Hello Kitty tries Izakaya - Noble Rice, Tampa, FL

My friends have always talked about Izakayas(Japanese bar food restaurants) they been to in big cities like Vancouver.

So now I get a chance to try one in Tampa!

Noble Rice is a sleek and modern new restaurant in South Tampa that opens late and offers a wide range of interesting and tasty Japanese style tidbits, with an American twist.

We started with the takoyaki, which is sliced octopus in a batter pan-fried in shape of balls, topped with bonito fish flaes, mayonnaise, eel sauce, and seaweed powder. Their version of this dish uses a corn meal base. I thought this made the balls a bit dry so we couldn't finish it. 

My favorite thing about this restaurant are these little skewers, called yakitori. They were really tasty! We tried shiitake mushrooms, chicken thighs, shishito peppers, and chicken hearts. Wow, so fun to eat!

Another appetizer we ordered was seared scallop over coconut and cashew rice. Very hip, very tasty!

Sushi was good but nothing out of the ordinary. 

We also ordered a ramen. I thought it was a bit salty.

There were MANY more entrees I would like to try but didn't have enough tummy space! 

So I'll definitely be back for more!

Hello Kitty goes Amish - Der Dutchman, Sarasota, FL

We've heard so much good things about Amish food and finally made the drive to Sarasota to try it out at Der Dutchman. This Amish restaurant was huge. They have a food and bakery shop, gift shop upstairs, and banquet room. Since they closed at 8pm, we didn't get a chance to look in the gift shop.

We decided to go with the buffet so we can try many different entrees. The buffet was $14.95 per person. My plate had "broasted" chicken, turkey, green beans, pulled pork, fried tilapia, mashed potatoes, and sweet potato. There was also a salad bar where there were mustard hard-boiled eggs and beet hard-boiled eggs.

For dessert, we ordered the key lime pie and the chocolate peanut butter pie. I really liked the chocolate peanut butter pie. 

We enjoyed our dinner but wasn't overly impressed. We probably wouldn't make a special trip back to Sarasota just to eat here but we might come again if we happen to be in the area.