Crazy Cafe, Riverview, FL

Mama always said, "if you don't have anything good to say about someone, don't say anything at all"...but mama's taste buds were more forgiving than mine.  After reading glowing reviews on Urbanspoon and Yelp as well as receiving personal recs from friends whose palates I trust, we decided to give Riverview a chance and drive the few miles from our Stepford Valrico abode for a casual Japanese repast.

The interior of this strip-mall resto met expectations...clean and relatively sterile in ambiance. Service was prompt and low-key.  Food was SO nothing to write home about.

Entrees included the requisite iceberg lettuce salad with ginger dressing (it is what it is and I usually enjoy it despite its humble nature, but my salad bowl had half an inch of water in the bottom of it...try a Salad Spinner) and a wan and oddly flavored mushroom and onion soup.

My Steak and Shrimp Hibachi Combo was all but inedible.  Both steak (which was livery in taste - most likely round steak if not an even cheaper cut) and shrimp were dry and overcooked.  The fried rice I selected appeared in the form of a gummy scoop of sushi rice that had been slightly darkened with soy.  There were only a few barely discernible flecks of egg and scallion to be found in this sticky mound and a magnifying glass would've been helpful when it came to identifying their whereabouts.  Guess what, though?  I ate all of the noodles so I wouldn't leave completely hangry.

Underdog fared somewhat better with his $15.95 Sushi Dinner, which provided him with a decent California roll and seven other pieces of the house's choosing.  The selections were reportedly fresh-tasting while falling short of being memorable in any way.

I only pray that East Hillsborough one day catches up with the rest of the county as it pertains to the evolution of the quality of local restaurant cuisine.  At this point, expectations of locals still seem rather low.  All is not lost, however...you can always hit Pacific Grill for good sushi and Asian cuisine in the Brandon area.

http://crazycafe301.com/



My blog entries contain the unmitigated, and sometimes unforgiving, dining truths and perceptions I experience as an ordinary restaurant patron. Every meal I post about has been fully paid for by one of the participating members of my personal dining party. I do not engage in the gratis blogger freebie dining events I'm constantly invited to attend and never will. If I ooze font-like love for a restaurant in my blog, it's because they totally earned it…not because they gave me free food or knew I was going to share the experience on the internet.