Trader Sam's;Polynesian Resort; Walt Disney World; Orlando, Florida

Well back to Japan after a nice almost two-week vacation in the U.S.  We did the Chicago thing with the family and then were off to Orlando with the sister and her family to play in the Parks.  And, as promised, here is a review of Trader Sam's Grog Grotto.

Welcome Tiki Fanatics 

First off, I'd like to thank my wonderful brother-in-law for the opportunity to go to Trader Sam's.  His meticulous planning allowed us to visit here even with our very busy schedule (which he planned as well).  In addition to his perfectly planned agenda, we were allowed to stay in their Bay Lake Tower Villa (DVC Contemporary Resort), so many more thanks.  We had perhaps the trip of our lives with my sister and her family.

Back to Trader Sam's, Trader Sam's authoritatively answers the question of who could create the best themed Tiki bar of all time.  Disney, of course!  There could not be a better place for a Tiki bar than the Polynesian Resort, a Polynesian-themed Tiki bar in a Polynesian-themed resort!!!  In addition to Trader Sam's, we were able to enjoy a dinner at Ohana, a Hawaiian-themed Brazilian-BBQ-like restaurant and a breakfast at Kona Cafe, a Hawaiian breakfast joint, both at the Polynesian resort.

The actual Trader Sam's bar is not the largest place, and from what I hear and how it appeared to be, it is very popular with Disney cast members and Orlando locals.  Accordingly, you may have to wait awhile to get into the bar. There is plenty of seating outside though near the pool.  Kids are allowed in the bar before 8pm (I think it is 8), but it is hard to get a table for more than 4.  Making it even more difficult to bring kids in the bar is the fact that when we finally were allowed in (party of 7 on the wait list), there were 7 seats available in the bar but they were not together.  That said, the bar is enjoyed best with a hot date or a cool brother-in-law as in my case.  We decided to let the wives and kids sit outside in the ample outdoor seating while we enjoyed a drink and the amazing scenery.

Let's start with the theming.  Man oh man is this place cool.   Everything from the Tikis...

Hello Mr. Tiki

To the views of the volcanoes outside...

Nice ocean view

To the Octopus waiting on the roof...

Somebody get the takoyaki maker ready

To the angry Tiki gods...

This might be a little too intense for the kiddies

Makes this a Disney masterpiece.

There are storms at times...

Get your ponchos ready

As well as volcano eruptions!

Volcano!!!

 There are some great drinks on the menu as can be seen below.

What shall we get next?

In the bar, I ordered the Hawaiian beer sampler, the Kona Beer Flight.  Let me explain why I made that choice in lieu of a Tiki drink. The brother-in-law and I decided to expedite our time in the bar since our families were waiting outside on the patio, so we ordered quick and easy to make drinks.  He ordered the Rum Flight, straight shots of rum, yummy!  Both of our samplers came out as three shots (5-once cups of beer for me) on surf boards.   I was familiar with all of my three brews since I regularly drink them in Japan as Hawaiian beer is popular here.

Triplets

Add 20 bucks for the souvenir shot glasses

While outside, I ordered the Nautilus and was not disappointed.  If you order the Nautilus in the bar, there is a whole production of shouts of "Nautilus!" and lighting effects when the servers bring it to your table.  I ordered it at our outside table, so instead it was brought out in two plastic cups and the souvenir mug was to be picked up later upon presentation of my receipt.  Disney does not want broken glassware like the mug in close proximity to the pool.  One warning is the mugs that come with the drinks are quite pricey.  My drink (which to my surprise, was for two) was 52 dollars.  You can ask for drinks without the mugs and they are considerably cheaper.   Here are the drink in cups and my mug, the biggest, second most expensive and perhaps the most impressive one of my collection.

Double the pleasure

Ahoy brave sailors

1st edition!

We also ordered some things to munch on with our drinks, the Chicken Lettuce Cups, Kalua Pork Tacos, Hawaiian Poke and Corn-battered Portuguese Sausages.  They all tasted very good, impressive but standard Tiki-bar fare.  Ironically, what impressed me the most of our food selections was the Pulled Pork Nachos from the nearby quick-service restaurant, Captain Cook's.  However, that didn't matter since we came to Trader Sam's for the drinks and the theming.

Some Tiki Delicacies

Pulled Pork Nachos

In addition to the great theming in the bar, the patio's theming wasn't too shabby with abundant Tikis and entertainment in the form of live Hawaiian music.  The performer sounded really good especially after a few drinks.

Tiki

More Tiki

Tiki butt!!!

Our performer is way in the back.

If we didn't have 3 kids with us and Fast Passes for Space Mountain, I could have spent all night at Trader Sam's.  Really.  Nothing like strong drinks, being with buddies (great family in my case) and enjoying a vacation at an awesome Tiki bar.  I give Trader Sam's five Tikis out of five Tikis for its well-mixed drinks, good food and awesome theming.

If you are wondering where you can meet the actual Trader Sam, please proceed to the Jungle Cruise and your tour guide will introduce him to you.

Trader Sam has some deals you'll lose your head over.

 

Kura Sushi Revisted; Dragonball Z Prizes!; Tokyo

I've never understood the appeal of Dragon Ball, but I can't deny its popularity across the world.  My first experience with Dragon Ball was in college in the 90's.  One of my few college friends, Gambling Buddy Wu, was a huge fan and had Dragon Ball figures and comic books.  I had no idea what the heck Dragon Ball was other than being some funny Japanese thing.  Note that this was pre-Manga/Anime/Cosplay explosion.  When my days at U of I began, eBay and the internet were seemingly still in their infancies so Japanese stuff wasn't as popular or known.  Wu had been in Taiwan and Japan many times as a child and teen, so perhaps that's how he knew about Dragon Ball.

Well, to my girls' dismay, the prize in the Kura Sushi gatcha machine game was a Dragon Ball Z series of capsule prizes.  For a refresher about Kura Sushi, check here.    It took us about 25 plates of sushi to win one Dragon Ball Z prize.

Pick a plate or two.

Eat sushi, insert in slot, repeat four more times.

Upon every fifth plate, watch random Las Vegas type slot machine animation screen.  "Atari", which is above, means you win.  "Hazure" means you lose, which occurs like 80 percent of the time.

Look up at the gatcha machine dispenser if you get "Atari".

Watch capsule roll down (the orange ball).

Take capsule and pop it open like it's a coconut.

Look at prize and wonder WTF it is.

There you have it.  We got a magnet.  The figures looked cooler.  Neither of my girls cared though.  We ate 35 plates of sushi and got one prize.  Not so good odds.  The sushi was really good and affordable though.  I was able to treat my in-laws, and the total for the 6 of us was only 5,500 yen, which is about 50 bucks.  Try doing that in the States where some Korean or Chinese sushi shop owners (real Japanese sushi shops are not very common in the U.S.; if you want to find a real Japanese one, look for Japanese writing on the menu next to the English, and avoid sushi shops with the words Tokyo, samurai or Dragon Ball Z in the name of the shop) will charge you 4 times the amount for likely lower quality sushi (the above being said, I still highly recommend House of Kobe in Merrillville, Indiana; huge portions and the owners are absolutely wonderful). 

On a final note, Kura Sushi has the coolest self-serve tap beer machine, one of those only in Japan treasures.

Have a good one!!!

Sushiro スシロ, Minami-Funabashi, Chiba; Throughout Japan

We have this bad habit of letting the little ones pick out where we eat on the weekends.  It usually starts out with one of us asking them where they want to eat for dinner or for lunch.  Then they tell us where.  About half of the times the kids want to eat at kaiten sushi places, which for American people means conveyer belt sushi.  I have an older post for Kura Sushi, which is a kaiten sushi joint.  Well this week, they predictably picked kaiten sushi.  However, it was not any kaiten sushi place, but it was Kura Sushi. Kura Sushi is incredibly popular with kids because they have a game whereby for each five plates of sushi you buy, you get to play a game at your table.  If you win the game (which is random), you win a capsule prize.  So we headed out to the closest Kura sushi at that mega mall, La La Port in Funabashi.   After changing the train twice, it took about 35 minutes to get there.  It's not actually that far from us, but if you miss the right train, you can end up waiting 15 minutes or so for another train. If you are wondering by now why the post is entitled "Sushiro" and not "Kura Sushi," let me explain.

Salmon, yum-oh!

Well we arrived at La La Port at 3ish and went up to Kura Sushi to scout out wait times.  To our dismay, at 3pm, the expected seating time was 7:40pm.  That's over 4 and half hours to wait for a table.  That's nuts.  To add insult to injury, they had this sign in the window at Kura Sushi:

When I see ignorance like this it drives me nuts.  This is not uncommon in this country.  My cousin Ryan couldn't believe it when he came here the first time.  The third largest economy and supposedly most technologically advanced country in the world with talking bus signs and robotic toilet seats has large chains that don't accept credit cards.  Ouch.   It's really just bad from a business perspective.  So fair warning to all of you planning on coming here, have cash on hand as credit cards are not accepted at many places.

Back to our family, there was no way we would wait over four and a half hours to eat dinner, so we hightailed out of there.  We did a little shopping and about 15 minutes from Kura Sushi, we found Sushiro.  We did have to wait about half and hour, but the sushi was very good.  Let me share some pics.

What's missing here is a video of the sushi actually rotating around.  Chefs in the back prepare the sushi, put them on plates and put them on the line.

 If you don't see what you want, you can manually order things.  You can pick English on the menu and it toggles to an English menu.

When you order things, music plays on the screen to let you know your order is coming your way, and your order comes on a dish specifically colored for your table. We were the silver table, and the special order dishes had a silver sticker on them.

A convenient menu on the table.

Snow crab!

Young (cooked) chicken

Unagi (eel)

Cooked thin slices of beef

My favorite, deep fried imitation crab with mayonnaise.  Damn that was good.

What goes great with sushi? Suntory Premium Malts!

You can order noodles too.  They also have fries, fried foods and desserts on the menu

 Burp...

One thing about kaiten sushi chains like Sushiro and Kura Sushi is that they are very affordable.  Each plate only costs about 1 dollar (100 yen).  I was able to feed a family of four for around 40 bucks (4,300 yen), which is not bad at all.  If you hike out to kaiten sushi chains in the U.S. like Sushi Station, you end up paying 3-4 dollars a plate.  So, if you want affordable sushi, hop on a flight to Japan and hit Sushiro. 

Overall, I give Sushiro five unagi rolls out of five unagi rolls for a great selection, affordability and well, everything tasted really good.

Tsukiji; Sushiko; Tokyo

I had a chance to go out to Tsukiji this weekend.   By chance, the new landlord's office was located in Tsukiji and we needed to go there to sign the paperwork.   For those of you not familiar with Japan's rent system, you often need to pay around 3-4 months of rent just to move, and often this includes 1-3 months of money as "gift" money to the landlord.  You don't get back any of the gift money.  Luckily, ours didn't require any gift money, but there was a 2 month deposit plus half a month as a guarantee and one month to the real estate agency.  That is a lot of cash just to get the apartment.

Back to Tsukiji, Tsukiji is the most famous fish market in the world for sushi.  Freshly caught tuna is brought in and auctioned off in the wee hours of the morning.  Quite a few tourists go out there at 5 in the morning to see the auction, however, I've never done it.

The station area has become known as a place where you can get fresh fish and great sushi too.
  

You can see the homage to the tuna as seen by this giant tuna indicating the shotengai area.

Here is the remainder of our scaled friend Charlie (it's the one on the right).  The little one is a huge maguro (tuna) fan and we always end up donating our maguro sashimi and nigiri to her.

You can get crabs too at the Tsukiji shotengai.

And piping hot tamago (as shown below) too.

This one was quite yummy, the sweet tamago.  Never had it freshly cooked like this.

Sushi donburi can be bought there as well.  Really fresh.

Since we had two kids in tow and the shotengai area was too congested to bring a stroller around, we ended up eating at Sushiko, one of the sushi shops a bit away from the Tsukiji shotengai.  Yeah, I know that Sushiko is a chain, but this is where the shop originated in (I think).

 

They have quite a selection of sushi.

They have some pretty good lunch specials too.

Here are the sushi maestros in action.

Here's a kid's sushi set. 

Here is a Hokaidon donburi.  The ikura was the freshest I'd ever had.

Here is my sushi set, the "Sushiko."  It was awesome.  I'm used to eating cheap 100 yen sushi at those kaiten sushi places, so this was quite a treat.  The unagi was to die for, still warm.  The salmon melted in my mouth and the toro was awesome.  The set was well worth the 2,000 yen price tag (a bargain compared to the States).

Our lunch was not cheap, 5,000 yen (about 52 bucks at the current rate), but it was well worth it.  If we come back here without the kids, we'll definitely try one of the stands located in the shotengai.  But for now, Sushiko hits the spot.  I give it 5 nigiris out of 5 nigiris.