River Japanese Cuisine

Browsing through Yelp reviews made Flushing Food a little nervous about visiting the Flushing location of River Japanese Cuisine. As of March 23, 2015, forty-eight out of a total ninety-six (50%) indicated that service needed the most improvement.** There were eighteen one-star reviews. Eleven out of this disgruntled fifteen (61%) cited service as the primary reason.  

Yikes! But Flushing Food owes it to our readers to check out each and every eatery with an open mind. 

Service was better than expected. As you probably guessed, this is mainly due to (1) visiting during off-peak hours (late weekday lunchtime), and (2) negative bias from browsing through online reviews. Five waiters and waitresses walked the floor while two sushi chefs and kitchen staff hustled at their assigned stations. Soothing genmaicha (or hojicha; didn’t have my tea A-game on this day) arrived immediately and was refilled in a timely manner. 

Don, a manager from Fujian province, cautioned that weeknights and weekends are another story. “We started out Friday night with five buckets of Mr. Green Tea ice cream. Two-and-a-half gallons (twenty pints) of ice cream in each tub. On Monday? Gone."

As for ambience, River’s décor offsets this Chinese-owned Japanese restaurant’s basement-level location. Carpeted stairs and an automatic glass sliding door entrance punctuate where Main Street ends. As you settle in for lunch or dinner, you’ll note first that the interior gives a calming, inviting effect. Bright lighting highlights warm wood finishes: 

However, the eclectic playlist leaves room for improvement, especially for all-you-can-eat patrons. All songs featured uncomfortably fast tempos, which clashed with the more laid-back surroundings.*** More importantly, this might subconsciously get diners to rush through their meal, raising the chances of a later upset stomach for some!

Onto food. Instead of all-you-can-eat sushi, I asked for a $19.00 sashimi deluxe.**** This entrée came with a choice between complimentary miso soup or garden salad. I picked garden salad, and received this small bowl within two minutes: 

Counting down from when the salad arrived, fifteen minutes had passed when my sashimi deluxe arrived in an exquisite presentation over a bowl of ice and freshly-cut orchid:

The winner of today’s sashimi meal was the white tuna (shiro maguro). Low-fat tuna (akami), red clam (akagai), and yellowtail (buri) were decent in taste and freshness. Last place was the salmon sashimi (sake), because it arrived still a bit chilled, yet left a fishy aftertaste.

Don insisted on trying out $4.00 mochi ice cream (green tea flavor) to cap off the meal. Whether you visit or order, don't miss out on green tea desserts! Sensitive teeth be darned: 

May Flushing Food suggest: trying the green tea mochi!

SPRING FISH VILLAGE: TIANJIN’S TAKE

Outside.

“What? Sorry? ...Wait, huh?”

While the floor manager of Spring Fish Village spoke Mandarin, I understood perhaps twenty percent of what he was saying.* On top of his heavy Tianjin accent, his vocabulary included region-specific slang phrases.

"--Excuse  me, could you repeat that?"

Comprehension hurdles aside, Spring Fish Village gave Flushing Food a delightful dining experience. We arrived at around 1:30 P.M. on a sunny Monday.

Interior.

After seating us immediately, our servers repeatedly popped over to see whether we were ready to order. The gruff(er) accents belied our waiter and waitress’s patience, and they quickly helped us narrow down our options to the top local choices. Meanwhile, the back LG television alternated between Sinovision and CCTV. Our wait staff also revealed that both he and the lead cook hail from Hebei, the northeast province from which Beijing and Tianjin municipalities were born.** 

Not surprisingly, we noticed most visitors ordering dishes common to Beijing and Tianjin.

Crispy fish in spicy sauce, or what most
of the regulars ordered the day we visited.

In addition, the menu also offered Hunan and Sichuan (also Szechuan) dishes, like spicy diced chicken and double cooked pork.***

Flushing Food started off with a $12.00 vegetable medley of stir-fried lotus root, walnut, cashews, and snow peas. The presentation was a standout, with bright caramelized pops of green, orange, and purple. Cashew and walnuts added a sweet nutty flavor to the still-crispy veggies:

Stir-fried lotus root, walnut, cashews, and snow peas.

Now for the real question: ever stumbled across a bowl of authentic shuizhuyu (水煮鱼)? Spring Fish Village’s version comes pretty darn close to what you could only find in Asia. Here, it's called "house special fish fillet" (qianshuiyu).**** A mere $18.99 yields this number:

House special fish fillet.

Spring Fish Village’s version was more numbing than spicy. The stew (use it as a sauce; don’t drink it!) included cilantro, baby celery sprouts, vermicelli, napa cabbage, and tofu. Unlike most greasy knock-off attempts here in the States, Spring Fish Village's fish fillet pieces are perfectly cooked delicate nuggets of flavor, rather than overly-oily and -cooked leftovers in an over-salted casserole masquerading under the guise of “shuizuyu”.

In short, Spring Fish Village’s version does this beloved dish justice.

The gruff waiter from Tianjin repeatedly stopped by our table, bemused. We couldn't finish everything. But as a consolation prize, he set down a plate of nanguabing for our efforts:

Nanguabing.

May Flushing Food suggest: coming here in a big group. The portion sizes are heaping.