deep Restaurant
When we heard about a new Japanese restaurant called deep opening up in Bend, the wife and I couldn't wait to try it out. We are big fans of good Sushi so when we are out of town we grub it up. In Bend we will normally head to Kanpai for happy hour.
We started with some drinks and the special appetizer of Hamachi Kama (the collar of a yellowtail tuna) which was delicious and a good portion. The wife is very good at finding every scrap of meat on this sucker and we have to keep sending the staff away when they try to take it from us too soon. They see it as done but the wife knows there is more meat hiding in there...and she's always right. The seasoning was spot on, salty, peppery perfection.
We ordered some nigiri and a specialty roll, the Golden Dragon: Crisp Soft Shell Crab with Mango, Peanuts and Thai Chili Sauce. I would have preferred that the sweet chili sauce was presented more on the side of the roll instead of putting the roll directly on top of the sauce as I like to be in control of the amount of sauce used.
We also ordered the Sashimi Salad with Cucumber, Crisp Salmon Skin and Sesame-Daikon Vinaigrette. For an $11 salad, the three pieces of sashimi makes it worth while.
And one of the main reasons I wanted to go to deep was for David's Crisp and Angry Lobster:
Again, the sauce was all over the place but I rather enjoyed it's flavor, the wife did not. The presentation was pretty cool as you can see. This plate is not filling by any means and for $22 I guess it's more about the presentation than anything. The lobster actually was a bit dried out. I'm not sure how they prepare it but it seems to have been boiled, cut into chunks for easy eating but then seasoned and flash fried to give it that crispiness.
I thought it was a clever way of presenting lobster but I think once was good enough.
I know everyone is apparently sweating deep and praising Jody for bringing sushi and another fine dining establishment to Bend but I wouldn't be me if I didn't have a complaint, critique, or some smart ass thing to say.
The service was great overall but one thing I think they REALLY need to work on is the timing of the plates. I'm used to ordering everything that we want right off the bat and with sushi and Japanese cuisine in general, you don't really follow the appetizer, main, dessert style. There are small, hot, and cold plates, sushi rolls, nigiri, sashimi, and so on.
We placed our order for an appetizer, cold plate, a few pieces of nigiri, a specialty roll, and the angry lobster. The plates start coming, first the Hamachi Collar, then the nigiri and specialty roll. Now our tiny table (and the tables are insanely small) is full. On this tiny table we now have our drinks, our individual plates, the dishes to dip you sushi in (where you put the wasabi and soy), a couple of rocks (for resting your chopsticks on which are useless to me once a plate arrives or you mix your wasabi and soy sauce), and three rather large plates with the items above.
That's enough for now but while we're chatting and enjoying what we have, the Sashimi salad comes out. We haven't finished the Hamachi yet (which might be our bad but I explained that we really go to town on that one). So we have to stop what we're doing for roughly 2 minutes while we adjust everything on the table to accommodate the salad. It was extremely cramped and rather uncomfortable.
I just wish the pace at which the dishes were brought to the table would have been spread out evenly. Other than that and the fact that it's rather expensive (see their menu) I don't have any other complaints. We'll be back but it will be more for special occasions unless they offer a happy hour.
Wait, I just read on their menu that they have Tempura Bacon...I'll be there tonight!
deep
821 n.w. wall street, suite 100
bend, oregon 97701
telephone: 541.323.9841
fax: 541.323.9843
hours of operation:
open 5 p.m. daily
http://www.deepbend.com/
