North Sea, Adams Morgan - Now Offering Pan-Asian

[synaesthesia]

I saw the menu under my door. I remembered that Tim Carman wrote about it this week (here). And given that we were too lazy to go anywhere decent for sushi decided to try the place out instead of the usual Spices. The person who answered the phone was the most pleasant I've ordered delivery from ever. The delivery time estimate was shorter than Spices.

It is a lot of fish for your buck - $20 will get your 8 pieces of sashimi, 8 pieces of sushi, and spicy yellowtail and tuna rolls. Fish was cut very much oversized. Rice was a bit mushy. But usually we're just looking for that hit of fish and high glycemic white rice and sugar, fast. So given that it was slightly better than Spices and a lot cheaper we'll probably order from them again in the future.

The cooked menu looks mostly the same as Spices with some more Chinese dishes. I'm curious to see how the cooked items are. Also, you can order Nelly's Pimp Juice, Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake, wine and beer. Oh yeah, and cigarettes. The menu offers free red or white wine with a $60 order.

[The Hersch]

I was unaware of this new incarnation of North Sea. In the past, I always assumed that its delivery service, late hours, and availability of beer, wine, and cigarettes for delivery were all that could possibly recommend it, so have never patronized the place. When I saw the post above and read what Tim Carman had written, I hastened first to menupages and then to the restaurant's own website. Calling the website a work in progress would be too kind, I'm afraid. The menu available on menupages and when you click on the menu categories on the restaurant's home page reveal nothing but the standard, dreary Chinese-American fare this place has always offered. The title bar at the top of the browser window says "Welcome, Online Order Chinese Food" but nowhere in the menu could I find any way to do that. I finally spotted some tiny little links way down at the bottom of the page. One says simply "Menu", and another says "Online Order Policy", so I figured I was on the right track. First, I clicked on Online Order Policy, and if you follow that link you'll see a heading that says "Sakura Hibachi & Steak House Online Order Policy Secutity", which is, well, unpromising, although you're still at North Sea's website. Further down you'll see a reference to "Kaijou Restaurant", and another to "Noodle Stix Restaurant" and www.northsearestaurantdc.com not being responsible for typographical errors! Okay, enough. Go back to the tiny links at the bottom of the page and click Menu. You're still on North Sea's website, but a header on the page says "www.kaijounewyork.com", and another slapped 1/3 of the way down says "Online Order Menu,North Sea Chinese Restauant, Sushi, Sashimi and other Japanese Food, Downtown New York City, New York". I love this! In addition to the menu being nearly illegible, it also contains nothing but Japanese stuff, mostly sushi and sashimi--no fusion, no Chinese. And if you click on any of the menu items, the application fails. One thing I have to give them, though. This is the rare restaurant website that shows their address and business hours on their home page. Bravo!

[Anna Phor]

North Sea is on foodler, if you'd like to order online.

[treznor]

North Sea is on foodler, if you'd like to order online.

Though note that the prices on foodler are 80 cents higher per item than on their website. This website is different than what I've seen others use, but it's what was on the flyer I found stuffed under the hotel door last week. Don't know how common it is to charge a different price on foodler as I haven't had a menu to compare to for anyone else I've ordered from for foodler.

Had a couple of the cooked items last week:

1) Steamed dumplings - Giant, doughy, bland dumpling shell with a nicely seasoned meat filling. The filling I was fond of, though the giant dumpling shell was a complete turn-off

2) General Tsao's chicken - I order this pretty frequently from take-out places that I'm not all that familiar with or that I don't have a wonderful opinion of. Basically it's fairly tough to screw up so I use it as a barometer since I'm much happier with meh General Tsao's chicken as opposed to other items that I generally prefer. Their General Tsao's chicken is about like most other delivery places, which means they didn't screw it up too bad.

3) Honey Walnut Chicken - Pretty horrible, and had a slight taste of cardboard somehow. Honestly, I wouldn't read too much into this. I get this dish about every 2-3 years from different places and hate it every time. I have no idea why I still order it from time to time. The goopy white sauce stuff I just don't like at all. This could be the definitive version of Honey Walnut Chicken and I'd probably still hate it

On one hand I'm not a huge fan of the food (though it's passable, and I'll probably order from them again and try some different dishes). On the other hand, they deliver Ben & Jerry's, beer, and wine, and that's tough to pass up