For the past two years, we have enjoyed meeting up during Winter Break for a #HappyTummyList adventure. Getting together gives us an opportunity to catch up after Christmas and talk about our plans for the new year. This year, we both enjoyed the holidays spent with our families, friends...and of course, food. And despite it being cold as f*** here in the DMV, Winter Break and the holiday season is always a welcomed time for both of us to catch our breath from work and the stressors of life and to reflect on the year. For this #HappyTummyList adventure, we went to Sushi Tendou in Fulton, MD for dinner in between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Back in October, Simone told Damien about all of the new restaurants and shops that have opened up in the Fulton/Maple Lawn neighborhood of Maryland. In addition to Sushi Tendou, there are the following full-service restaurants nearby: SteelFire Kitchen & Bar, Hudson Coastal Raw Bar & Grill, Looney's Pub, Lib's Grill, and Ranazul: Tapas, Wine & Bistro. We opted for sushi because who can turn down sushi?!
The interior of the restaurant was beautiful, modern, and sleek, especially with the blue accent lighting that is present throughout the space. And Sushi Tendou is surprisingly big despite its appearance from the outside. The main dining area has booths lined around its exterior, several stand alone tables in the middle, and a decently-sized bar. Toward the rear of the restaurant, there is a stout corridor of additional booths which would be great for a private party and/or an intimate evening out. Another curious and nice feature of the restaurant is the fact that the main dinning area is lined with windows from the ceiling to the floor. Sushi Tendou definitely has a cool aesthetic going on! We also really appreciated the service that we received, as it was prompt and courteous throughout our visit. On a tad bit of the campy side of decor, Sushi Tendou has a Wheel of Fortune-type wheel near the entrance which is great way to win a prize if you spend a certain amount of money during your visit. We got to spin the wheel and won $2.00 off our next visit...we're rich!
 |
| Our sushi plate! :) |
For our meal, we ordered six different sushi rolls, including (pictured above, top row to bottom row): the Pinky Control Roll at the top, the Sweet Heart Roll, four pieces of the Evil Mind Roll (left) next to the Boston Roll (right), the Crazy Salmon Roll (left) next to the rest of the Evil Mind Roll (right), and lastly the Volcano Roll at the bottom of the plate. On the adventurous side of our sushi plate, the Pinky Control Roll consisted of spicy salmon, shrimp tempura, kani, avocado masago, and spicy mayo wrapped with a pink soy crepe. It was most definitely our favorite roll! The Pinky Control Roll was visually stunning, crunchy, warm, textured, and absolutely delicious. The Sweet Heart Roll featured spicy crunchy tuna and avocado inside and fresh tuna on top, and was made in the shape of a heart. The heart shape may be a bit corny, but we thought it was adorable and the flavor makes you forget about the roll's shape. The Sweet Heart Roll had such a bold flavor that combined spiciness with silkiness--it was simply incredible. On the not so adventurous side of our sushi plate, we also enjoyed a Boston Roll. The Boston Roll is a pretty standard roll that includes steamed shrimp, avocado, cucumber, mayo, and lettuce. This is one of the most basic rolls next to a California Roll, but Sushi Tendou's version was refreshing, especially since the shrimp was cooked perfectly and the lettuce was crisp and crunchy. Out of all of the rolls we ordered, we were in complete agreement that these first three were the best of the night.
Our next roll was the Crazy Salmon Roll, which was made of spicy crunchy salmon inside with seared chili pepper salmon and honey wasabi sauce on top. We were mixed in our feelings about it, as Damien liked it slightly more than Simone did. Although this roll wouldn't fall into the category of our favorite rolls of the evening, its saving grace was the delicious honey wasabi sauce and how it interacted with the rest of the ingredients. The Crazy Salmon Roll was slightly disappointing because it was not as crunchy as we had hoped. There was a well-balanced sweetness in the roll--as we mentioned, the honey wasabi sauce on top helped the flavor of this roll a lot--but overall, it was a tad bit bland. The Evil Mind Roll included smoked salmon, cream cheese, and avocado inside, with eel and eel sauce and black tobbiko outside. This roll was very, very creamy, which was a bit overwhelming. The roll had a smokey and sweet flavor (more sweet than smokey), which is always a tasty combination. However, if you do not love cream cheese, then this roll might be too much for you given how much cream cheese is in it. Finally, the Volcano Roll featured spicy tuna and spicy salmon inside, with spicy mayo and colorful roe on top. There is such as a thing as too spicy. The Volcano Roll was drowning in spicy mayo sauce, which was overpowering and ruined the taste of the tuna and salmon. In the end, our favorite rolls were the Pinky Control Roll, the Sweet Heart Roll, and the Boston Roll, and Damien enjoyed the Crazy Salmon Roll.
Overall, we would give Sushi Tendou a strong 4 out of 5. It is a beautiful, contemporary restaurant with stellar service, a robust menu, and great sushi. Although the flavor of a couple of our rolls fell short for us, Sushi Tendou has lots of standard and special sushi rolls to choose from on their menu. This restaurant is definitely a quality spot for sushi and other Japanese dishes, especially for folks with easy access to Laurel, MD. We definitely plan on going back (especially since y'all know we love sushi)! Until next time, happy new year to all of our followers, and we hope you enjoy a delicious meal soon!
 |
| Interior of Sushi Tendou |
 |
| Close-up of our sushi :) |
 |
| Exterior shot of the restaurant |
Comments
Post a Comment