Water tumblers and tea cups are rarely allowed to go below half full, and there are pleasant extras. Admittedly, on a busy weekend night if almost all 38 seats are taken, organization can falter, and even at less busy times, timing is sometimes a tad off, but the staff makes every effort to anticipate needs. Possibly the most attractive thing about this 50-seat restaurant, however, is not any one dish but the attitude toward customers. Although it's not cooked tableside, the vegetables are crisp-tender and the paper-thin slices of beef full of flavor. The fried cutlets prove that greasy is not a word in this kitchen's vocabulary. The "plates" include a bowl of excellent miso broth, a crisp-fresh but under-dressed green salad, a cute little plate of pickled vegetables and rice.Ĭhicken or pork katsu ($9.95) are among other good choices for the full dinner. On the other hand, a light dipping sauce added the right flavor to a "dinner plate" of fine, crispy shrimp and vegetable tempura ($10.95). The noodles are slippery-delicious and the broth was all right, but any distinctive flavor was MIA. However, pickled vegetables served alongside couldn't quite save cha-shu ramen (barbecued pork slices with spinach and bamboo in broth with thin egg noodles, $6.25) from seeming under-seasoned. The timid seasoning is easily cured with a dash of soy sauce, pickled ginger, grated daikon and wasabi.
This is also true of the traditional soups, salads and entrees, which are essentially the same at lunch and dinner, though portions at lunch are smaller and lower in price. The ubiquitous California roll ($6.75 for six pieces) is made with real crab and the trendy rock 'n' roll (eel, avocado and tobiko, $5 per order) is expertly done, even though both can seem bland. Unagi (eel, $3.25 for two pieces), hotategai (scallop, $4) and shiro maguro (albacore tuna, $5.50) all had the fresh taste of the sea. On one visit to Musashi, we lunched mainly on sushi. (The restaurant still supplies sushi to several grocery stores, including Tokyo Fish and Berkeley Bowl in Berkeley and Farmer Joe's in Oakland.) Musashi's sushi has always had a big following, but having a place to eat a selection of the 60-plus items where they're made is a plus. Seats here give diners a view of sushi chefs deftly assembling nigiri, spicy rolls and hand-rolls.
The space is a mix of booths and tables, along with a bar that separates the main part of the room from the pass-through to the kitchen.
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