Oishi

Authentic Korean, Japanese and Thai food share the menu at this storefront restaurant in Newtown, Pa.

By: Richard Burns

   CAN’T decide which Oriental food you want for dinner? One of you likes Japanese, the other can’t stand the idea of eating raw fish? Oishi may be your answer.
   Oishi is a storefront restaurant in the Village of Newtown Shopping Center — the part with the Zany Brainy store — that offers Japanese, Korean and Thai cuisine. It is basically a Japanese restaurant in terms of décor. However, Korean and Thai dishes are available in most categories and, based on our sampling, are authentic and very good.
   The restaurant itself seats about 50 guests. It has a sushi bar that includes salmon, yellow fin, regular tuna, octopus, sea bass, shrimp, eel and other items we couldn’t identify. The décor is decidedly Japanese, with paper-screen room dividers, blond wood tables and chairs, and Japanese prints on the walls. It is brightly lit and quite attractive. We were there on a Monday evening and the place was about half full.
   Oishi opened about two years ago under the husband-and-wife team of Sae il Min and Sang o Min. Sae is Japanese and the chef. He worked at Soonja’s Café in Princeton, N.J., for several years. Sang is Korean but has also worked in Thai restaurants. She runs the front house. Together they form an effective team.
   The menu is extensive. It includes a range of nigiri sushi that varies in cost from $3.75 for the shrimp to $7.25 for the sea urchin, definitely an acquired taste for the Western palate. There is also an extensive menu of "rolls," ranging in price from $4.50 for the tekka maki (tuna) to $14.95 for Sae’s Ultimate Roll. Most cost around $5. There are no table grills or table chefs who show off their skill with knives.
   There are about 20 appetizers on the menu, most of which are Japanese. We tried the sushi sampler ($5.50) and the calamari tempura ($6.95). The sampler included a tuna, a whitefish and a salmon sushi with the customary wasabi (green horseradish paste) and shaved fresh ginger. All were excellent, with fresh-and-tasty fish delightfully complemented by vinegared rice. The calamari — I find it interesting that a Japanese restaurant has adopted the Italian term for squid — was cut into fairly large, flat pieces, breaded with a tempura breading and deep fried. It was served with a soy sauce dip and was crisp, tender and delicious.

   We shared a spring salad ($4.50), which consisted of mixed baby greens served with a fresh ginger dressing which included finely grated carrots that provided a lovely color and texture.
   In our effort to explore all the different cuisine offered by Oishi, we ordered both a Thai and a Korean entrée. The Thai dish allowed me to have one of my favorites, soft-shell crab ($16.95) done in a spicy Thai Basil sauce. The crab had been breaded and deep fried with a crisp exterior and a moist, soft interior. It was served over rice (there is a choice of rice or noodles) with vegetables cooked to crisp perfection and a mildly spicy sauce.
   On the Korean side, we sampled bulgoki, which in some form is almost the Korean national dish. This version uses thinly sliced beef that has been marinated in a soy-sesame sauce and then grilled. We have been using a variant of the marinade used in this dish (see recipe) for more than 40 years on all kinds of grilled foods. It is much loved by all who taste it. The bulgoki was served with crisp vegetables. The dish was somewhat sweeter than we like but still first rate.
   Both entrées came with a bowl of miso soup. This traditional Japanese soup has miso as the critical ingredient, a fermented soybean paste. The flavor each soup depends on the miso paste used. In this case, the soup was very good.
   Oishi suffers from the same problem that many Oriental restaurants do, namely, not timing the arrival of dishes to the preferences of American diners. In this case, the soup came before the appetizers and the salad was served with the appetizers. A warning to the waitress prevented the entrées from arriving too quickly. At Oishi, the entrées are served to the individual diner rather than "family style," as in most Chinese restaurants. This makes sharing more difficult but extra plates were provided when requested. Overall, the service was good.
   Oishi is a bright, relatively quiet and friendly restaurant offering a good collection of dishes from several Asian countries that should provide good eating for everyone’s needs. The full menu also is available for takeout.
For directions to Oishi, click here.