ON THE MENU Focus On The Fish

Japanese restaurant aims for authentic menu

One of the sushi entrees at Meiji Japanese Cuisine in Fayetteville is Chirashi, which is an assortment of fish on top of a bed of sushi rice for $15.
One of the sushi entrees at Meiji Japanese Cuisine in Fayetteville is Chirashi, which is an assortment of fish on top of a bed of sushi rice for $15.

FAQ

MEIJI JAPANESE CUISINE

HOURS - 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday, noon-10:30 p.m. Saturday; 5-8 p.m. Sundays during the summer

WHERE - 3878 N. Crossover Road, Suite 8, in Fayetteville

PHONE - 521-5919

— Bring it back to all about the fish.” That was Darwin Beyer’s plan in opening Meiji Japanese Cuisine, his four-week-old restaurant tucked in to the Signature Plaza shopping center at the corner of Joyce Boulevard and Crossover Road in Fayetteville.

The sleek eatery can seat 44 patrons, four of those parked at the narrow sushi bar, where they can watch the sushi chef practice his craft.

“It’s really about the beauty of the fish itself, is what we’re after,” says Beyer, who was head chef at Kobe Hibachi Grill & Sushi in Fayetteville for three years before opening Meiji. “It’s more of an art museum or an art show rather than a fireworks show.”

Beyer, who has lived in Japan on and off all his life, was aiming for a moretraditional, old-school offering but set in a modern atmosphere, which includes a silent screen flickering with Japanese action films from the ’70s.

Meiji offers a wide variety of familiar and exotic fish - such as tuna, salmon, hamachi, octopus, ika, scallops and shrimp - all of which is airfreighted in fresh twice a week from Hawaii and Dallas.

Popular sushi rolls (which contain raw or cooked fish, depending on which item you order) range from simple familiars like the California roll for $4 and the shrimp tempura for $7 to deluxe rolls like the Dragon (a shrimp tempura roll topped with grilled eel, avocado and eel sauce) for $10 and Smoked Cash (a roll with cream cheese, avocado and spicy crab topped with smoked salmon and baked in a spicy mayo and eel sauce) for $11.

Meiji’s sushi roll combos offer a choice of three select simple rolls for $12 or three select deluxe rolls for $18.

Ramen noodles in Japan are a completely different experience than the dried packets found in most dorm rooms, and Beyer found a distributor of frozen noodles that he thinks are the closest you can get without a long flight over a lot of water.

Ramen costs $7-$8 a bowl.

“And the udon is incredible here,” he says of another popular noodle-soup dish,which is $8.

Apart from the noodles, everything in the restaurant is made from scratch, including the $5 gyoza dumplings, which are made according to his mother’s recipe.

“I grew up on those things,” Beyer says affectionately.

The crab rangoon is made with real crab and costs $6, while other appetizers like edamame and crab and scallop cakes run between $3-$9.

Chicken, steak or shrimp teriyaki plates and variousbento box combinations are available at lunch (from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.) and dinner, as is chicken, steak or shrimp fried rice.

Sodas, green and white tea, domestic and imported beer and hot or cold sake range between $1.50-$6.

Meiji plans to have its website up and running soon at www.meijinwa.com. The cute kid in the picture that’s holding the domain’s place in the meantime is Beyer’s nephew.

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Whats Up, Pages 26 on 06/25/2010

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