
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997                 TAG: 9704030060

SECTION: FLAVOR                  PAGE: F1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Restaurant review

SOURCE: BY M.F. ONDERDONK, RESTAURANT CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   92 lines

AMBIENCE, BASIC JAPANESE FARE MAKE DRUMA COMPETITIVE

EXOTIC YET delicate, healthful but intense, Japanese food is power food, and power-hungry Americans have gone for it in a big way since the '80s. Yet even in the Asian-happy culinary '90s, the foods of Nippon still run a distant second to Chinese. For Japanese food can also be intimidating and expensive and Japanese restaurants are not places where terms like ``sweet and sour'' or ``spring roll'' will get you through the night.

So the question becomes - just how many Japanese eateries can the Southside handle? Will Daruma, which opened last fall on the corner of Laskin and Birdneck Roads, hold its own in a restaurant market dominated by samurai like Kyushu, Mizuno and Ginza?

The space certainly competes. Formerly La Brocca (and before that La Broche), the dining room has shed its Gothic look and stepped ahead by a century or two. It is now a handsome space of pale walls and blond wood. Gentle decorative accents breathe Far Eastern charm - lanterns, origami birds, wooden window lattices. A cabinet behind the sushi bar displays a collection of Japanese art, including a family of fierce-looking daruma, the household deities for which the restaurant is named.

The sushi bar offers, as by Japanese custom, a hospitable alternative to the regular tables and booths. So, too, the window tables, built on a dais so that your feet tuck down into a compartment and your chin is brought closer to your food, Asian-style. A sign sternly advises the removal of shoes by those who opt to sit here.

As for Daruma's menu, it breaks no new pan-global ground, though most American favorites are here.

At lunch, on a lacquered tray, come gyoza, pork dumplings with a wonderfully intense flavor, sided by marinated lotus root. Yakisoba is a tangle of noodles fried with seaweed, shredded vegetables and chicken, flavored with a strong citrus undercurrent. At dinner, seaweed salad is like an oceanic mesclun mix, chewy and briny, with a nutty dressing.

Sushi and sashimi are sold by the piece or the platter. The a la carte option brings freedom of choice, allowing you to sample such delicacies as salmon skin rolls, spider rolls (made with deep-fried soft-shell crab) and uni (sea urchin). But platters are a better value, particularly since they come with choice of miso soup (made from soybean paste, simple and good) or salad (get the soup).

At dinner, the chef's special combination arrives on a pottery tray, laden with maki (rolls) of tuna, smoked eel, scallops, giant clam and yellow tail, and flounder. A shallow bowl is provided, into which you pour soy sauce from a little carafe, then mix it with wasabi, an intense green horseradish paste.

The suhsi and sashimi are picked up with chopsticks and dipped in this sauce. The result is addictive - intense, salty and satisfying. And, sometimes - as with California, spider and smoked eel rolls, to name a few - the food is fully cooked as well.

For Americans still fearful of meeting sushi on its own terms, tempura, battered and deep-fried goodies, offers an obvious fallback. As well as the usual shrimp and vegetables, Daruma fries up scallops tempura. These were rather undercooked and bland the night we tried them, though. Likewise, fried oysters were disappointing - over-breaded, with dipping sauce that seemed to taste of Worcestershire.

There is a short wine list and selections by the glass include sweet plum wine, good with this food. Even better is beer (such as the Japanese Kirin. Sake's nice, too - it comes warm, in a pretty carafe of green pottery.

Oriental tunes plink over the sound system - music, like the service, charming but disconnected. Evenings seem to bring more attention to detail. There are hot towels for pre-dinner hand-washing and chopstick rests are provided.

Perhaps such amenities, along with the pleasing ambience and basic fare, will help keep Daruma in trim to compete in today's restaurant market - as tough for Japan as it is for the rest of the world. MEMO: Reviews are based on a two unannounced visits by a party of two or

three, unless otherwise noted. The Virginian-Pilot pays for the

reviewer's meal and those of the guests. Previous restaurant reviews are

available on the Fun page of Pilot Online at http://www.pilotonline.com/ ILLUSTRATION: COLOR PHOTOS BY ROY BAHLS

ABOVE: The Interior of Daruma is a handsome space of pale walls and

blond wood.

LEFT: The Assorted Sushi Platter for Two is $25 and comes with soup

or salad.

Graphic

DARUMA JAPANESE RESTAURANT

608 N. Birdneck Road,

Virginia Beach, 437-8511

FOOD ** (our of five)