This is the best?

Godai Sushi Bar & Restaurant
11203 West Avenue

(between Lockhill-Selma and Blanco Road)

My friend Rick, who seems to have an encyclopædic knowledge of these things, says that Godai Sushi has won awards for years and years. Having now been there only once, my wife is convinced that their awards are for Longest Menu, as we were neither of us much impressed by the food, or service, or prices. Or the atmosphere, for that matter.

I don't pretend to be an expert on sushi as a cuisine. (Well, okay, maybe in some conversations with strangers I do pretend, but not here, not with you, my dear loyal readers, critics, fans and followers.) I'm a latecomer to the genre, and have only had sushi perhaps two dozen times over the last two or three years, mostly here in town but also in California and New York and other, less worldly and serfistikated venues. That may seem like a lot, but it's not, really, so I'm clearly not qualified to rate the sushi qua sushi. I rate it merely as food, like any other type.

Godai is certainly a popular spot. We showed up around 7pm on a Friday evening and had to wait only briefly, but by the time we left the line was well out the door. I've not seen that kind of sushi fan base anywhere else in town. But now that I've tried "the best," I wonder why those people are there.  The food is, in a word, bland.

last city inspection: January 2014
13 demerits
What the chili peppers mean

We decided on chicken teriyaki, beef yakisoba, a bagel roll and a sunset roll. This turned out to be quite a lot of food, and if it had been superior food we'd have been very happy, both at dinner and over lunch the next day. The teriyaki was reasonably well prepared, but lacking in seasoning of some sort. The salt and sugar were there in some measure, but the characteristic rice-wine flavour of mirin was absent. Similarly the bagel roll (salmon, cream cheese and avocado): the flavours were all there, but their combination was lackluster and unsatisfying. (Another small complaint: the roll was quite large and cut in relatively few pieces. With the hard-to-penetrate outer wrap layer, it was consequently difficult to eat, as it was too large to fit in my mouth -- I can only imagine what a person with a normal, more petite orifice might do -- and too tough to bite through into pieces.) 

The flavours of the beef yakisoba were pleasant enough, including those of the vegetables mixed in with the noodles, but in the case of that dish the failing was the texture of the meat, which was dry and overcooked in places. 

The one bright spot was the sunset roll, a mix of salmon, crab, cucumber and avocado. The menu says there were lemon slices in between that make the roll look like its namesake, but I didn't notice that. I noticed that the delicate flavours of this roll blended quite marvellously, making for a complex and coherent entrée, as good as I've had at any of the various sushi bars I've been to. It may be that everyone who voted in whatever poll resulted in this restaurant's awards has had their sunset roll.

Otherwise, the restaurant was unremarkable. The décor is moderate; compared to the other sushi restaurants in town that I've reviewed here, it's downright downscale, yet comfortable. It's an older building that seems to have been built out in the country and then been unexpectedly surrounded by the slag of suburbia. Gives it a certain survivor-in-good-stead appeal. The service was effective if a little hit-or-miss. We seemed to wait a good long time before our waiter made an appearance; so much so that, by the time he came 'round, we had imprinted on a helper of some sort and wondered why he seemed disinclined to wait on us. Our actual waiter had no hesitation in recommending the chicken teriyaki over the beef yakisoba, but the failure of both dishes to impress leaves us questioning his value as an advisor.

Finally, the prices seemed a little high. Normally, when we go out to dinner and don't get alcoholic drinks, our bill for a place like this will run about $40 for the two of us; the bill at Godai, including tip, was just over $50, and looking back on the evening, I see nothing to justify the added cost.