An (with a squiggly above the a, but i can’t figure out how to make myspace do it), is a new restaurant on Harrison Avenue in Cary. They call it Asian fushion, Eastern food prepared in the French style. They also have an extensive sushi bar.
My small group at work had our holiday celebration at An last week. I had heard great things about the place, but wasn’t sure what to expect.
The architecture was interesting. Something about the decorating really drew attention to the crisp squareness of the place. All the tables were big and square. It was open and airy though. Crowded, but with enough room to navigate easily around the tables. I found my group way in the back corner.
There were 12 of us for lunch, and my manager ordered three sampler appetizers, which were huge and meant for large groups to share. The platters came with a tiny fishbowl in the middle, with an actual fish swimming around in there. Nice touch, but kind of weird.
The platters each had lots of weird sushi items on them. I am not a sushi person. I have tried it two other times, pressured by friends who insisted i would like it. Never much cared for it. Cooked, hot seafood i can handle. Not the cold and/or raw kind. But here i was, and it seemed sushi was once again being pushed. Well, why not. We had three vegetarians in the group, plus one other who refused to try it, so there was plenty to go around for the other 8 of us.
I first tried the spring roll and small crab cake, which are both inside my comfort zone. Both were good. I then went for something that looked like shrimp – it was pink like cooked shrimp. I tried it and it was amazing. Later i found out it was squid. Good thing i didn’t know that, or i would never have tried it. As it was, i went back for more. I also REALLY liked the two sashimi tuna samples. In fact, i think i liked everything i tried from that platter.
The lesson here is that it must be a truly excellent sushi restaurant, simply because i liked it, where i have never liked sushi before. I can’t critique it intelligently – that’s all i can say.
I ordered the Bento Box for my entree. The spicy crab soup that came before my box was delicious. The curry beef tenderloin was the feature of the Bento Box, and it was also very good. The rest was not remarkable – salas, rice, veggies, spring rolls.
Overall, i was very pleased with my experience. The service was excellent. A couple of us did have a weird experience where our water glasses began to smell like fish or rotten eggs after a few glasses. Not sure why that would happen, but we had to ask for new glasses.
Anyway, give it a try, especially if you like seafood and/or sushi.