People always look at me weird when I tell them I love sushi. I know... I don't eat fish, so the whole sushi experience is probably a little (ok, more than a little) incomplete for me. But still... I love sushi, I love how fresh and crunchy the cucumber roll is, how subtle the flavors are, I love the pickled ginger, and I love the kick of wassabi mixed in in soy sauce. So.. when Lalitha suggested we go to Moki's in Bernal Heights for dinner, I was excited! The only other place I know that is great for vegetarian sushi is Cha-ya, which I really should review some day because I eat there a lot!
Bernal Heights is a cute little neighborhood. with some decent restaurants. It's really quiet, and even on a Saturday night, the streets were pretty deserted. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you want to go somewhere happening, where you can hang out at a bar or go dancing later, then Bernal is not the neighborhood for you. If you are looking to enjoy a nice, relaxing meal though, it's got a few places I would recommend - Little Nepal, Piqueo's, and Moki's to name a few.
So anyway, back to Moki's... Moki's doesn't take reservations, but when we got there around 7 pm on a Saturday night, it was a breeze to get seating. The place did get crowded as the evening progressed though, so I would suggest getting there early. Our server was really nice (meaning cute!), and took good care of us. Fran and me drank sake (I forget the name, have to check with Lalitha), it was really really good, definitely recommended. For appetizers we ordered the edamame, seaweed salad and the spicy corn cakes. The flavors in the seaweed salad were really good - just a subtle hint of spice, salt and some sesame.. yummy! The corn cakes... fried and with a tangy dipping sauce, you can't go wrong with that. Or edamame for that matter :)
On to the main course then... we ordered the Moki rolls, the tempura roll, spider rolls and of course the cucumber rolls. I was pretty happy with all the vegetarian options available... we actually had a tough time deciding what we wanted to get, which is awesome for a sushi place. They also had nigiri sushi with vegetables, something I haven't seen before. The moki rolls and the tempura rolls were really good - definitely recommended. The moki roll had mango, tofu and macadamia nuts - ummmm delicious. And the tempura roll had a spicy sauce, tempura'ed tofu, coconut and macadamia nuts. Both were pretty unique, I never would have imagined coconut could taste so good in a sushi roll. And ahhh... cucumber rolls, how can anyone not like cucumber rolls, so crunchy, so fresh... yyummy! I didn't bother to check but I think the spider rolls were good too... anyway, who cares... this is a veggie blog :)
After stuffing ourselves with all the rolls we ordered (not to mention we had already stuffed ourselves with nachos at the movies before) we very politely declined dessert. And then we undid all the good of skipping dessert by walking down the street and getting ice cream from a local ice-cream store - Maggie Mudd, which was nothing to write home about frankly, but hey, I'm all for promoting local neighborhood business, so if you are in the area, by all means try the ice-cream here. But Moki's - I think it's worth making the trek to Bernal to try their sushi. The food, service, atmosphere, and the sake was definitely worth it!
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