I haven’t gone out for sushi in such a long time, and I’ve seriously been craving it lately. So when a new friend suggested going to a spot with a great happy hour, I was all for it. I have wanted to check out Buddha Sky Bar in Delray since it opened. It sits above its sister restaurant, Buddha Garden, and overlooks Atlantic Avenue. Buddha Garden has more of a quiet, relaxed atmosphere while Buddha Sky Bar is livelier and more intimate. It’s a tiny place, with maybe 15 tables, so it’s smart to make a reservation. Happy Hour on the weekends starts when they open at 5pm and only lasts an hour – the entire menu is half off. Drinks, appetizers, entrees, sushi, everything! That is a pretty sweet deal, although the prices are a little expensive.
We ordered drinks, and a couple appetizers and two rolls to share. I got one of their specialty cocktails, the Asian Coconut Caipirinha to drink – it reminded me of pina colada, but a million times better (and also not frozen). The food was insane. There aren’t too many sushi rolls on the menu to choose from, but they are each quite unique. We got the El Guapo, which has spicy tuna, blue crab, avocado, and parmesan cheese baked on top. SO good. Like stuff-your-face-and-still-want-more kind of good. I must have been on a coconut kick, because I couldn’t resist ordering the Eel Coconut with eel, avocado, toasted coconut and pineapple eel sauce. The flavor of coconut wasn’t as prominent as I thought it would be, but that allowed for the pineapple flavor to really shine through. For appetizers, the waiter recommended their baked scallop with blue crab, parmesan, yuzu, a spicy aioli, and a little tobiko on top. There was definitely some heat to this dish, but it was perfect. The scallops were presented really nicely too, in the shell, which is something I have never seen before. We didn’t stop there; I mean, come on, you have to take advantage of half-off prices! The final thing we ordered was the tuna poki – diced tuna, mango, seaweed, sesame seeds and lotus root chips. I think those chips were my favorite part of the dish. The entire thing was good, but I’ve had tuna poki before. Lotus chips were something completely new to me! Crispy with just the right amount of saltiness to them – perfect for scooping up the tuna and mango and enjoying everything together in one bite.
There was only one thing on the menu that I would have loved to order, but didn’t want to go completely overboard. Edamame Risotto was listed as a side dish. Um, you all know by now how much I love risotto. Edamame comes in pretty close to risotto, so putting these two favorites together in one dish just sounds like its too good to be true. There’s always next time…
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