A Veritable Oasis of Food

There was a time about a year ago, when we went to dinner at the Oasis Cafe for the first time, and, after receiving average food and abominable service, we vowed never to go there again. Fast forward to last night: we were hungry for sushi, while our companion for the evening was hungry for Thai. So we figured, what the hell, we'd give that pan-Asian Oasis another try. This time around, the food was good, and the service was a little bit better (though still terribly slow). We'd be willing to venture there again, but only if we had a lotta time to kill and were craving some gigantic sushi maki.

We started out the meal with eggrolls, which were rather meh. For some reason, the meat inside (dog?) tasted totally liver-like. Forgoing the rest of the appetizer allowed us to focus on the terrible R&B that was playing, with lyrics so bad ("my self-esteem tells me to be here") that we couldn't quite discern whether it was poorly-written or just religious. Eventually, the music switched to the Fugees, which was a drastic improvement over the slow jamz. The sushi chef seemed to be a big fan of Wyclef, dancing and bobbing his head as he cut fish.

On to the main course: we had ordered several sushi rolls, while our companion had chosen the Mongolian beef. Like the last time we ate there, the waitress brought our sushi first, leaving our friend high and dry. Way rude! However, since the sushi rolls were so big---we had forgotten that each roll was comprised of eight pieces, so ordering four of 'em was undoubtedly overkill---we were willing to share with our friend and tide him over until his entree appeared.

The unagi maki was adequate, simple broiled eel with cucumber and special sauce. The deep sea roll was a little more complex, with "assorted" fresh fish and avocado, all of which was deep fried in tempura (mmm). We had ordered another tempura roll, this one off of the specials board, called the "whoa" roll, containing salmon, avocado, and cream cheese. However, our favorite roll by far was the other special for the evening, the "damn creamy" roll, with scallop and cucumber on the inside, topped with salmon, green onion, and a drizzling of mayo. It was divine, more than living up to its name. We had also ordered two pieces of our favorite nigiri, hamachi, which was buttery, very fresh, and downright yummy.

Fifteen minutes after our sushi was brought to us, our friend's order finally arrived. It was a huge plate o' beef strips, green onions, chili, and cellophane noodles, accompanied by a salad. It was a little spicy for three stars, but our friend didn't mind, really enjoying the tenderness of the beef. The portion served was so large that he was able to stuff himself at the restaurant and still take home enough for another meal.

One final complaint: we like a lot of wasabi with our fish (hurts so good), but the portions at the Oasis were rather skimpy. We received three little globs with our order, so we requested more, and another small dollop was brought to us. When we asked for even more, we received another less-than-adequate portion. Seattlest suggests that if you enjoy wasabi, be sure to B.Y.O.W.

Oasis Cafe
1024 E Pike St, 323-3293
Mon-Fri 11 am-10 pm, Sat-Sun 11 am-midnight