The Dining Scene

By the World’s Most Corrupt Restaurant Critics: Kimberlye Gold (with Gene Mahoney) " Twist our arms, we’ll eat your food!"

“Necesito Mas!!” - Mas Sake

California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA.
650-321-1556

www.massake.com You just can’t get too much of a good thing. Sushi, 80’s rock, and the SF Herald would certainly all fall under that category. When I put in my request to cover The Motels at The Icon, a new club in Palo Alto, which used to be a club called The Edge ­ (see my “Almost Famous” column for my review), and found out they had opened a sister restaurant of the popular Mas Sake in San Francisco, as part of this South Bay establishment, I was more than happy to slap on both my reviewer hats, get the hell down there and pull double duty, baby! It just so happened that our illustrious publisher of this little newsrag had finally decided to start another one called The Sillicon Valley Herald, an idea he has been obsessing about, I mean contemplating, for months, so the timing was right on the $$$. (Anybody got any?)

The first thing we noticed as we arrived was the staff: everyone was very young, attractive and so friendly, smiling at us in their trendy jeans and tight t-shirts, asking if we had been helped. None of the female staff looked over 5’4’’, 105 lbs. or 23 years old, ditto the guys (with a few more inches and lbs.) ­ adorable little girls and boys eager to please and ready to serve! Heaven! The lighting and décor are cool ­ kind of neon-ish and soothing with an art decco feel, while the 80’s rock hits serenade the clientele of folks who listened to them when they were Top 40(at least on this night). Right away we were given the “royal treatment” by the very accommodating manager, Rich Daly, and our cuter than cute-as-a-button server, Julie. They just couldn’t do enough for us, immediately at our beck and call. The menu is quite extensive and the prices moderate, describing the cuisine as “freestyle sushi”, “East meets West”,

hence, the name, “Mas (“more” in Spanish for you gringos) Sake”( the popular Japanese rice wine served hot). There’s a full array of eclectic appetizers, ranging from $2.95 to $10.75, two soups from both cultures at $2-ish, salads from $2.95 to $8.95, noodle dishes from $11 -$14, and entrees served with miso soup and dinner salad from $14-$17. Then they have an entire menu of sushi ­nigiri (two pieces) all around $4, Maki rolls (all kinds of wild Japanese combos) from $2.95-$13.50, and “freestyle sushi rolls and tacos”, which is the Mexican twist. Deserts are $2.50. They also have a full menu of specialty beers, wines, and Sake cocktails, in addition to a full bar. Are you full yet?? Wait till you hear what they bestowed upon us…

For appetizers, we started with Blackened Tuna, with Japanese chili pepper and ginger dressing ($10.25) and the Blackened Tiger Shrimp, grilled with same dressing ($10.75). The tuna was seared, seasoned and presented to perfection, as was the shrimp, although a tad overcooked for my taste. They brought us scads of sushi: two rolls, the Crunchy Roll, shrimp tempura, smelt eggs, cucumber and eel sauce ($8.50) and the Rockstar roll, tuna, jalepenos, avacado and tomatoes ($6.50), both were a potpourri of yummy flavors. We had three traditional “nigiri” sushi: albacore tuna, toro (tuna belly), and sweet eel, all which were fresh and delicious. While we were washing this down with Japanese beer (Gene) and plum wine (me), Julie and Rich insisted we join them in the partaking of an “Apple Sake Bomb”, made with pear cider, sake and green apple pucker float?? ($5.50).

We toasted the place, and cutie-pie Julie, a veternary student told us this was such a fun place to work, as she helped herself to the food I offered her that we couldn’t finish. Dr. Julie, in da house! And more food was to be had: Tortilla Soup, which was a nice cultural contrast, two entrees, Singapore Noodles, rice vermicelli with veggies, shrimp and chicken in a light curry sauce ($12) and Grilled Salmon over wasabi mashed potatoes, asparagus and fruit salsa $17).The noodle dish was like a soup, light and flavorful, the salmon was very good with all the interesting trimmings, although not rare enough for my taste. Gene, as usual, just ate everything.

For desert we had Sarah’s Cheesecake, with an Oreo cookie crust and raspberry sauce,($2.50) which was to-die-for, but since we were so full and Gene doesn’t care for sweets (guess he thinks he’s sweet enough), Julie helped us finish it. Oh my God, it was all good! Rich told us Mas Sake is a lot more energetic and interesting than the other restaurants on the block, which are more traditional. “It’s all in the variety, that’s the fun part of dining here!” he enthusiastically shared. As if on cue, a man dining alone next to us leaned over and introduced himself as Tom Morgan, a software consultant from Atlanta. Every couple weeks he’s in town on business, he frequents Mas Sake.” I love the stuff: the food, the different sakes, we even had our holiday party here!” A testimonial!

Mas Sake been opened for six months, the one in San Francisco has hit the three year mark. Come one, come all and be treated like kings and queens, drown yourself in multi-cultural culinary and liquid delights, and then walk through the door to re-live your 80’s past!! What more could you ask for??…

To read other articles by Kim Gold, click here!

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