valentine's day with b had to happen early this year since he was going to be out of town on the 14th.  so on saturday night we had early v-day dinner.  we've been dying to try out kome for a while now so that is where we headed. kome isn't traditional japanese food or just sushi.  it is described as authentic home-style japanese cooking which is influenced by other cultures and cuisines. this was very interesting to me since although being ethnically chinese, my family is from hong kong, which in itself is a mutt.  so chinese food is what we go to restaurants to eat. home cooking is a hodge-podge of old school comfort foods to hong kong-style mishmash such as cream corn & spam spaghetti.  so i was looking forward to seeing what authentic home-style japanese food is.

as usual, the place was packed by 7:00 and had about a 30 minute wait. so we hung around till we got a table.  kome is opened by take & kayo. i first learned about them when they opened a sushi trailer (yes...and it was AMAZING.) sushi-a-go-go*.  i was so impressed by the food served, not just the quality but the customer service and friendliness.  it was my go-to sushi lunch place.  i know, who would have thought sushi from a trailer, but it was yum. the surprising fact i learned was, while opening this trailer and owning a catering company (deli bento) take was a chef at the famed uchi!  so having had some great dining experiences, i was expecting a very yummy dinner.

once we got our table, we were promptly served drinks (we shared a large kirin ichiban and some water) and given some time to peruse the menus.  b tackled the dinner menu and i the sushi.  we ordered 3 from the dinner  and 4 from the sushi menu (the uni was just for me so it doesn't count..heehee).  first came the sushi, which surprised us on how fast it came out. we had the trio roll, love for sale roll, endo in n.y. roll and some tuna sashimi.  trio roll is an old standby from the sushi-a-go-go trailer days.  our favorite was the endo in n.y. roll (bottom picture below).  the sauce was yum! from the dinner menu, we had yakiniku-kushi (grilled beef with onions), kushikatsu-set (fried panko pork & veggies), and the hiyayakko (cold tofu with ginger and scallions).  all of it was wonderful, but next time we both agreed we would try some more adventurous grilled/fried items like the iidako kushi-yaki (small octopus). it was a great meal and we were pleasantly full and not stuffed.  i look forward to going back again and i'd love to sit at the sushi bar and watch the chefs at work.  i'm also dying to try their lunch.  the set meals sound yummy and a great deal. 

after running, my friend m was nice enough to have me over for dinner.  we spent the night chatting, catching up, and watching vampire diaries.  my contribution to dinner was brownies, strawberries and some bitch bubbly :)  

i hope everyone had a lovely and wonderful valentine's day and that received and spread lots of love.