text: We decided to stop by this place because we felt like continuing our sushi quest yesterday, it was close, and it has good reviews.  I wasn't expecting a whole lot, however, since it was the East Valley, and the first thing I noticed was the lack of an actual sushi bar and visible sushi chefs.  Plus, there was techno music playing.  I HATE when they do that.  Sorry, but I want an authentic experience, complete with Japanese dudes chopping up my fish in plain sight, and 15th century Japanese music with pan flutes and hand drums or whatever they use.  A samurai trained in the bushido tradition standing by the door in order to slice up unruly guests would also be a nice touch, but I'll give them a pass on that one.\n\nAnyways, we sat down at the table, and started with the miso soup.  This was some of the strongest miso I've had.  It was almost like they were trying too hard.\n\nSo, I wasn't real hopeful, although they had some nice cuts of fish on the menu... Halibut, toro, uni, etc... Nothing crazy, but still some good stuff.  Unfortunately, they were out of all the interesting stuff.  The live specials were only available on weekends, and by Monday, they were all out.  Cool that they have them, but unfortunate that we couldn't actually try them.\n\nI also wanted to try the beef tataki sashimi style, but for some reason, it was only available in nigiri.  Why?  You can put a strip of seared beef over rice, but you can't serve them alone?  This did not make sense to me.\n\nWe ordered a couple of the special sashimi items - some hamachi dish whose name I don't recall, and the Screaming \"O\" - as well as white tuna sashimi, albacore sushi, red snapper sushi, surf clam sushi, and the Sixty Nine Roll.\n\nThe hamachi was overly stepped in citrus.  I mean, it was so citrusy that you were basically eating lemons with the texture of raw fish.  I'm the kind of guy who likes to taste fish when he eats fish.\n\nThe Screaming \"O\" was pretty good, despite its overpowering spice and marinade.  Also masked the tuna flavor, but it was a seared dish, so it wasn't as bad.  It would have been better had they dialed it down a notch, but it was still tasty.\n\nThe sushi and sashimi was typical.  Basically what you'd expect from a standard sushi place.\n\nSixty Nine Roll was pretty good.  It is basically softshelled crab and shrimp tempura on the inside and fish (I believe it was the standard tuna, yellowtail, and salmon) on the outside.  Good filler to finish off the meal.\n\nFinally, we ended with some tempura ice cream and tempura cheesecake for dessert.  The cheesecake was nice and thick, but also pretty much frozen and impossible to cut with a spoon.  The tempura batter was all wrong; it was thick and crunchy, not light and flaky like tempura is supposed to be.\n\nAt the end of the day, I decided that this place is good for what it tries to be.  Its appeal is not for those who love sushi.  It's sushi for people who probably like to eat at Chipotle, Zupas, or whatever the newest trendy chain place is, but every now and then want to eat some raw fish.  It has enough to perhaps expand the horizons for those who don't often eat sushi, but not much that will interest those who like a new adventure every meal.