Dianne has been looking for a new place to get some spicy exotic food lately. This Friday, we both had the day off and our son Dylan was out of school for Fall Break. Since Oklahoma was blessed with a beautiful sunny day, we took a trip to the Tulsa Zoo. We all took our cameras for a fun little family safari.If you have never visited the Tulsa Zoo, you should take one of these cool Fall days to explore it. Our family loves this inexpensive yet eclectic little zoo. It is loaded with interesting animals and laid out in a way that makes it very walkable. Since the Tulsa Zoo is surrounded by Mohawk Park, we often include a BBQ or picnic to keep the costs low. However, we arrived a bit late in the afternoon this Friday and they close the zoo at 6pm during the week.
Since I had failed to plan ahead, we found ourselves driving down Harvard Avenue hoping for a fun new restaurant to just pop up in front of us. Surprisingly, this actually worked! At 51st and Harvard, I saw a very interesting two-word sign offering: 'Sushi Train' and I new we had arrived. When it comes to food with heat, you simply cannot beat Asian food. For this reason, I had been considering the Osaka Japanese Steakhouse, it is on the same block as Sushi Train. However, we have seen the show at Osaka before and their food isn't that spicy anyway.
Sushi Train turned out to be just what I had hoped. A tiny electric train track surrounds a cooking area with about half a dozen Sushi Chefs in traditional garb (I guess). Each one is creating different kinds of sushi rolls and adding the tiny covered plates onto an electric train that pulls them by your table. Many of the dishes have tiny signs on top of them that describe what lies within, many leave you to guess. We enjoyed: California Rolls, King Rolls, Lesa Rolls, Cheesecake Rolls, TNT Rolls, Teriyaki skewers and many others loaded with wonderful stuff like: crab meat, habenero, green onions, avocado, tuna, salmon, calamari, jalapenos, etc. Each set of 4-6 sushi rolls is on a colored plate, the color of the plate indicates the price. At the end of your meal they count up the cost of the plates and add in your drinks to tally the final bill.
We showed up hungry and went nuts at this place. We grabbed every plate we wanted, added in a side order of Kimchi (blazing hot and slightly fermented Korean Cole Slaw). Since most of the dishes only offered a mild amount of heat or none at all, even our son Dylan ate a lot. It cost the three of us about $45 for the meal and we felt like it was a great deal. Sushi rolls are wonderfully filling and the ones at Sushi Train in Tulsa are beautiful as well. We saw many tempting dessert-type rolls made with gummi bears and other candies. They looked fun, but we went with the Cheesecake Rolls with Kiwi. Delicious! The meal offered the speed and variety of a buffet, without all of the walking back an forth and with each dish bearing its own sneeze-guard! You can't be too safe these days.
Like many buffets, it pays to arrive at a normal meal time, because that is when the most variety is offered. If you don't like snagging your meal from a train like a hobo, you can also order off the extensive menu at Sushi Train. We decided to do both. My wife has a chronic Kimchi Addiction that demands constant feeding and I have always loved electric trains. We will definitely be taking another trip on the Sushi Train soon.
Sushi Train
3300 E 51st St
Tulsa, OK 74135-3512
Phone: 918- 747-9931
