Sunday, March 30, 2014

Cocktail Social at Rok Sushi (Hermosa Beach, CA)

By: guest blogger Bryan Tsunoda

Now that winter is officially behind us, Rok Sushi took the opportunity to develop new craft cocktails to get us into the mood for spring. I recently attended an event to sample some of their newest additions.

Rok Sushi offers Japanese fusion cuisine as well as entrees such as Chilean seabass, baked salmon filet and sesame crusted ahi. The restaurant’s décor is casual modern Japanese and depending on your mood, you can quietly sip a cocktail by the bar, watch the sushi chef in action or dine with family members.
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The Bubbly Cali was the first of their new craft cocktails for spring. Rok Sushi uses an excellent sparkling wine from the Russian River region - J Vineyards, as the foundation to the Bubbly Cali. They add No 209 Gin, Medlock Ames Verjus and simple syrup. I found the drink to be loaded with citrus and quite refreshing.

Next up was the Shishito Pepper Martini. Blistered shishito peppers is a fairly common appetizer, but I’ve never seen it in a cocktail. Rok Sushi infuses shishito peppers into vodka and adds, simple syrup, Combier orange liqueur, lime juice and drops a whole shishito pepper in the glass. Shishito peppers are not spicy by nature; in fact I ate mine as I sipped on the tasty martini.
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Instead of the traditional mule made with vodka and ginger beer, Rok Sushi takes an Asian twist by substituting sake for vodka and calls their drink the Tokyo Mule. The drink consists of Tozai Typhoon Sake, Banzai Bunny Sake, Ginger Simple Syrup and fresh ginger. To me, their ginger additions were an improvement over ginger beer.
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The Floral Citrus was the last drink in the line-up and was appropriately named. If you want to impress someone, you should definitely order this drink. It arrives in a glass that has layers of different colors and is topped with a fresh orchid flower. It is mixed with No. 209 Gin, aperol, fresh lemon juice, Combier orange liqueur and violet liqueur. It was full of citrus and made a great conversation drink.
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To accompany the flight of cocktails, we were served an array of offerings from their menu: calamari, Vietnamese spring rolls and the fish tacos. Hands down, the crowd favorite were the fish tacos. Rok Sushi scored an “A” for creativity and taste as they substituted fried wonton wrappers in lieu of tortillas. My favorite combo was the Shishito Pepper Martini and their wonton fish taco.
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Rok Sushi
1200 Hermosa Ave
Hermosa Beach, CA
(310) 798-4765


Disclaimer: this visit was hosted

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