sunshine & samurais

Today was beautiful! Oh, how we've missed the sunshine this winter! After a brief stint at work, I swung by my local Ulta Beauty to pick up some new shampoo & conditioner. If you've never heard of Ulta, be sure to check them out. They offer fantastic products at affordable prices, & they have amazing specials. I forgot my coupon today, but they offered to reimburse me for the difference of my purchase if I bring it in with my receipt in the next few days! That is excellent customer service! I decided to try some new product & review it for ya'll. :o) I have decidedly wavy hair. Not curly, not straight. I wavered between a Paul Mitchell product & the Sexy Hair line. I ended up going with the Curly Sexy Hair Shampoo & Conditioner. I also bought the Curly Sexy gel to try. SO, look forward to that review tomorrow. After making my purchase, I received a text that some dearly loved relatives had unfortunately been locked out of their house! J was already home when I got there, so we headed south of the river to rescue them. :o) We arrived around 8:45 or so, and after unlocking the house, we all decided to have dinner in Independence at a japanese steakhouse called Samurai Chef. Mom H and Dad D had been before, and really enjoyed it, but it was our first time to visit the restaurant. Our first impression was that it was pretty large for that type of restaurant, when compared with Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse (north of the river), and with Fuji Japanese Steakhouse (Liberty). The decorations inside were not over the top, the lighting was a bit brighter than in most restaurants of that type. I really liked the waterfall koi pond in the middle of the restaurant. The service was very prompt, and our server was on the ball regarding our drink refills. (I mention this, because as J is a restaurant manager, we tend to notice that kind of thing very quickly.) I ordered the chicken and steak combo, and J ordered the New York Steak. The meal started with a kind of beef broth with a few slices of mushrooms and some noodles and green onion. The broth had the potential to be great, as most soups we've had in similar restaurants are of the chicken broth variety. Unfortunately, it was incredibly salty. When we asked, the server mentioned that the saltiness depended on which cook prepared it, and that she frequently tasted it before her shift and 'watered it down' if necessary... Not quite sure how we felt about that. HOWEVER, Samurai Chef redeemed itself with the salad. The dressing was great. It tasted a bit like some sort of thousand island, but with more pepper. We really loved it. We would also HIGHLY recommend ordering the egg rolls as an appetizer if you are hungry, because they were phenom. We both ordered fried rice with our meals, rather than steamed, so I can't comment on that. The fried rice was excellent. It was not overloaded with vegetables, like so many are. Our steaks were both cooked exactly to our specifications, and the veggies that were served with the meal were great! My chicken was amazing too, almost enough to make me choose Samurai Chef over Gojo's... Which is saying a lot if you know me at all. :o) After the meal, we were served a small dish of sorbet. It was delish, but I was so full I could only handle a bite or two. All in all, it was a good experience. Our 'Samurai Chef' could have been more involved in the presentation portion, but he may have been influenced by the three shots of sake he took while cooking for us... That added a bit of color to the experience, but all in all, we'll be going back. :o) I will also add, that I was thrilled that they serve Mr. Pibb, rather that Dr. P. Tune in tomorrow for my review of Curly Sexy Hair products.

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