Kotobuki in Ghent was the first Japanese restaurant I visited after moving to Norfolk, and to this day, it’s still the most authentic that I’ve had the opportunity to try. Growing up in a small town, I’d watch TV shows where characters would dine at Japanese restaurants and sit on little pillows on the floor at very low tables, and I thought it was the neatest thing ever—eating dinner on the floor and still being proper.
Guests at Kotobuki are given the option to sit in the regular dining section (with regular tables and chairs), at the sushi bar (still with regular chairs) or in the traditional Japanese-style seating where visitors are asked to remove their shoes before sitting at tables that are lowered with legless chairs sitting on a raised platform. Not completely on the floor, but good enough for me. I always choose the traditional Japanese seating here.
There’s never been a huge crowd when I’ve visited; it’s always relatively quiet with Japanese music playing softly in the background. They have a large variety of sushi selections, and my husband and I were in the mood to try something different, so we carefully read each description, agreeing to both choose one roll. He chose the Tiger Eye Roll, fried salmon, tuna, string beans, tobiko (flying fish roe) and spicy sauce for only $6.95.
I was curious about their vegan selection so I opted for the Veggie Lover’s Roll—vegan lobster, shitake mushrooms, lettuce, cucumbers, avocado, horseradish sprouts and onions rolled in sesame seeds. I was impressed by the abundance of ingredients, and for only $7.95, it felt like quite a deal.
The rolls were beautifully presented on a wooden serving tray with grated ginger and a ball of wasabi. Each table is equipped with a glass dish holding a miniature teapot-like container filled with soy sauce, which can be poured into small bowls for dipping. The first thing I noticed about the rolls was how large they were. Most sushi restaurants’ rolls are approximately two inches in diameter, but these rolls were nearly four inches. You’d assume the more the merrier, but in this case, I’d much rather have the more divided into smaller bites.
My favorite aspect of eating sushi is the wonderful mixture of flavors and textures intricately melded together in each roll. However, these rolls were almost too large to enjoy in one bite, and my concentration wasn’t focused on the flavor of the sushi, but rather the difficulty I was having trying to chew the enormous mass of sushi.
Feeling slightly disappointed by our sushi selections, we next ordered two simple selections that have never let us down: miso soup and seaweed salad. The miso soup here isn’t like some other places’ miso soup that consists of a blend of freeze-dried tofu particles the size of a nail’s head along with freeze-dried, flavorless scallions mixed with water. Kotobuki’s soup is served piping hot with plump chunks of tofu and freshly chopped scallions, and it’s loaded with delicious flavor. The seaweed salad was also fresh with just enough crunch and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
For our main course, we ordered what has been one of my favorite dishes at Kotobuki for years—vegetarian sesame chicken. Since giving up most meats for a pescetarian diet five years ago, chicken has been the meat I’ve missed most, and Kotobuki has somehow discovered a way to replicate this dish using tofu. It’s been over a year since I’ve ordered this entrée, and perhaps my tastes have changed, but their “sesame chicken” had a distinct tangy barbecue smoked flavor. Not bad, but also not what I had in mind.
Along with brown rice, this entrée is served with a crispy spring roll stuffed with purple and green cabbage and carrots and a breaded and fried potato wedge topped with a sweet and tangy sauce. For dinner, this dish is $13.95, but come for lunch, and the price is only $8.95 (smaller portion of course, but still a great price).
Kotobuki is located at 721 West 21st Street in Norfolk. For more information, call 757-628-1025 or visit www.kotobukisushibar.com
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