Cville Restaurant Week: Ten

So Saturday night, we had our second reservation of Charlottesville Restaurant Week, this time at Ten.  Their RW menu can be found here.  We went with my husband’s best friend, who was in town visiting from North Carolina.

We showed up right on time, and the hostess seated us immediately.  The decor was lovely and modern, perfectly fitting for an upscale sushi restaurant.  Our waiter came right over and to take our drink orders, and we had a hard time choosing from their awesome cocktail menu.  In the end, I chose the Orange Blossom, an orange and gin concoction, and both of the guys had a Shiso Mojito, a mojito with shiso leaves added.

From left to right: Orange Blossom; Shiso Mojito

Let me state that I have never liked seafood, no fish or shellfish, so the fact that I wanted to go to a sushi place may seem weird.  But I do like tuna.  It’s the one fish I really love.  Fortunately, a lot of sushi is tuna. 🙂  So anyway, we ordered our meals, which were delivered with impeccable timing, each course following the next exactly when we were ready.  For our first course, I had the Ten Salad and the guys each had the Shrimp Tempura.  The salad was tasty, with a yummy ginger dressing and toasted pine nuts.  It was a little weird to eat it with chopsticks, but I managed.  The shrimp was apparently incredible – spicy and crunchy.  I can certainly attest that it was beautiful.

From left to right: Ten Salad; Shrimp Tempura

For our second course, I had the Maguro Karai Honey Roll – a tuna roll with spicy honey sauce – and the guys both had the Sushi Omakase, the chef’s choice of three pieces, which were a gigantic shrimp, yellowtail, and tuna.  The roll was fabulous.  It was a little sweet and a lot spicy, and all delicious.  The boys said the three pieces they each had were all of excellent quality, though they were both a little disappointed that shrimp was one of the selected pieces.

From left to right: Sushi Omakase; Maguro Karai Honey Roll

For the third course, we all three had something different.  David chose the Toro Steak (tuna steak in a citrus ponzo sauce), our friend Josh chose the Escolar Goma Ponzu (Hawaiian walu in a black sesame citrus sauce), and I had the Chu Ka Lamb Chop (crusted with cumin and chili).  The tuna steak was fantastic – perfectly cooked and delicious.  Josh said the walu was a tiny bit dry, and it was a very small piece of fish, which surprised him.  My lamb chop was okay, probably not surprisingly the least exciting of the three.

From top to bottom: the walu; the tuna steak; the lamb chops

Oh, and they did bring me a knife and fork for the lamb chops, so I didn’t have to pick those up with my fingers or (God forbid) chopsticks.  Overall impressions are that Ten is delicious, and the discerning sushi lover will probably not find better sushi in Charlottesville.  The decor is lovely, the waitstaff is friendly and efficient, and it is overall a wonderful experience.  It is, however, expensive for the small portions that you receive.  That’s not to say we wouldn’t go back; I’d certainly like to try some of their other tuna and vegetarian options, and David’s sister and her husband are huge sushi fans, so we’d probably like to bring them here sometime when they visit.  But we won’t be there frequently because of the prices.

Side plug for another establishment we love: after leaving Ten, we walked to The Flat and got Nutella crepes for dessert.  Perfect ending!