My first born just received a new job offer (two actually) while job searching since their current company was closing down, and we decided to celebrate at one of their favorite restaurants which I had never visited, Kampai on Pine in the Central West End. Since I was at work at Wash U, and my child was working from their apartment north of Forest Park, my wife acted as a pickup service and picked me up at the Danforth Campus and then our first born so the three of us could eat together. Luckily we found some street parking just a few spaces away on Pine, so we were not far from the restaurant.
We arrived right at 11:00 am when it opened and the place was pretty empty. We were seated at a booth in the roomy dining area and placed drink orders. They played a strange assortment of music, with some current pop and then some golden oldies from the 1950's. Luckily we were there for the food! My wife ordered the tempura and California roll lunch, I ordered the Roll Lover Special B (spicy tuna roll and crazy roll) and our oldest selected three separate rolls: the pickled radish roll, the crunch roll and the California roll. Each lunch came with a salad and miso soup which our server brought out fairly quickly, The salad was very good with a well flavored ginger dressing. The miso soup was just standard miso soup with not much tofu or kelp in each serving.
Our main lunch entrees arrived while we were still finishing off our salads and soups and they were all attractively presented. The tempura lunch arrived in a large tray with separate compartments and the sushi came on elevated wood boards. The wasabi and pickled ginger was was attractively aranged as well, although they did not give much wasabi for each person. Luckily it was a strong enough wasabi that my one small amount was sufficient, although I could have stolen some from the others since they did not use any.
My sushi was very good, with the fish being flavorful without being too "fishy" and it tasted very fresh. I was able to sample the other rolls and they were also very good with the shrimp in the crunch roll being nice and crunchy and fresh tasting and the other rolls all seeming very freshly prepared with flavorful ingredients as well. I like just about any sushi, and theirs was superior than most restaurants in St. Louis and definitely better than buffet or prepackaged grocery store sushi. I also sampled my wife's tempura and it was very good with a nice assortment of vegetables to go along with the shrimp. I tried the onion and it had a tasty crisp coating and was not overcooked. I also liked my two roll lunch with salad and soup being priced at $11.50 which is a pretty reasonable price for a Japanese place.
All in all the food was very good, the service was reasonable and the experience was quite nice. I would definitely go back again for lunch. We are just sad they are not open Saturdays for lunch.
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