Light and Healthy Mirai - Albuquerque, NM

Facebook: Light and Healthy Mirai
This restaurant does not have a website, but they do have a facebook page.

This is a terrible excuse for curry

Spice:  4 out of 10
Overall:  2 out of 10


It was a late night at work which means we get dinner on the company.  We usually get it from local restaurants since there are not always enough people to justify full blown catering.  On one such night we ordered from "Light and Healthy Mirai" which I think is a weird name for a restaurant.  Name aside, I've mentioned before that all of the Asian cuisine in Albuquerque, NM leaves much to be desired. I've eaten from this place before, but I usually try to get dishes that are hard to mess up like karaage, or teriyaki.

I had a feeling the curry from here was not going to be great, possibly not very good, but since I wasn't paying for it I decided to take a gamble.  I ordered the chicken curry and was immediately disappointed when I opened the styrofoam container pictured you see above. Maybe I should have ordered the katsu curry - at least it would be fried which makes everything taste better.

The presentation was horrible, but I'll let that slide since it's take-out. There was a disturbing lack of smell. I always make fun of CoCo Ichibanya because of their slogan "Good smell, good curry" but it's true! All of the best curries smell great which gets you excited before you even start to eat.

I don't know if it shows in the picture but this curry was so thin.  I mixed it with the rice and instead of a nice coating, it sort of just rolled off the rice and down to the bottom of the container.  This was more like a stew with rice mixed in than curry on top of rice.  At this point I had no hope of a delicious curry dinner - oh well.

Once I tried it I confirmed everything I thought. This was terrible. I didn't even finish it because it just wasn't good enough to satisfy me. I had about half and tossed the rest out.   It was bland, watery, and lacked almost any vegetables except for a small amount of carrots and potatoes which were overcooked. The only thing that prevented this from a rating of 1 was that nothing in the curry was offensive. It was not gross, but it also was not good.

The best thing about this curry is that I only paid for it with my time.  Again, if you're in Albuquerque, NM and want Japanese Curry - make it yourself!

Sushi King - Rio Rancho, NM

Website: Sushi King
For some reason they don't list the location that I went to on their website.

Good spice, ok flavor

Spice:  7 out of 10
Overall:  5 out of 10


The other day I found myself at a Japanese restaurant with some co-workers here in Albuquerque. I had pretty much given up on finding any good Japanese food here, but I was told that they had been here before and that it was good.  I can't judge the entire restaurant because I only had the curry, but I'll say that it probably is the best Japanese restaurant in Albuquerque. However, the bar here is set pretty low.  It actually is run (I think) by Japanese people unlike the other restaurants I've been to here which are run by Koreans and have a lot of Korean food on the menu. Not that there's anything wrong with Korean food, but if you're calling yourself "Sushi Ichiban" I expect yakisoba not bibimbap.  I was surprised to find curry on the menu and thought "It must be a good sign". I had to try the curry.

On the menu it didn't say anything about spice and the waiter didn't ask me if I wanted it mild, medium, or hot so I immediately asked about it. That should have been the first clue that I wasn't about to be blown away. He asked how I wanted it because they could make it as spicy as I wanted. I told him I wanted a lot of kick to it, but not to the point where I start sweating like crazy (I was with co-workers afterall).  I have to say, they got the spice level PERFECT.

The rest of the curry, sadly, was not up to this same standard. For one, it was watery. You can even tell how watery it was from the picture. The beef was well cooked, but it could have used a bit more spice - any spice - when it was cooked.  I also would have liked a little more vegetables to be thrown into the curry, but it was an ok amount.  Overall the curry itself had a decent taste. The disappointment was more that it was so close to being good, but it was just too watery.  I could overlook everything else if the curry had been thicker, and maybe it was just an 'off' day.  I doubt I'll try it again though as I'd prefer to just make my own.

If you live in Albuquerque and want to eat curry in a restaurant then this is probably the place to go. If you want a good curry that doesn't fall short, just make it at home.