Drunken Monkey - Sushi in Truckee

As the new kid in town, I am eager to try out the local kicks. The Rock is a small business plaza close to our house with several restaurants, including the recently opened Drunken Monkey. The Rock is best known for its flagship restaurant the 50/50 Brewing Company. Being very successful, they went and opened a second restaurant in the same plaza, the Drunk Monk (he he). The other night my wife and I decided to try out this very close by eating establishment.

http://www.drunkenmonkeysushi.com/index.html

The first thing that I noticed was how full the place was for a Wednesday night. Typical Tahoe/Truckee restaurants are dead on Wednesday nights which cater towards the tourist crowd. But the DM had every table filled, I took an extra look around trying to get a feel of the local population. This was not the typical local Truckee crowd, but more of the Truckee Yuppies.

It was mixed blessing having the restaurant so busy, for we sat at the sushi bar, and was served by the head chef Sam. Sam was a real live, Japanese sushi chef. I think he is the only one in all of the greater Tahoe area. I started the meal with an order of miso and hot tea. To my surprise I was asked which tea variety I was interested in. Though the quality of my wholong was average the fact that I had a selection was amazing. The thing about Sushi is that there is only sushi and bad sushi. Mother nature makes the fish, and only the lack of freshness makes it bad.

What is unique about this restaurant is that the menu has many entries, rather than just sushi. I ordered a Tofu and Shitake Mushroom Nabe, and Leslie a roasted garlic clove for starters. Then some pieces of Nigri and some rolls. The food was simple but well put together. The fish was fresh and tasty. We did not order very much and our bill reflected so. I did try to order the monk fish liver, but they were out.

Overall I would say that this place is worth visiting. Food is good, prices are average. There are some interesting thing on the menu, and the attention to detail is superb. The restaurant has a very trendy bay area feel, and is popular with the locals. Service however is typical Tahoe/Truckee. If you don't know what that is then don't worry about it...