Takumi Sushi Ramen&Lounge — Restaurant in Branford

So let me just start out by saying: I HATE EATING TAKE OUT FOOD. I hate every aspect of the experience. I hate that the food sat. I hate that the food had to travel. I hate eating out of plastic. I own my own restaurant. I cook for people A LOT of hours every week. That last thing I want to do is eat food that was cooked half an hour ago out of a plastic container when I get to eat another restaurant’s food.

But! I have been completely unsuccessful, in the past three years, at convincing my parents to eat lunch out. They LOVE to order lunch and then bring it home and eat it. And we discovered Takumi during Covid when you actually could not eat in the dining room anyway. So I think that makes it even harder for me to convince them to go out and eat inside a restaurant for lunch when I’m visiting them from Vermont.

All that to say that one of the five stars of giving Takumi is for their sheer grit and hustle and professionalism during Covid (they took orders online and over the phone and there was completely contactless pick up in their vestibule) and how that has carried over in these Post Covid Times. You can EASILY place your order online and then Takumi calls you to get your credit card info for payment. I’m assuming that saves them the RIDICULOUS fees so many of these ordering platforms charges restaurants.

That star is also for the fact that I have been physically unable to eat inside. But I’d definitely like to…

Every time we’ve gone to pick up our lunch it has always been ready. We’ve never had to wait. Not even when they were just BUSTING OUT the take out during Covid.

Not once has our order ever been wrong.

Sushi/Japanese Cuisine has come a long way in Branford in the past 20 years. And Takumi is really excellent for a town on the Shoreline in Connecticut. They have a pretty extensive sushi menu (cut rolls, handrolls, meals, combos, etc.) . But they also have Soups, Salads, Hot Appetizers, Cold Appetizers, Tempura dishes, Rice Bowls and Noodles, Donburi Lunch Specials, Kitchen Entrees and Ramen! Meals all come with a choice of soup or salad (and there is actually a variety of options for each).

I had some cut rolls over Covid. They were perfectly good for take out sushi (not my favorite thing). The Miso Soup and Clear Soup (which is Vegan - the menu notes which items are vegetarian and vegan if it is not obvious) are both very good.

Since we’re only ever eating take out I do steer away from rolls. Because I have standards regarding my nori…

However! The thing I get over and over again is the Salmon Skin Salad. Sooooooo good. It is a salad of cucumbers and tomatoes and greens (today it was baby spinach) topped with a generous portion of strips of crispy salmon skin. I also ordered the seaweed salad (generous portion on bed of Iceberg) and basically mixed the two salads. DELICIOUS!

We had the Pineapple Fried Rice (chicken, shrimp, raisins, pineapple, egg, veggies) which is very good, similar to Singapore Noodle flavoring with some curry in there, but not spicy at all. Generous portions of shrimp and the other ingredients.

Edamame is always very good. Perfectly steamed.

I ordered a Sushi Entree: Sake Don. Which is Salmon Sashimi over a bed of sushi rice with Japanese Pickles. I’m going to be honest. There was SO MUCH SALMON I almost couldn’t finish it. Which is basically straight up Crazy Talk for me!!

Good Food. Good Service. Huge Menu with something for everything. I am happy to support Takumi...

I visited Takumi today with my husband for dinner and we got the karaage for an appetizer which was honestly amazing. It was juicy and freshly fried dark meat chicken with some kind of citrus (yuzu?) sweet dipping sauce that I would legitimately buy a bottle of to take home if I could. I got a bowl of Spicy Miso Kurobuta Ramen which is not kidding about being spicy! It was on the edge of my spice tolerance, but to be fair, it does say spicy in the name! The noodles were perfectly cooked, the egg was amazing and not at all overcooked and the broth was nice. My husband got the Chicken Katzu Don and come hungry for this one, because it is a LOT of food! The flavors were great and the pickled radish was a nice addition. I think we might have preferred the cutlet not smothered in the sauce so it stays crispy by the time you get into it, but to be fair that is likely how it is supposed to be served. I really wanted to try the mango mochi ice cream for dessert, but I didn't have room for it before the drive home. If we ever were in the area, I would need to drop by to try that at the very least! If you are interested in Japanese food and are in the Branford area, drop by and...

Really excellent sushi. Hit the spot with a lot of good flavors. We also had a bowl of tonkotsu ramen. It was...ok. My wife and I got spoiled in southern California so our standards are exceedingly high for ramen.

Pros: Sushi was decently priced and tasty. We had the eel & avocado, spicy yellowtail, shrimp tempura and sweet potato rolls. Waitstaff was masked Our daughter was offered a lollipop on the way out. Very kind. Every table had its own hand sanitizer.

Cons: Food took longer than expected to get (close to forty minutes) despite only one other table there Ramen was good. My issue was that the chashu pork was thin. Like, the thinnest I have ever seen in a bowl of ramen. It made me sad. The table had some food scraps still on it when we sat down, which had us concerned about cleaning procedures.

Overall, I'm pleased with things. Looking forward to trying out some more from...