Sometimes I review the upscale, high-priced gourmet eateries in this area, and sometimes I review the “eat here every day” delicious, comfortable, and informal eateries.
This month it is the latter, and I’ve been a customer of this particular restaurant for several years, ever since the new owners took over.
Hashi Sushi and Thai, located a few doors down from Walgreens in the Borders Strip Mall in the Northeast quadrant of 441 and Glades Road (9845 Glades Road, Boca Raton, Fla., 561-477-9989), is simply a wonderful Sushi/Thai/Asian restaurant with fresh fish, tender meats, great wheat and rice noodles, sweet hot sake, and low prices. It is decorated in the mellow Asian motif which, as always, is unpretentious, clean, and inviting. (Please see the great little designs with the straw wrappers, continually made by the owner’s mom.)
If you’re like me you probably don’t relish the thought of going into a small, mom-and-pop restaurant without someone recommending it. After all, some of those places are disgusting, unsuited to serve anything to anyone at any time. So, at least let me give you the all-clear on this quaint and special eatery. Years ago, I started with a small, fried rice dish to check them out. Next, I moved up to two small pieces of salmon sushi. (If it wasn’t fresh I’d have smelled it and run away.) Finally, I brought the final arbiter of my safety in food consumption: my wife, Maria.
I’m sure the modest and humble owners–Sakchan Makhamphan, who is also the head chef, and his delightful and attentive wife, Araya Naphakorn, who runs the “front”–would love you to come in for a delicious dinner (and they are delicious) still, I’d guess that their lunch business is their real money time. But they’re never too busy to make you feel special and there’s always quick service.
I have probably eaten everything on the large menu at least once and so, though there isn’t enough room to comment on all, let me tell you that whatever you order will be prepared and presented just the way you like it.
Here’s a sampling: The Tuna Tataki (thin slices of seared tuna, served with ponzu sauce) and the Sunomono (conch, octopus, crab, and shrimp with cucumbers in ponzu sauce) are my favorite appetizers. The tuna is warm and the sunomono is cool so your every desire can be accommodated.
I’m not a big sushi-roll eater, as I prefer to have one fish at a time. But, I love salmon skin rolls and occasionally indulge in Hashi Sushi’s version of a Rainbow KC Roll where the chef chooses the best combination of salmon and tuna mixed with Hamachi, asparagus, scallions, and roe and then wraps it all in a very thinly sliced cucumber. It’s six pieces and large enough to be an entire appetizer, though, for me it is a mere morsel.
Edamame, steamed soybeans, lightly salted, and Shumai, steamed or fried shrimp dumplings, along with Gyoza, steamed or fried pork dumplings, are wonderful openers, as well. I also can’t resist the soft-shelled crab, which is lightly fried and served with ponzu sauce. I’ve said it before about other excellent sushi restaurants, and I’ll add Hashi Sushi to the list, that if you’re cold, or feel a cold coming on, order the Seafood Udon Noodle Soup–ask for it very hot and eat it very hot. By the end of the feast, you will feel much better — sort of like “Japanese chicken soup.” Or, order it when you feel just fine because it is really a satisfying dish.
Fresh, cool, and invigorating salads, prepared in a truly Asian way are abundant; here’s just a few that I have eaten over the years: Oriental Chicken Salad, Oriental Shrimp Salad, Seared Sesame Tuna Salad, Sashimi Salad, and Wakame (seaweed salad).
All the hot entrees are served with miso soup or salad, and rice. I could list them at this juncture but that would be merely copying their menu. Let it suffice to say that the hot entrees are every bit as good as all of the food at Hashi Sushi and Thai. This eatery is not only worth visiting whenever you’re at the Borders’ mall or whenever you’re going to or coming from the Shadowood Movie Theater — it is worth a trip just for lunch or dinner.
Hashi Sushi and Thai
9845 Glades Road, Boca Raton, Fla
561-477-9989
By Charles Marcanetti
[June 2010]