was a bowl of soybeans. The sushi I ordered was good but not superb. I enjoyed the Murasaki crunchy spicy tuna ($12.50) with asparagus, spicy mayo, tuna and tempura. My water glass sat empty. We had to ask several times to get a new bottle of sake, and a requested bottle of wine did not come until the meal was over.
The Ozeki ginjo premiere sake had a sweetish taste, sort of like bubble gum or others said it had the 'smell' of vodka without the heavy alcohol. In comparison the Jizake was more of an anise / licorice flavor.
I'm pleased that the food quality has come up, and it seems the prices have gone down a little, but I'll have to visit again with a small party to see just how rampant this poor service is.
Photos of Murasaki Restaurant
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