a 15 piece chef’s selection of daily fresh fish from the Boathouse Asian Eatery in the Graton Casino. Yet duck noodle soup is a superb meal, too, stocked with tender duck leg, roast pork, crunchy bok choy and egg noodles in earthy shiitake broth ($15).

It was delicious, so I’m sad to see it removed from the menu on a second visit. On my first visit, the kitchen crafted ramen, the tonkatsu broth bobbing with chashu pork, bean sprouts, bamboo, corn, green onion, soft boiled egg and a dollop of blackened garlic mayu oil ($14). From left, a sampler tasting of unfiltered plum wine, Itokoyama Junmai sake and unfiltered Negori sake from Boathouse Asian Eatery in the Graton Casino. I also like the refreshing touch of fresh lime in the barbecue pork belly fried rice sparked with kimchee amid the scrambled egg ($11). Shaking beef delivers wok seared, cubed filet mignon tossed with bell pepper, onion and a touch of oil ($21), while shrimp fried rice ($14) is fluffy, clean tasting and not greasy as it too often is at other restaurants. Many other dishes are pleasantly uncluttered, with bright, light sauces. There are way too many offbeat flavors tripping things up.īut then, I’m old school with my sushi and crave the pure stuff, like decadent chutoro nigiri ($16), the fatty tuna rich and needing nothing more than a dot of wasabi.

A Trumpzilla roll is flat-out frightening, a mess of tuna, tempura avocado, spicy crab, albacore, chile threads and pepper sauce ($15). Other Americanized rolls don’t appeal, such as the Crazy Monkey of coconut shrimp, grilled pineapple, spicy crab, avocado and spicy aioli ($15), or the Mexican roll of spicy crab, cucumber, ebi and avocado splashed with spicy jalapeño ponzu ($13). Duck Noodle Soup with duck leg, bok toy, egg noodle, pork and shiitake broth from the Boathouse Asian Eatery in the Graton Casino. The fish can be pricey, for two pieces each of nigiri such as maguro ($7), sake ($6) and hamachi ($7), but they’re generous cuts, and we can also delve into more exotic bites like raw, well-marbled Wagyu ($9) and briny oyster ($7). That means I can hog it all myself, with my favorite Rainbow roll, a California roll that’s draped with sashimi tuna, salmon, yellowtail, shrimp and snapper sprinkled in crunchy tobiko ($15). My dining companion doesn’t care for sushi, which delights me.

Graton casino restaurant