Photo by Tim Dachtera
Just got home from another Lazy Lightning meetup. This time Kim and I hooked up with 15 other readers for an evening of sushi and Thai at Ronin Sushi Cafe in Lakeville. I have been planning this event for over a month and am using it, again, as a test for future outings like the one I have set for June 7th at King’s Place in Miesville.
I want to first thank Ronin’s excellent staff, especially Nona and Natalie, for welcoming us into their restaurant with open arms. Ronin’s team went out of their way and above and beyond to handle the planning with me and make sure that seating was pre-set and ready to go. The table was prepped with plenty of menus, water, and they were preparing food in the back and had plenty of staff on hand to make sure our experience was a great one. I have planned several events for large groups in the past for various other organizations and I have never had it this easy. Excellent service and I highly recommend Ronin for your next group event after we experienced tonight.
The food tonight, while not as spicy as it usually is, was excellent. Nona later let me know that it was a challenge to have that many people order off the menu because it’s all made from scratch on eight burners in the back and even with that limitation, it was came out quickly for a group of 17. I only split a California Roll with Kim and thought it was fine but I’ll let the sushi experts share what they had to say about their experiences with some of the more involved items on the menu. Overall everyone seemed to love their food and several people said that they would be back again after what they had tonight.
Aside from finally getting to meet many people who I only know through their names they post as here, the best part of the evening were the four Cherry Bombs that were served for dessert. Five brave souls went for the four huge desserts (deep fried, rum glazed, bacon-wrapped, huge ass habaneros stuffed with cream cheese) that were absolutely delectable. You want to know what a unique, interesting, exciting, and absolutely incredible menu item is? Ronin’s Cherry Bombs. If those things don’t become world fucking famous, I haven’t done my job. Listen to me people, if you like spicy shit (or even if you don’t, at least two people were habanero virgins) these things are to die for. Go to Ronin Sushi Cafe today and tell them you want one. Seriously, you will not be disappointed. This is one thing you should not pass up.
I’d like to thank everyone who came. We all had a great time and I really hope that you all did too. If you want to meet up with other people from the website and have a great time, please think about joining us in June for the Burgers, Beer, and Baseball Event at King’s Place in Miesville. I promise you that you’ll enjoy King’s burgers and Mudhens’ baseball.
For those of you that were there tonight, what did you think? Good time? Good food? If you have any photos, video, etc, go ahead and comment on and let us know where they are and make sure you get people to join us next time in Miesville!
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April 26th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
though we were the first to leave, (at least we showed up *cough*) we had a good time, and we are still talking about our red curry. We ordered the hotness on the low side, and both agreed to step it up a couple peppers next time.
April 27th, 2009 at 7:26 am
We had a great time, meeting some new folks and seeing some old friends. Thanks again, Bill, for bringing us all together. Mrs. UpWithTheMooses had the Ancient Chicken. She thought it was OK, but not her favorite dish ever (NephewMoose and I were happy to finish off her plate. I thought the chicken was cooked perfectly — crisp-fried and just the right amount of sauce. NephewMoose is a growing boy and likes everything). Jesse the Vegetarian started with edamame and liked them, but thought they could use more flavor (she doused em in soy sauce). She had the tofu pad thai and really liked it. She said the tofu was cooked just right. NephewMoose started with miso soup and the soft-shell crab appetizer. He said the miso was really good. The soft-shell crab was perfect (I helped myself to a taste or two). For his entree, he had a dragon roll (tempura shrimp and eel sushi). He wolfed that down and then helped clean everyone else’s plate. I started with chicken satay. It was very good. The cucumber salad that came with it had a very interesting honey-based dressing. Very nice. For my entree, I had the thom yum soup with shrimp. Although the menu said it would serve two, it wasn’t really that big. Maybe two appetizer sized soup cups, with plenty of shrimp. It was very nice. I asked for a spice level of 5 and was warned that it would be very spicy. It wasn’t really, but the server brought a great selection of chilies to the table for us to add to our dishes. I added some of each chili — Thai, habanero and red chilies — and that brought the heat up a notch. NephewMoose and The Vegetarian shared an order of mango ice cream — the ice cream was coated in rice powder and available fried or not (they chose not fried), drizzled with dark chocolate and topped with a huge strawberry. When The Vegetarian and NephewMoose both eyed the juicy berry, the server brought them out a second berry so they wouldn’t have to throw down over the one dessert topper. Great service at Ronin. Finally, the best dessert ever was served: The Cherry Bombs. Both NephewMoose and I had one. They were remarkable (though NephewMoose later said the bombs scarred his throat and gave him heartburn…) Stuffed habaneros, battered, wrapped in bacon, then deep fried. Oh. My. Dog! It was a taste treat — washed down with a single “scoop” of the mango ice cream (or, as I call it, the Diet Destroyer). I could tell from the moans of pleasure from the other end of our L-shaped table that Bill was enjoying his. I can’t tell you how enjoyable the Cherry Bomb was. It was almost a meal in itself. One final word on the service: Our servers were attentive without hovering. They kept our drinks filled and anticipated our every need, showing up with stuff (such as the chilies) before we even knew we wanted it. Thanks, Nona and crew. One of the more enjoyable meals we’ve had in a long time. We’ll be back (often), without a doubt.
April 27th, 2009 at 7:31 am
Here’s a picture of what the Cherry Bombs looked like. While the picture shows them clearly, it doesn’t show just how large the things were: http://www.w00dz.com/wp-photos/2009/04/dscn0569-400×300.jpg I estimate nearly the size of my fist. I had to take several large bites of it to get it all down.
April 27th, 2009 at 8:13 am
Wow, I am sad that I had forgotten all about this and did not get to meet you all. Life in our house has been chaos the last few months.
That said, I am really happy that so many of you got together, and that it sounds like Ronin delivered as advertised. Nona and co really are wonderful people.
April 27th, 2009 at 9:57 am
I’m also frustrated that I missed this. I’m glad you had a great time.
I had another really nice meal there with my mom and kids last week. Hopefully we can keep the buzz alive…the food is always outstanding.
April 27th, 2009 at 10:56 am
It was great to meet everyone who came! Thanks again, Bill, for arranging this. For those of you who were there, I was the guy with the shaved head and blue sweater. :)
I’ve been looking forward to trying Ronin for a while, and I was very pleased. As was already noted, the service was excellent and the servers were attentive without being obtrusive.
Being the sushi fan that I am, I had a crunchy roll (tempura shrimp and cucumber, wrapped in rice and seaweed and drizzled with a sauce) for my entree with a side of tomago (slices of sweet omlette, served chilled). They were both excellent, especially the tomago. I appreciated all the work that was put into the presentation as well; there was a lot of attention to detail with how elements of the food and the garnishes were arranged on the plates.
I also tried some of my SIL’s edamame (soybeans in the shell) appetizer. It needed more salt, but was otherwise fine; it’s pretty much the same wherever you get it from as there’s not much to it. Additionally, I had a little of my wife’s sashimi (slices of raw fish, essentially) since she was getting full. Not the best I’ve had around here, but it was still quite good — I’d rank it on a level with Kami, Osaka, or Tiger Sushi.
My wife and I each had the fried bananas for dessert, which were fried wonton wrappers (I’m guessing) filled with bananas and drizzled in honey. Very good; I’d go back just for this, I liked them that much.
One negative I noted was that the only sake they had was quite expensive, at 12/13 bucks for a small carafe. It was good quality, of course (I recognized the brands, though I didn’t have any), but I’d like it if they had a less expensive option available too, since I was going to order some but was put off by the price.
Yes, I’m a bit of a Japanese food snob, can you tell? :) It’s probably the only cuisine I get this way about.
Anyway, I look forward to returning and trying some of the other dishes, particularly the curries.
April 27th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Thanks, Bill. Good restaurant choice. Hubby and I had a great time and enjoyed meeting you and your LL fans. The food was very good and we agreed that we will be going back.