Can you spell fusion? Taka Taka on West Broadway and Grand in SoHo, NYC can. With their combination of Mexican taco’s and Japanese sushi this place is a win. Their Japexican or Mexenese cuisine includes sushi, tacos, tapenyaki, and several cold and hot starters that can satisfy your Mexican or Japanese cravings. Being fairly new, Taka Taka does not have that many reviews online. If anything it actually has bad reviews. I came here with my family when my brothers came to visit during MLK weekend. The restaurant has a modern Japanese-ish diner feel to it with lined up booths and a conveyor belt that snakes through the restaurant. A little bit on the pricey end, this restaurant has very few items that are worth it. The staff is friendly and the kitchen creations are fun to enjoy but not worth a return trip.
Tasteless, grocery store quality sushi can be ordered off the conveyor belt. I’m not really a big fan of sushi that takes a ride before ending up at my table. The ones at Taka Taka are standard, boring, and completely not worth it. Not to mention who knows how long they’ve been taking a ride on the belt anyways. The descriptions of each sushi on the conveyor belt is listed on the table mat which makes it easy to pick the one you like.
From the hot starters menu we ordered asugyu- thinly cut rib eye wrapped around asparagus with chipotle teriyaki sauce. The chipotle adds a nice spicy undertone to the sweet teriyaki. I’ve had my fair share of beef asparagus rolls, and this one is definitely unique. I only wish the meat was a little more tender.
We also had the Jalapeno shrimp tempura. Crispy, crunchy, and spicy is how I can describe it. The tempura coating is light and airy just as it should be. These were a must have since not much else is appealing here. I would also recommend having the Mexican sushi off the kitchen menu. The sushi has a twist of Mexican flavors wrapped around sushi rice. We had the Garces which is a twist on a tempura shrimp roll with grilled manchego cheese, chipotle sauce, and avocado. The unique flavor subtly brings out the best of both worlds.
The tacos are wrapped in tortillas and presented by slicing them to look like maki rolls. The shrimp tempura was a favorite on our table. I couldn’t tell if I was eating a shrimp tempura roll or a shrimp taco. The fusion concept was a homerun with this roll, however the talla sea bass taco was a complete miss. The sea bass was mushy in a bad way and was bland. The plus side is we had extra jalapeno and chipotle sauce at the table to dip the taco in. If I could replace the bottle of Tabasco sauce I carry around with me with the jalapeno sauce I would.
Desserts were also bipolar. One was amazing and wish we had more, the other was a complete fail. I love tempura ice cream, and when it’s done wrong it’s personal. Tempura ice cream is a scoop of ice cream that is dipped in tempura batter and fried. The combination of crispy warm tempura and cold vanilla ice cream can become anyone’s favorite. However, at Taka Taka the tempura ice cream comes as is. We asked if we could swap the vanilla tempura with green tea instead but she said that the ice cream comes to them as is with the tempura already fried on so they can’t change the flavor. The tempura shell is not crispy and crunchy like it should be. It’s quite disappointing to hear that a restaurant sells pre-made tempura ice cream. It kind of seemed like they flash fried it or popped it in the microwave to quickly warm up the outside but it was clearly obvious it was not fresh. On the plus side the presentation had a lot of thought and style put into it- too bad they couldn’t put that effort towards making the ice cream.
Tempura Ice Cream
The dish and dessert for the night was tapioca pudding with lychee ice cream. We all loved this and wish we could trade the tempura ice cream for another bowl of this sweet concoction. The tapioca is perfectly cooked and doesn’t feel gummy at all as with most tapioca puddings. The lychee ice cream had a light and refreshing fruity taste. The raspberry sauce was the perfect acidic accompaniment to the fruity ice cream and milky pudding. Yum Yum Yum. If you had to order only one thing and one thing only, order this. If you aren’t a fan of lychee you might not be as happy with this as I am.
Over all, I went to Taka Taka once and probably won’t ever go again. It’s expensive for what it is, but it’s great for one of those nights where you want to try something different. But if your really in the mood for sushi I would recommend going to a traditional sushi restaurant and forgo this culinary melting pot. Most of what we ate was a miss, but out of everything we ate only 2 items were worth it.
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