Local Flavor: Kasai Japanese Restaurant serves up fresh and oh-so-delicious sushi and meals

I love holidays, especially the ones I conjure up in my little pea brain.

For example, every year I celebrate the Feast of the 7 Delicious, which involves selecting my seven favorite wines of the year.

I have also declared Wednesdays during soup season at DeVitis Italian Market as National Wedding Soup Day. I love its Italian wedding soup.

Last week I celebrated Take Your Favorite Chef to Work Day. Chef Beau Schmidt brought along our friend Leanne, and we headed to Kasai Japanese Restaurant in Green to sample its wonderful sushi.

Schmidt and I are huge fans of chef Dave Russo, who has Russo’s Restaurant in Cuyahoga Falls. It was through Russo that we both came to know about Kasai. 

It was entertaining for me to watch Schmidt go through the menu. He was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. Speaking of Christmas, the Merry Christmas roll is its No. 1-selling sushi roll. Schmidt opted not to order it as he had it at a party at Russo’s home a few weeks before and wanted to try something new.

Neither of us could decide what to eat, as there were so many tasty selections.

“Have you ever had warm sake?” Schmidt asked. That's where we started as I had never had the pleasure. I also ordered an $8 split of Canella Prosecco Superiore, which I knew would pair perfectly with all of our food choices.

Kasai menu offers sushi and much more

We both love octopus, so we had to try an $11.95 order of the tako tiradido appetizer. It’s shaved octopus, cut sashimi style, topped with a tiny parsley leaf, fish roe, yuzu sauce and a colorful drop of Sriracha. A tasty work of art that even Leanne liked. And she doesn’t even like sushi. So fresh and delicious.

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The good thing about the menu at Kasai is that you can find quite a few dishes that will appeal to those in your group who do not like sushi or raw fish. Leanne was happy with her $16.95 order of hibachi chicken, which was served with miso soup and a salad. And so was I. Very flavorful. Chicken, steak, shrimp or tofu and vegetables can also be ordered hibachi style or with ramen noodles.

All the while I was happy following the master. Schmidt ordered a $9.95 rock shrimp tempura appetizer to share. This is when I learned that Beau knows chopsticks. Schmidt was teaching me how to use those tiny bamboo sticks. Boy, does this grasshopper have a lot of practicing to do. It was much easier for me to jab those lightly battered shrimp drizzled in tempura sauce with my fork. I couldn’t wait for my next nibble.

I went on to order a $12.95 spicy tuna bowl appetizer. The tuna was so fresh that it cut like butter. It’s a flavorful and plentiful dish that wasn’t overpowered with the wasabi and soy sauce. Definitely enough to share.

Schmidt filled a shot glass with the warm sake for me to try with each of the different foods we ordered. It’s very smooth. It definitely doesn’t burn going down like a shot of grappa or vodka.  

For the next round I ordered an $11.95 Lucky Bounce sushi roll, with spicy salmon, asparagus, avocado, eel sauce and tempura flakes. Schmidt ordered a $23 sashimi tricolor with four pieces each of tuna, salmon and yellowtail.  “Hamachi is yellowtail tuna,” said Schmidt. And Beau knows Japanese, too.

We were extremely happy with the sushi roll. The weight of my fork was enough to cut through a piece of Schmidt’s hamachi. Oh so fresh and quite delish.

Our excitement to finally dine at Kasai caused us to overlook a tiny sign at the entrance that alerts customers to a credit card surcharge on all orders not paid with cash.  Our $9.95 rock shrimp appetizer was now $10.33. An ATM is not available at the restaurant either. (It didn’t take away from our pleasant experience at all; I just wanted to point out its policy.)

I was absolutely impressed with how fresh the sushi tasted. A must try for sushi lovers.

I promise, the next time I celebrate a made-up holiday I will give you all a heads-up, because Schmidt, Leanne and I had a wonderful time at Kasai’s Green location. There is also a Kasai in Wadsworth.

Details

Place: Kasai 

Address: 3875 Massillon Road, No. 300, Uniontown 44685

Phone: 330-899-9788

Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 9:30 p.m.; Sunday 4 to 9:30 p.m.

More info: mykasaisushi.com or 330-899-9788