Here we are again, lunchtime at the Gateway mall in Quezon City. It's Japanese day today, so to Sumo Sam we go. We've eaten here before, but not at this particular branch, so we expected the usual Sumo Sam dining characteristics: good taste, big servings, and value for money. We ordered some of their tempura ramen to share. It's good for about 1-2 people, depends on how hungry you/you and your companion are. If If I remember correctly, it's a tonkotsu base - so it's a mildly sweet but bold (porky) flavor. Tempura was the usual - nice and fluffy. Could have used more but, well we were sharing.
It comes with some other tempura-tized vegetables. Eggplants, actually.
The ramen actually had a lot of stuff in it. It's quite nice, as you get a lot of flavors to go along with the soup. There are some non-traditional ingredients in there (like the corn), but that's fine. Sumo Sam is fusion food anyway, so that's expected.
We also tried their Spicy Caravan sushi. It's pretty much spicy salmon sashimi in a sushi/roll form. As expected, it has a rich, Japanese mayo sauce on top - both sweet (the lighter colored stuff) and spicy (the redder one). Adding some crunch are the tempura fry bits on top. Assorted kani and veggies inside, along with an inside-out style sushi roll.
And some sweet, soft salmon on top of course. Don't forget about that.
Well, we decided to eat here because we remembered we had a "get a free banana split" voucher. And here it is, Sumo Sam style. The difference is in the banana - it's deep fried and breaded (ala tempura). I bet Elvis would have digged (dug?) this. It was a sweet, cool treat to end lunch on.
Sumo Sam doesn't set you back so much, which is nice. All this cost around 680Php. The place is easily recommendable as a good value for money eatery with lots of Japanese-y/fusion-y cuisine. It's not a 5 star restaurant by any stretch, but it's good enough to be those once a week/month places.
3.5/5
