So, can lightning strike three times in the same place?
PK Sushi occupies the same location as our previous two favorite sushi restaurants: Wave and Sakuran. Sakuran disappeared a few weeks ago and PK appeared in its place.
One new twist is that PK is following the big trend of offering an all-you-can-eat deal. These have been popular on the East Coast for years and are finally (and yay for my pocketbook) becoming popular here.
The deal is, for around $20 (slightly cheaper at lunch, slightly more at dinner) you can order pretty much whatever you want. You incur extra charges if you don't eat something you order or if you order something using a very expensive ingredient. Over two very lengthy visits to PK so far, that hasn't happened to me. Just use common sense when ordering :)
We headed there with our usual compatriot: Designer Girlfriend. She had an anonymous diner tag along.
I guess I've been there enough that the owner and head chef, PK, recognized me. Haha! That's him in the middle. The other sushi chef, Jin, is there on the left.
Although I was happily drinking my Asahi, PK decided that the table needed some cold sake. He brought us a bottle of Pure brand sake. This stuff was the booooooooooooooooooomb! I think I'm going to buy a bottle every time I go back. Nice clean flavor. As a side note, did you know that when sake is served hot it's usually because the sake is crap and heating it hides the crappy diesel-like flavor of bad sake?
Even the edamame is pimped out here. The bowl in the back is regular garden-variety edamame. The bowl in the front is their spicy edamame with peppers and garlic. I could have consumed 20 bowls of the spicy edamame, well, if not for all the sushi that was coming!
The first sushi course out was salmon nigiri. Check out those huge bands of succulent, omega-3 laden salmon fat. This stuff was amazing. Note that the rice part of the sushi is just right. Quite a few of these all-you-can eat places try to stuff you with rice by offering zero sashimi dishes and overdoing the rice content of every kind of sushi. Not PK.
Pepperfin. This seems to be on every sushi restaurant's menu these days. Simple combination of any kind of whitefish, peppers, soy, yuzu, and sesame oil. Most places use their crappiest whitefish in these dishes. Not at PK. Whatever fish they used in this had perfect texture and tasted great. I can't stand sushi places that cut corners... which would be most of them, and almost all of the all-you-can eat places. Thank goodness PK opened, because I was warily eyeing a few months of sushi abstinence.
Don't like raw fish? PK has you covered. In addition to a multitude of fully cooked rolls, PK offers many other cooked Japanese dishes on their all-you-can-eat menu. You can stuff yourself with teriyaki, or have some tasty Korean BBQ. We got some of their tempura, which was excellent.
...or how about some delectable crab stuffed mushrooms?
The next four rolls are the BMW, M3, M5, and Oh Yes. I don't remember which is which. All four were awesome. I'm trying to talk him into letting me design some rolls for his menu. The first one would be a Lady Gaga roll studded with edible LEDs. Or maybe a Justin Bieber roll filled with cheese. The possibilities are endless!
Or maybe a Yod roll that's sauced with bitters ;)
Here's rolls #3 and #4 of the BMW group. In the upper right corner is a deep fried California roll that found its way to our table by accident. It was actually pretty tasty.
And now, for the really fun stuff. This is what resulted when I asked PK for a "spicy salmon roll". Mindblowingly good. Note that in this as well as the rest of the rolls, they've used the proper amount of rice. I've been to quite a few all-you-can-eat places where the rolls looked like something out of an adult movie from all the extra rice used to attempt to fill me up.
The best thing of the night. This was PK's response to "make me a spicy scallop roll". I can't even begin to describe just how good this roll was. When I asked PK what to call this roll on the Chomple review, he said "Something PK just made up". So here you have it. The Something PK Just Made Up Roll. You can ask for it, but I think he'll just make something else up. Which is a good thing, because that man is a genius.
Although this is like using Patron in a spring break margarita, I ended my meal by making a sake bomb out of the Pure sake and the rest of my Asahi Super Dry. It was ungodly, tremendously good. Hey PK, put this on the menu as the Premium Yod Bomb. Please?
Obviously this gets our RUN, DON'T WALK, RUN THERE RIGHT NOW rating. This place is crazy good and an even crazier value.
PK Sushi
2168 Sunset Blvd. Ste 100 (across Pleasant Grove from the Safeway)
Rocklin, CA 95765
