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Type: Japanese
Prices: Appetizers, soups $1.50-$7.50; entrees, $7.75-$16.50; desserts $3.25- $3.75; sushi, sashimi $3-$7.50
Hours: Lunch: Tues.- Fri. noon-2:30 p.m. Dinner: Mon- Thur. 5:30- 10:30 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 5:30- 11 p.m.
Reservations accepted. Smoking at bar.
Credit Cards: MasterCard, Visa, American Ezpress, Discover.
Access: Fully accessible.
Other establishments listed in this review:
CAFÉ JADE
450 Cambridge Street, Allston
(617) 254-4944
Type: Japanese
Prices: Appetizers, soups $2.95-$12.95; entrees $8.95-$16.95; desserts $3.95-$5.95.
Hours: Daily, 12-midnight.
Reservations accepted. Smoking, non-smoking sections.
Credit Cards: Visa, MasterCard.
Access: Fully accessible.
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MALIMO
928 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
(617) 876-0285
Restaurant reviewed 09/24/98 by Alison Arnett
Autumn marks the college student influx, adding numbers and liveliness to the dining-out life of the city. Asian financial crisis or no, many of those students are from the other side of the world -- Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, and Malaysian.
As much as other factors, these students are enriching our culinary possibilities. Yes, Americans are getting more adventurous about food, trying out what would have once seemed too exotic, such as sushi, and traveling more, especially to the Far East. But Asian students, far from home and familiar foods, especially give Japanese and Korean places a steady clientele. A Japanese restaurant, Malimo, and a Korean one, Cafe Jade, are two such restaurants, both with young owners and a youthful flair.
Malimo, between Central and Harvard squares in Cambridge, has two identities: It's a flourishing jazz bar with acts that range from a young trio on Monday nights to more established artists later in the week. And it's also a restaurant. Far from being a dark, smoky noir sort of jazz bar, the room is painted in cheery yellows and blues. The sushi chef, Hideki Inoue, works assiduously in the front, twirling together designer rolls of tuna and cucumber and adding a dot of spicy Japanese mayonnaise to the top. Many older patrons around me one evening seemed to be eating only sushi.
But the menu varies widely -- and wildly -- and a large party of young Asians one evening were having swordfish and chicken with marinara sauce, which looked odd to me until the chef-owner, Issay Araki, explained that Italian sauces are common in Japan. But then many of the dishes are anomalies.
One evening, we started with toro sashimi, the choice bluefin tuna belly, rich and sweet, and beautifully cut. A spicy scallop roll, with mayonnaise brightened with hot peppers, hit the palate with a lively crunch. Simple salmon sushi, curls of raw salmon over vinegared rice, were lovely, and even my aunt, unaccustomed to sushi, loved the unagi (eel) with a robust flavor of the sea.
The appetizers were also appealing, from a salad of spinach tightly wound into a turban and served with wedges of tomato, cucumber, and a fluff of slivered carrots, to tofu crisply fried on the outside and creamy within. The gyoza, which Araki proudly said he makes from scratch himself, will make anyone think again about fried dumplings. They were irresistible, with a tender wrapping over savory pork and vegetables.
By then, we were almost sated, so two of us shared an entree -- a tuna steak marinated in teriyaki sauce and pan-seared. We should have stopped with the appetizers. The tuna tasted very much as though it had been frozen, defrosted in the microwave before cooking. The texture was stiff, and although it was technically not overcooked, the fish had no flavor.
Another visit showed the same up-and-down pattern -- nicely done sushi and really delicious miso soup in big cups, but lackluster main courses. (Although this time, the tuna steak tasted like tuna.) A bowl of sukiyaki looked to be apportioned for someone quite small, so little beef and tofu did it contain (plenty of cabbage, though). Pan-fried beef and onions served over rice featured chewy beef and so much sugar in the stirfry that it almost hurt the teeth.
As the evening progressed, three young musicians began playing an easy sort of jazz that was fine to eat by and the room bubbled with young voices. It's a pleasant place to be. If only we'd stayed with appetizers and sushi.
Cafe Jade is most unusual-looking inside. This area of Allston has many small, crowded restaurants, so it is startling to walk into this big room filled with cushy white and brocaded couches arranged around low tables. Although it looks a little like a furniture store, once one sinks down into a couch and realizes that the spaciousness allows for conversation, it's a relaxing atmosphere.
The fried dumplings here were excellent, too; made, said the owner, Min Kim, from her home recipe. Cafe Jade's menu offers Chinese and some Japanese dishes, which Kim said are made to appeal to the heavily Asian clientele.
But the Korean dishes were particularly good. Seafood pancake, crammed with squid and shrimp, zucchini, bean sprouts, and other vegetables, is listed under appetizers but was enormous and filling, a wonderful amalgam of flavors and textures.
I liked the fact that when one asked for spicy here, the dish was prepared that way, no toning down just because the diner's not Korean. Pan-fried kimchee (pickled cabbage) with pork and tofu was fiery and delicious, the sourness of the kimchee balancing the heat of the chili peppers. Squid, also pan-fried and served with carrots, onions, and other vegetables, was also hot but the dark sauce had a tinge of sweetness to it that had us reaching our chopsticks for bite after bite. The waitress obligingly brought more helpings of the little side relishes, the sesame-garnished spinach and vinegared bean sprouts, to offset the heat.
Not all the dishes were incendiary. Bulgolki, marinated in a slightly sweet sauce and then quickly grilled, had a delicate taste. Bibimbap in a stone pot blended flavors of rice, beef and vegetables with only a gentle burst of heat from a sweet-hot paste.
Cafe Jade's menu has evolved several times over its seven-month existence as the young owner figures out her clientele in her first restaurant. Sticking to the Korean basics would seem to be a good plan.
Tips & hits
