taste review
EDIBLE ART New Delray Beach Japango’s Asian Delights Look As Good As They Taste BY EMILY J. MINOR here’s a lot to catch your eye at the newest Japango restaurant, which opened this spring in the Delray Marketplace shopping plaza in western Delray Beach.
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Thinking it was an appetizer, we ordered the Three Way Tuna Sampler, which really could have served as our meal. Beautifully prepared, this sashimi platter consisted of three popular variations:
SEA OF LOVE:
The lighting is modern. The artwork screams pop culture. The long, sleek bar seems to glow in the dark. The minute you walk in, you’re a bit mesmerized by all this hipness. And then comes the food. We dined here around 6 p.m. on a Tuesday night, presumably not the busiest hour for a relatively new restaurant. But presumptions can be so wrong. By the time we left an hour and a half later, the place was packed. Retirees. Families with young children. Working professionals on their way home from the office. If their meals were anything like ours, they left happily stuffed, with plenty of leftovers. 80
The Toro Tasting Platter includes premium bluefin tuna prepared four ways; inside the hip dining room; the restaurant’s exterior
tataki, tuna cucumber wrap, and spicy tuna tartare. (Can we just say Mmmmm?) The tuna was so fresh, it was unreal, and the flavors were predictable, yet magically different. Served with wasabi, fresh ginger, and masago and tobiko—two brightly colored fish eggs—the dish also had a fun addition: light, crisp tortilla chips that seemed to be made from scratch. On the way home, we dropped off these leftovers at a sushiloving friend’s home, and she later confessed to gobbling it up in 10 minutes. Fresh and wonderful. What came to the table next was a spoil of riches:
T H E B O C A R AT O N O B S E R V E R
Calamari, deep fried in a wonderfully light tempura batter, with a sweet dipping sauce. Steamed pork dumplings, and beef satay—tender and flavor-
where Japango serves lunch and dinner and is located in the Delray Marketplace, 14811 Lyons Road, at the northwest corner of Atlantic Boulevard and Lyons Road. For more information, call 561-638-9996 or visit japangomenu.com.
ful, served on a stick, with peanut sauce that had the slightest taste of curry. My friend said the seaweed salad was the best she’d ever had—fresh and crunchy. And they also sent a special treat for us to enjoy, which was a flatbread topped with avocado, tuna, cilantro and grape tomatoes. Of course, we felt compelled to order at least one entree, so we chose Garlic Lobster, which was two lobster tails soaked in what seemed like a sweet combination of garlic and soy. The vegetables were
fresh and tasty—baby corn, snow peas, mushrooms, carrots—and the Jasmine rice was perfect. And the lobster tails were huge. This is the third Japango restaurant in South Florida. The other two are in Parkland and Boca Raton. All three are the work of executive chef and owner Kevin Lee, who was trained in Hawaiian cuisine and has a special flair with Japanese dishes. The new restaurant seats 125 people, and they have a full liquor license. We skipped the saki, but next time? Count us in. O