Eastwind has lost it's direction
Years ago here in Phoenix, there was a chain of Japanese fast food restaurants called Tokyo Express. They had expanded to seven locations valleywide, and I worked at one of them around 1994 for about two years I think. I really liked them, they had a fantastic teriyaki and was the only place I knew of that served eel bowls.
Thing was, the owner, a guy named Charlie, was never satisfied just to have a successful business. He always wanted to be the best of everything, so the menu was expanding to offer new things over time, and he eventually shut all but two locations down, and started up a new casual dining place, that he named Eastwind.
Eastwind is an upscale-looking establishment, but has it's roots with Tokyo Express. It used to be that you could come in and order whatever and take it back to your table or to go or whatever, and differences between them and TE was only a slightly more diverse menu and everything was served on nice plates instead of styrofoam. Now they have changed to a full service restaurant. They have kept the original teriyaki recipe, but the rest has evolved into asian fusion cooking. Now there are many sushi options, egg rolls, some Thai noodles and various side dishes. Variety is great, however what Charlie has done wrong, in order to appeal to the largest number of customers possible, is lamed down the quality of everything.
I'll give you an example. Today I ordered the Ebi Ten Udon, which is Japanese for "Big bowl of fail". For starters, it's not a very big bowl, and comes with just two shrimp for $8. You don't get a lot of noodles, and the broth is not made using traditional Udon tsuyu (soup seasoning), but their own recipe from bonito seasoning. The reason they don't use tsuyu is because it contains MSG, and they are against using MSG in the restaurant. That's a problem, because real Japanese people adore MSG, and the absence of it makes the flavor weak.
Anyways, if you're in town and want some good teriyaki, seek out the original Tokyo Express. Eastwind is really headed downhill. Hopefully Charlie will figure out what he did wrong and get back to basics. Until then I'm staying away.
Thing was, the owner, a guy named Charlie, was never satisfied just to have a successful business. He always wanted to be the best of everything, so the menu was expanding to offer new things over time, and he eventually shut all but two locations down, and started up a new casual dining place, that he named Eastwind.
Eastwind is an upscale-looking establishment, but has it's roots with Tokyo Express. It used to be that you could come in and order whatever and take it back to your table or to go or whatever, and differences between them and TE was only a slightly more diverse menu and everything was served on nice plates instead of styrofoam. Now they have changed to a full service restaurant. They have kept the original teriyaki recipe, but the rest has evolved into asian fusion cooking. Now there are many sushi options, egg rolls, some Thai noodles and various side dishes. Variety is great, however what Charlie has done wrong, in order to appeal to the largest number of customers possible, is lamed down the quality of everything.
I'll give you an example. Today I ordered the Ebi Ten Udon, which is Japanese for "Big bowl of fail". For starters, it's not a very big bowl, and comes with just two shrimp for $8. You don't get a lot of noodles, and the broth is not made using traditional Udon tsuyu (soup seasoning), but their own recipe from bonito seasoning. The reason they don't use tsuyu is because it contains MSG, and they are against using MSG in the restaurant. That's a problem, because real Japanese people adore MSG, and the absence of it makes the flavor weak.
Anyways, if you're in town and want some good teriyaki, seek out the original Tokyo Express. Eastwind is really headed downhill. Hopefully Charlie will figure out what he did wrong and get back to basics. Until then I'm staying away.