Restaurant Review - Juicy Fruits of Fusion
Sassy takes on sushi and Thai make Sweet Lime an L5P standout
I’m looking at images of rainbow supreme sushi rolls that are the culinary equivalent of celebrity mug shots. Modeling a frill of roe, the rolls seem stunned by the flash of a paparazzi bulb. The garlic seafood entree in another shot appears as if it’s been caught in headlights. If the coyly posed barbecue chicken in one picture could gasp, it probably would.
The last pages of Sweet Lime’s menu catalog pictures of the restaurant’s seemingly startled sushi and entrees. Poring over the glossy photos, I am mesmerized, and I already know that Sweet Lime is right up my alley. I want a T-shirt printed with these oddly lit shots. On the way to the bathroom, I half expect to come across a table laden with plastic food. I’m mildly disappointed when I don’t find one.
Wacky food photos are just the beginning of the fun. The Asian fusion restaurant’s laid-back, stylish atmosphere - complete with seed-shaped paper light pendants hanging above the bar, pleather tablecloths and lounge music you’d kill to have in your iPod - is a refreshing change from a culture of suburbia that sometimes seems on the verge of eating Little Five Points. Orange walls lend the intimate bar area an even cozier feel, while a lime-colored paint job creates a soothing air in the dining room. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the teeny sushi bar (really more of a counter - don’t try to sit there) is taken over by a DJ on weekend nights. Dub the soundtrack of surrounding conversation with Catalan and I might think I’m back in Barcelona.
But there’s no hipper-than-thou feeling here, thankfully. Service, although wanting for a bit more attention, is friendly and obliging. You might lose your waitress to a barside chat, and it might take several tries to get the check, but there’s zero attitude.
The menu is divided between Japanese and Thai flavors, with a decent range of sushi options. Don’t expect any sea urchin or ethereal sashimi, though. The restaurant’s more about fun than serious cuisine, and the sushi rolls are perfectly entertaining bites. There’s little to dislike about the spider roll of crispy soft-shell crab shards, cucumber and roe. Super eel roll is equally tasty - sweet and piquant with a creamy touch of avocado.
The restaurant’s namesake martini is a potently zippy lime seduction. Unabashedly tart with a bare kiss of sugar, the Sweet Lime signatures go down with an almost savory edge that gets your appetite raring to go. Appetizers like the crispy crab cheese rolls seem made for the puckery drinks. Fake crabmeat, which usually sets me howling, is entirely pardonable in the rolls. They are wound so tightly and perfectly you could probably whip out a T-square and find each are the exact same width and height. Cream cheese, with a fluffiness usually reserved for cheesecakes, fills the intensely snackable rolls.
Vegetarian kyoza dumplings are daintily pleated and tawny browned. Their skins provide chew to the filling of black mushrooms, cabbage and onion. The shrimp tom yum soup is unfortunately lackluster. It comes with an overpowering dose of fish sauce.
Entrees are executed with an artful hand. Plates are simply yet beautifully composed, and each element is skillfully cooked. Seared tuna with udon and ponzu (soy sauce, lemon juice, rice wine vinegar and bonito flakes) sauce laced with butter is a bit too salty, but the wholly rare tuna is rose-petal soft. Each forkful melts on my tongue, and glassy threads of sesame-scented seaweed provide crunch next to the toothy, slippery udon. Brilliantly green steamed broccoli and fragrant jasmine rice packed into a square mound accompany the chicken kabayaki - pounded and panko-crusted chicken - for a blissful textural assault on the senses. Beef teriyaki, with its small strips of meat, sliced mushrooms and julienned onions, bears more resemblance to a lusty Chinese stir-fry than the standard Japanese restaurant version of the dish. However, the strips of meat are so velvety and succulent, its name is hardly of consequence. Seared salmon with spaghetti napped in a coconut-cream green curry sauce wants for a pinch of salt, but the grilled fish is fabulous. A lacy trim of fat on the salmon is charred crisp, while the flesh is robust yet tender.
Extended travels through Asia have taught me to never pass up a fried banana - you rarely go wrong with these. At Sweet Lime, bananas are diced and tucked into spring roll wrappers and deep-fried. Bite into the Tootsie-roll sized packets, arranged like the numbers of a clock around a spiral of lime syrup and raspberry sauce, and the custardy banana practically oozes out. Fried ice cream seems stolen from a state fair in all the right ways. Perfectly round and big as a baseball, the sphere of green tea ice cream is encased in a salty, lightly doughy coating whose nubby texture and golden flavor calls corn dogs to mind.
The giant, creamy ice cream snowball is a perfect representative of the kitchen’s playful yet skilled touch. Could you find better Japanese and Thai food in Atlanta? Certainly. But dinner at charming Sweet Lime is utterly enjoyable and relaxing. The chefs clearly take cooking, but not themselves, seriously. Now if I could only download some of those photos.