the.[ED]ition

No, not that Posh.

In case you don’t know what sukiyaki is, it’s basically an iron pot of soy sauce, sugar and mirin simmering in a shallow, iron pot which you use to cook meat, noodles and veggies. On Friday, a couple friends and I went to check out an all-you-can-eat sukiyaki in Richmond called Posh. Chinese people have a similar method which we call hot pot. My friends and I have hot pot several times a year where we sit around a pot of boiling liquid and cook, great for cold winters (although we have been known to do it in the middle of summer too…if there’s air conditioning). Sukiyaki is slightly different in that it uses soy sauce whereas hot pot usually involves some sort of soup base or just water. That liquid gets pretty flavorful real quick anyways. Oh, and you usually dip your cooked meat into a raw, beaten egg in sukiyaki.

I’m always a little hesitant to try all-you-can-eat places these days since I’ve gotten to a point in life where I can’t eat as much as I used to. Also, I prefer quality over quantity now compared to when I was younger and would probably eat just about anything. Either way, I’ll try anything once and the $9.95 for lunch seemed very reasonable.

Posh isn’t a big place. When I walked in, I didn’t see my friends who were apparently already there. It took me awhile to realize that there was an upstairs area too but even so, the whole place probably has about ten tables and seats maybe 40 or so.

When you sit down, get ready for a lecture. Class is in session as soon as you are led to your table. Waitresses will tell you exactly what to do. Honestly, I didn’t see a point to this. I mean, cook meat in liquid…stuff in mouth. How hard could it be? But then I realized I have probably 20 years of hot pot experience and someone who is entirely new to the experience may need some guidance.

Only beef and pork is available in terms of meat. Although hot pot usually involves many, many different kinds of meat and seafood, sukiyaki is usually made with only beef. However, both are good quality meats and tasted fresh. Everything is sliced very thin so it cooks quickly.

Veggies were also decent as well as the noodles and rice but the menu can be quite vague. I ordered almost at random since the descriptions were poor. I mean, during one order, a certain type of noodle that I liked showed up on my plate but I couldn’t find anything that even loosely alluded to it on the order sheet. Oh, and you order by the piece, not dish. So when we ordered a tofu, we literally got one, small cube of tofu on a plate rather than a plate of it.

There are several varieties of beer and sake on the menu but since it was barely noon, we didn’t partake. There are also various fruit flavored sodas, including strawberry, mango and such, available.

Despite the confusing ordering, the waitresses were friendly and passed by frequently even though they had to walk up a long flight of stairs to do so. Orders arrived quick and the meal was a great value for about $15 a person (including a few drinks). Overall, I’d say it was quite good and I’d definitely go back for more.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Food and Fine Dining. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.