Thursday, October 12, 2017. I often find myself rounding the corner of what used to be the Pan-American Life Building on Poydras at St. Charles. It seems to me that the corner (but nothing else obvious) has been desolate in recent times. The image fades when I make the corner into the gravitation of the adjacent Inter-Continental Hotel, which is elegant and lively, and has a restaurant I visit frequently: Trenasse.
But some weeks ago (or perhaps months) I noticed that the desolate corner I mentioned had something going on within its walls. One more glance told me that it couldn't be anything but a sushi bar.
My daughter Mary Leigh has an apartment not far from here, and she knew all about the place. It's called Tsunami, she said. Let's go there for dinner soon, we said simultaneously. That was funny: she doesn't eat seafood.
But the place looked cool--both in the sense of style evinced by the others in there (the Pan-Am building is anything but empt, and across from the busy One Shell Square) and in the temperature of the dining room (freezing cold, it semed to me, though ML was getting along.)
I read the menu over and over, waiting for something of interest to turn up. Not much did.
ML fared better. She had an order of gyoza. That's a stuffed dumpling with a porky flavor she liked. Then she had a Thai beef salad, which also passed her acceptance.
My order brought an oversized pile of mostly-raw fish, most of which was salmon and tuna. The most interesting item was trout (not speckled, but river trout, which tastes like salmon) with truffle oil. That was quite good. And there was something called a Grand Isle, which was mostly rice.
While nothing incompetent came to the table, this still registered with me as the most boring Japanese restaurant I've been to in some time. Then it hit me: this is a new location for a chain. Not a big chain--four locations total. But with the hallmarks of chain operation. And the prices were a little high.
I have come here too soon in its evolution.
Tsunami Sushi. CBD: 601 Poydras St. 504-608-3474.
