It has always been a mystery to me how this restaurant survived in perhaps the worst non-Bennington location in the city. It is hard to find, hard to access when there is any traffic at all on Essen, and the left hand turn off Essen onto One Calais Avenue is too close to the Interstate exit. You run the real risk of being cut off by idiot BR drivers blocking the intersection when you get your green turn arrow. How do you keep a spot like this open? Like a couple of other places in town, this one has both a Japanese and Chinese menu, but markets the sushi bar. So I decided to try that first and see if it answered the survivability question. Short answer. It did not. The nigiri was only a notch above the all you can eat buffet level, but the size of the pieces and the price wasn’t bad. Middle of the road I’d say.
I’m still going to go back though, in part because the steamed shrimp gyoza dumplings and the service were both very good, and they at least attempted to make the salmon skin hand roll I requested using the server’s scratch pad since she was new and not confident that she knew what I was asking for. It came out sort of clunky, lacking any of the fresh crisp elegance that a handroll should display.
The other reason I will return to try the Chinese menu is their perseverance. It takes a lot to hang on in the restaurant business when you are fighting traffic problems or a hard to access location and are surrounded by hotels and businesses instead of neighborhoods. There must be a reason Omi has hung around all these years when everyone before them collapsed at that location. Or there’s a well kept secret like a great Chinese menu. But there are signs. The place is worn, needs an update or remodel which they clearly can’t afford, but it is clean, there was absolutely no dust on the intriguing art works, and the server may have been new, but she and the owner? manager? were eager to please. Even if it is only in appreciation of the effort it takes to stay open, I feel like I have to give these guys another shot to win me over. You dream, I dream, we all dream of a hidden treasure. There’s only one way to find one.
