Bua Thai & Sushi — Restaurant in Town of Malta

I stopped in for a weekday sushi lunch, not for the Thai dishes. Everything started out well enough, as I was escorted to the 8-seat, mostly empty, sushi bar. The regular indoor and patio tables held about a dozen other customers as I entered. I was pleased to see cloth napkins and actual hashi but noticed the muted television in the background and was then handed a menu with lots of photos of some else's sushi. Sorry, I haven't been a fan of picture menus for a very long time. Seeing a couple of temaki available, I ordered a handful of nigiri, a temaki and a maki.

The physical sushi bar here dominates the center of this restaurant. You would not guess that reading the limited sushi menu, and the sushi bar also seems to diminish itself. The elevated display cooler completely hides the chef (photo) - they might as well prepare their creations in another time zone. The whole idea of a sushi bar is to interact with the chef. My experience found that very difficult here.

I enjoyed a simple soup waiting for the main. The two-plate main was simply decorated, but a bit uneven. The rice itself was not bad. The spicy salmon temaki presentation was a bit sloppy, but the taste was good, and it was actually spicy - a healthy dose of cayenne pepper seemed to be mixed in.

The nigiri also had some lower notes. I was surprised that the hotate was prepared as careless gunkenmaki, instead of a simple nigiri. The pieces themselves did not appear evenly cut, but random chunks. If I was suspicious, I'd think this was solely to allow the chef to use cheaper frozen scallop pieces instead of whole scallops. On another nigiri, the chef apparently tore a visible hole in the white fish, and didn't bother to remove, correct or even cover the error (photo).

Perhaps I am exaggerating the importance of presentation as part of the sushi experience.

Overall, I get the feeling that the chef was, at best, distracted, while creating my meal. I'll probably return, but if the chef can hide behind the counter while assembling sushi, I have no reason to expect an improvement any time soon.

2019...

I ordered from the Thai Lunch Boxes – BOX #10. It comes with a Spicy Tuna Roll, six pieces of sashimi, and pineapple fried rice (with the option of beef, chicken, or shrimp). I’ve attached the entire menu so you can browse the different options they offer. Personally, I really enjoyed the food I ordered. I have no negative critiques—it was filling and satisfying. Even though I had lunch around 1 p.m. EST, by the time I wrote this review at 7 p.m. EST, I was still full. I would definitely recommend checking it out.

However, my boyfriend ordered the RAD-NA, which is a soup with flat noodles, egg, and vegetables in a Thai gravy sauce. You also get to choose your preferred meat with it. His experience wasn’t as good as mine.

His review: “The food came with spicy red sauce and pepper. Very filling. The noodle type and texture were new to me, since the restaurant is Vietnamese. I ordered it with thin beef slices. The yellow, spiced side dish of rice had a particularly Southeast Asian flavour. (I also tried some of her pineapple fried rice with shrimp.)”

Also,...

Delicious. Prices are right, food is fresh, place is clean and the staff is always friendly.

Sushi is a special thing. Each restaurant has its own unique specialty rolls. In this case it's the Dollar Tree. Sortve an Americanized version of sushi, with it's crunchy deep fried coating and gooey melted cream cheese center. This would be my recommendation for people who want to try sushi but aren't keen on fish.

Their appetizers are good too. The dumplings were fried crispy, chicken satay was thick and juicy. Tastes like their sauces are made in house. I could ask but I'm kinda shy.

The picture here is my Dollar Tree roll, affordably priced at $11. At most other places you can't even look at the specialty roll section without spending $15 minimum. My mom got Thai fried rice. You can see the chicken satay in the middle, looking thick.

Get the Thai iced tea. You...