Fuji San Japanese Restaurant

Name: Fuji San Japanese Restaurant
Location: 4105 Vestal Pkwy E., Vestal, NY 13850
Phone: (607) 797-9888
Cuisine: Japanese (Sushi/Hibachi/Traditional)
Price: Depends what you order. Consistent with other Japanese restaurants in the area.

Review:
Scattered around the Triple Cities are a few different Japanese restaurants. There's Kampai, located in Vestal, best known for their entertaining tableside hibachi dinners. There's sake-tumi in downtown Binghamton, with an expansive menu of sushi rolls and Asian-fusion entrees in a comfortable-yet-upscale atmosphere. Sakura in Endicott is a somewhat bare-bones operation offering some traditional entrees, but with an emphasis on sushi, while the Tokyo Sushi Buffet on Upper Front St. has a wide selection of all-you-can-eat sushi for a low price. And then there's Fuji San, located across the street from Binghamton University inside Quality Inn. A weird place for a restaurant of this sort to be located, no doubt. It's somewhat shocking that until last weekend, we had never been to Fuji San. After attending a basketball game at BU, we decided to try out the sushi at Fuji San for a postgame snack. We hoped it would deliver more satisfaction than our beloved Bearcats were able to muster that night.


Fuji San is a much larger restaurant on the inside than I expected it would be. There are a couple hibachi tables toward the front, a sushi bar straight ahead, and a larger dining room back and to the left. It's a pretty nice place, casual enough that you can wear jeans, but nice enough that you could go there for a special occasion. Only the carpet is a major tip-off that you're inside a hotel. At any rate, we elected to sit near the sushi bar and placed our order for a gyoza appetizer, a Spider Roll (soft shell crab, cucumber, avocado, spicy mayo) for me, and a Boston Roll (cucumber, avocado, masago) for Megan.


The gyoza appetizer was pretty delicious. For those not in the know, gyoza are Japanese potstickers, usually with some kind of beef or vegetable filling. These were beef gyoza with a little bit of green onion thrown in, served with a soy ginger dipping sauce that was really good. I would definitely get these again.


The sushi was next to arrive. I will say that generally speaking, sushi in this area cannot compare with what you might find in New York City or other large cities. So if you are used to eating sushi in the City, my guess is that you will find the sushi in Binghamton to be of lower quality. That said, I thought this stuff was pretty good. The rolls were well-presented and stayed together very well. I felt the quality of the seafood was good. In fact, I think all of the sushi places in Binghamton offer a very similar experience, quality-wise. What separates some from the others is decor, presentation, and service, and Fuji San is among the best in all three areas. The service was top-notch, very quick and polite from the moment we walked in until the moment we left. All in all, we were left quite impressed with what Fuji San had to offer.

I look forward to trying out Fuji San for hibachi sometime, but I would definitely go back for sushi again too. It's a clean restaurant with a nice, relaxed atmosphere, the service is great, and the food is at least on par with the other Japanese places in the area. If you are a Binghamton University student reading this review, also note that Fuji San delivers to campus, a definite plus on those ridiculously cold days where you don't want to step outside. Overall, I give Fuji San a solid recommendation.

Grade: B+

Kampai Japanese Steak House

Name: Kampai Japanese Steak House
Location: 3325 Vestal Pkwy E, Vestal, NY 13850
Phone: (607) 798-7521
Cuisine: Japanese
Price: $30+ per person

Review:
Kampai serves as a three-in-one Japanese restaurant: a sushi bar, a traditional sit-down restaurant, and a hibachi grill. I've been to Kampai a number of times over the years for both sushi and the hibachi and it's always a good time and a fun experience.

The restaurant is located on the Vestal Parkway near the Parkway Plaza, across the street from the new Best Buy. I believe Kampai has been there since the 1970's and it looks like not much has changed, decor-wise, since then. They could use a little bit of an update. The floors are sticky/oily and the place has a musty smell from serving up thousands of hibachi dinners over the years, so one gets the sense that it's not 100% clean.

The hibachi is an experience best enjoyed if you can get a large group of friends to go. It's not necessarily a good date place unless you don't mind eating with strangers. They won't seat you until your entire party is there, so make sure to show up on time. I highly recommend making a reservation, although if you're going on an off-night, you could probably get away with just showing up.

The seating itself can be a little bit cumbersome and cramped around the hibachi table, which can make for some slight discomfort. A friend of mine, for example, smashed his thumbnail trying to get into his seat. I'm still not exactly sure how that happened, but life goes on.

The service at Kampai can be a little spotty. The waitresses who handle your orders and refill drinks sometimes go M.I.A. for extended periods and if you order sushi as an appetizer, don't expect to get it promptly.

Anyway, the negative part of this review are mostly out of the way. I like the hibachi and the sushi at Kampai. The sushi is about average for the Binghamton area. I find it to be on par with Sakura in Endicott and certainly a notch below sake-tumi. The rolls are not particularly well prepared and have a tendency to fall apart. But it all seems to be of pretty good quality and I've had some tasty rolls there, including a spicy crab roll called the "Hot Mama." Prices for the sushi are pretty reasonable, with most rolls in the $6-$10 range.

The hibachi is the real highlight at Kampai, and is truly the reason to go there. I usually order either the Steak and Shrimp, or the Steak and Scallops. Hibachi entrees come with miso soup and ginger salad to start, neither of which is particularly memorable, but not a bad way to start the meal. The rest of the meal is prepared on the hibachi grill right in front of your very eyes, with a trained hibachi chef who performs all sorts of various tricks involving tossing of knives and building volcanoes out of onions and catching a flaming lobster tail in his hat. It's all in good fun and most of the chefs are pretty good at building rapport with the patrons despite their limited English. We went to Kampai with my 4-year old niece, for example, and I was a little concerned about how she would feel about the experience, but the chef was really friendly with her and she ended up having a great time. By the end of the meal she had even figured out how to use chopsticks! I would say this is a fine place to take kids.

As for the food itself, I think it's pretty standard for a Japanese steakhouse. The main course is served with a generous portion of rice and veggies and a couple of different dipping sauces. I am always satisfied with whatever I order. It always has good flavor and is well-seasoned. In particular, I really like the scallops. I'm not really much of a "vegetable guy" and I always clean my plate at Kampai, veggies and all. Prices for hibachi meals run between $20 and $30 each, but keep in mind, you are paying not only for the food but also the entertainment, and the portions tend to be large.

Overall, Kampai is a solid entrant to the Binghamton food scene. The interior could definitely use a makeover and a thorough scrubbing. The sushi is good, the hibachi is a fun experience, and the food is very much on par with Japanese steakhouses I've been to in other cities. Service can be a little slow, so beware of that. If you've never done hibachi before, Kampai would be a fine place for first-timers. And if you're an experienced hibachi veteran, I think you'll find Kampai satisfactory.

Grade: B

Photo courtesy of Glen Talmadge.

saké-tumi

Name: saké-tumi
Location: 71 Court St., Binghamton, NY 13901
Phone: (607) 238-1771
Cuisine: Japanese/Fusion/Sushi
Attire: Casual
Price: Depends what you get. Probably $50+ for two

Review:
saké-tumi occupies the location of the former Buffy's Burritos in downtown Binghamton. They offer an eclectic menu of Asian-fusion entrees and traditional and original sushi rolls. We went for the first time last night and I enjoyed the experience. The sushi was definitely the best I've had in the Binghamton area. Granted, that is a relative statement. But I am enthusiastic about making a return visit.

The first thing that struck me about saké-tumi was how empty the place was at 7:00 PM on a Friday night. Besides our group (our friends Tom and Patty joined Megan and me), there was only one other table in use at the time. The inside of the restaurant is well-decorated with a nice black, white, and red color scheme. It's definitely chic. But since it was such a nice evening, we opted for their outdoor seating. Never did I think I'd eat out in the middle of the sidewalk on Court St., but it was really rather nice. The table was set up with some plants and an umbrella to offer some shade. I would do the same again on a return visit if the weather cooperates.

The menu is diverse with lots of appetizer and nigiri sushi options, traditional sushi rolls like vegetable rolls, California roll, and Philly Roll, more adventurous "fusion" maki rolls that bring in some unique influences and flavors, and entrees. We opted to stick with the sushi, although Megan did order the gyoza appetizer, which she liked (she is not as big a sushi fan as the rest of us). I ordered two of the fusion rolls.



The first was the Naruto Roll, which consisted of crab, tempura shrimp, avocado, cream cheese, and smoked salmon wrapped in cucumber instead of rice and served in ponzu sauce. I liked this quite a bit. I loved the presentation in particular and while normally rolls of this sort have a tendency to fall apart easily, this one stayed together very nicely. The ingredients were fresh and the flavors were strong. I didn't love this roll but it's worth trying if that set of ingredients looks up your alley.



The other roll was the Kamikaze, which I split with Patty. I thought this one was the better of the two. This had assorted fish in a spicy sauce topped with tuna and avocado and a dot of sriracha. Again, the presentation of this roll was very strong. The fish had nice flavor and it was indeed spicy as advertised. The avocado gave a nice, cooling balance. I would order this one again in a heartbeat.

Tom ordered the saké-tumi roll, and the Super Crunchy roll, and I snagged a piece of each. The former was very good, with tuna, hamachi, and salmon with a spicy mayo. I didn't care too much for the Super Crunchy, but it was still alright. It could've been crunchier. Winky face.

One negative aspect to saké-tumi is the service. I did not think the waitress was particularly good, nor professional; she kind of mumbled the entire time and her attire (t-shirt, shorts, sneakers) was not consistent with the "fine dining" appearance of the restaurant nor the prices of their entrees. A place where nearly all the entrees are $20 or more should probably demand more professionalism from their employees. There was a long wait time for the food (at least a half hour), which was somewhat odd considering they were not busy. I'd assume the chef is a perfectionist who wanted to get the details of the presentation on the rolls right, and he did. So I can't really complain too much. But the moral of the story: don't come to saké-tumi if you're in a hurry.

These were relatively minor concerns though. I really enjoyed the sushi (it compares favorably with the less-adventuresome Sakura Sushi in Endicott) and I think saké-tumi is a very good addition to downtown Binghamton. I was discouraged to see so few patrons. The place is expensive, but other pricey places (P.S., Lampy's, Number 5, Moxie, etc.) do a pretty good business in the Triple Cities. Maybe sushi is more popular among the yuppie crowd (which Binghamton is comparatively lacking in) while those other restaurants are able to rely upon folks from older generations. Whatever the reasons, I am concerned about the longevity of saké-tumi. I hope they can find a way to attract more business. Improving the speed and quality of the service would be a good starting point toward achieving that goal.

Grade: B+