[Restaurant Review
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At Roppongi, Share Your Way Around the World
By Lauren Duffy
Next time you’re craving a taste of the exotic, look no further than the heart of downtown La Jolla. There, sitting innocently on the corner of Fay and Prospect, Roppongi Restaurant and Sushi Bar waits to transport you halfway around the world.
The trip begins with a walk past a lawn peppered with sculpted marble statues, bubbling fountains, and flickering fire pits. Stepping up to the entrance, you need only choose a vessel to begin your trip around the world. Roppongi offers no less than six seating options, all of which allow guests to sample delectable cuisine in a casual setting. The outdoor patio offers views of passersby coupled with the grandeur of a central fire pit. A second patio, this one enclosed and heated, offers the proximity of the outdoors minus the elements. The bar and lounge offers a casual gathering area for after-work drinks and appetizers (which are half price from 4-6 pm), while the sushi bar offers an up-close view of Sushi Chef Shinji Okano's skill with a sushi knife. The main dining room offers booths and tables for groups from two to twenty, while an adjacent private room offers a secluded, intimate setting for private events.
We opt for one of many booths lining the main dining room. As we sink into the plush semi-circular seat, we take in the scene around us. The design is modern—light woods and pale textiles create a warm, welcoming space—while the décor pays homage to the ancient with sculpures and relics set throughout the space. The windowless dining room, with its low ceilings and sweeping floor space, gives the impression of being underground, or perhaps under water—thanks to a giant salt water fish tank with colorful coral and enchanting fish. It is both familiar and exotic, and pulled between the two, we feel both intrigued and relaxed. The lively buzz that fills the room reinforces our sentiment, and it is not long before we join in the din of diners chatting away happily.
The wine list at Roppongi has garnered a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, and provides an extensive and well-selected array of wines by the glass, half bottle, and bottle. While Roppongi's cuisine is decidedly worldly, the focus of the wine list is on California wines. "When you have a backyard with all of these delicious wines, it's hard to ignore them," General Manager and Sommelier Megan Burgess explains. Not surprisingly, the California-influenced selection stands up well to the extensive menu, with an array of versatile wines that promise to pair well with any combination of dishes on the menu.
The versatility of the wine list is a must, as the overarching theme of Roppongi's menu is diversity. In just one meal, it is possible to sample dishes from more than five countries, thanks to the innovative "Asian Tapas" menu from Executive Chef Stephen Window. The menu offers a globetrotting array of small plate dishes that pull from the best of Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian cuisines. Augmenting the selection are a handful of entree-sized dishes, as well as an array of sushi—sashimi, nigiri, and traditional maki rolls.
To get the most of the diverse menu, it is almost imperative that tables embrace the concept of sharing. The restaurant encourages this—each table is set with a stack of clean plates that is replenished as needed. Unless instructed otherwise, servers place dishes from the kitchen in the center of the table, allowing guests to serve themselves from communal plates.
Sharing is a noble goal, but when our first dish arrived I selfishly wished I had an order all to myself. Pan Seared Sea Scallops on Potato Pancakes featured plump, lightly seared Maine scallops set atop crispy potato pancakes and draped with a lush sundried tomato and Thai basil hollandaise sauce. Each scallop was so tender it not only cut with a fork, but the fork glided through effortlessly. One bite was everything a bite should be—rich, comforting, and a medley of distinct flavors and textures that merged to become one on the tongue. The scallop was positively luscious, the hollandaise deliciously viscous, the pancake lending a crunch that was sweet and salty at once.
It took an entirely different flavor to distract me from the scallops—Sesame Crusted Tiger Shrimp with Vietnamese rice noodles. This dish was bold where the scallop was subtle, the tender, oversized shrimp bursting with strong soy flavor. White and black sesame seeds crusted the crustacean, lending an unmistakable toasted flavor to each bite. The shrimp rested on a bed of rice noodles tossed with cucumber slivers, diced tomatoes, and green onions as well as an intriguing and playful ginger lime dressing. The sweet innocence of the dressing contrasted with the dark flavors of the shrimp in a delicious dichotomy.
One of the more popular tapas—I saw at least four orders being carried to other tables—seemed to be the Ahi Poki, a Hawaiian twist on the ubiquitous tuna tartar. The dish was playfully constructed for sharing, the thick cubes of sushi-grade fish placed in even piles atop four miniature wonton rounds. The fish glistened with sesame oil and green onion marinade, a medley of flavors that seeped into the crispy wonton, mingling with the light sweetness of the freshly fried dough.
Chicken Satays with curried peanut sauce were again crafted with sharing in mind, the peanut sauce draped over each plump chicken skewer, preempting the need to dip. The sauce offered a mild curry-infused kick on a backbone of coconut milk and creamy peanut flavor. The tender grilled chicken slices eagerly absorbed the feisty sauce, as did the accompanying “potato haystack”—ribbon-thin slivers of fried potato sticks lent a burst of crunchy sweet flavor between creamy bites of chicken.
Bombay Curried Lamb Samosas with cucumber raita and mango chutney were phenomenal—rivaling the scallops for the most sublime bites of the meal. Each samosa was a flavor explosion: a crisp, slightly sweet shell gave way to a plump, savory filling that resonated with harmonious flavors of lamb and curry spices. The two accompanying sauces shone in their own light—the mango chutney offered a piquant tang of pickled mango, while the raita lent the pure flavors of yogurt, cooling cucumber, and a hint of salt. It was another dish I could have selfishly kept all to myself.
While any combination of the menu’s two dozen tapas could easily make a meal, the options at Roppongi span well beyond small plates. The sushi menu is hard to pass up, although its offerings are far more traditional—and less creative—than the tapas. Yet, the freshness of the fish and purity of flavor can mean a refreshing palate cleanser between courses.
The Albacore Jalapeño roll offered just that, with pale albacore rolled with slivers of fresh jalapeño in sesame-crusted rice. As is traditional with lighter-fleshed fish, no wasabi or soy was presented; instead milder ponzu sauce spiked with green onions accompanied the roll. After so many varied flavors and cuisines, it was a refreshing return to simplicity.
We approached the entree selection as an opportunity for more sharing, opting to treat an entrée as a large tapas dish rather than ordering one per person. The Alaskan Halibut Filet with lemon confit, edamame, and wild mushrooms threatened to steal the show, proving more creativity and flavor than several of the tapas combined. A wide filet of fish sat in a bed of lemon butter sauce, resting on thin slivers of candied Meyer lemons. The perfectly browned top of the fish was covered in a wild mushroom mélange, and I was thrilled to find morels and hon shimeji among the more common shitake mushrooms. The brilliance in the dish was, well, in the butter—slightly toasted as the base for the lemon sauce, it had the effect of making the sauce taste like a freshly baked cookie. The buttery flavors resurfaced in the mushrooms, providing a creamy base for the deep, woodsy flavors to emerge. The fish, plump and flaky, eagerly soaked up both of these rich accompaniments, so each single bite offered a gratuitously rich, luxurious flavor. It was the third time this meal I wanted each bite to linger on and on and on.
But all good flavors eventually vanish from the tongue, and we soon found ourselves with another round of empty plates and a very satisfied palate. In no hurry to leave our jovial surroundings—and indeed the restaurant was now packed—we opted for dessert. The Tahitian Bananas, the most exotic of our choices, ensured we had one last stunning experience before leaving. A wide bowl arrived covered with an enormous wafer of thin peanut brittle, which our server pierced several times with a spoon to break it across the deliciousness within. The pieces were gladly received by the mixture of caramelized bananas, caramel sauce, and quickly melting vanilla gelato, all of which mingled in soupy deliciousness. Playful, full of sweet flavors, and thoroughly decadent, it was the last stop on a whirlwind culinary tour. As we slurped the last spoonful of melted gelato, I knew that next time I felt even a hint of wanderlust, I would unhesitatingly make my way to Roppongi’s.
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