It's funny, the circumstances that send one out to dinner. For example. I had every intention of cooking tonight, but then I went to see G.I. Joe with my brother, which ate up an hour and a half on either side of noon. That left me with enough time in the afternoon to either do the work stuff I needed to do, OR prep a meal in the increasingly deathly humid kitchen.

Well, my Puritan work ethic won out, and with Mikey over for another round of Bleaching. it seemed like a good excuse to try the new neighborhood restaurant - Wakame Sushi and Asian Bistro, in the former Three Fish location, off to the side of the Lake Calhoun Whole Foods.

My first impressions, from the menu, were not terribly promising. Lots of wacky drink and sushi roll names, and a certain generic Midwestern approach to pan-Asian cuisine that gave me pause. There were Thai curries, Chinese stirfries, Japanese noodles, appetizers from all over the continent, and a couple of pages of sushi. Two appetizers were ordered - the sushi appetizer, because nobody was committed enough to dive into the sushi selections right off, and "Anna's Ika", described as "lightly battered sushi grade squid served with ponzu dipping sauce".

I was expecting fairly bog-standard fried calamari, to be honest. Which I like, and which sounded good. What was set in front of us was the first of many pleasant surprises this evening. Good-sized, thick pieces of squid, flash-fried into large curls. "Lightly battered" was the understatement of the year - you could barely see the batter, but when you bit into the squid, you could taste almost the essence of tempura - a hint of crunch, clean oil, and batter flavor. The squid itself was meaty and tender, and the ponzu sauce was an accent that didn't get in the way of the squid at all. As soon as it was gone, I wanted more.

The sushi appetizer ended up being five nigiri - shrimp, tuna, salmon, and two of those whitefish you always get and can never remember which are which. It was fine. Competently executed, good quality fish, but this is Minneapolis, and since we do not live on a coast, every sushi place in town pretty much sources the same fish from the same suppliers. There's only so much you can do with it, especially with nigiri.

I ordered the green curry with chicken, and was again a bit surprised. What I got was a deep, square bowl, with pieces of chicken, Japanese eggplant, and bell peppers swimming in a damn fine green curry sauce. Tons of heat, tons of complexity, not too thick or cloying from the coconut milk, and generous with the Thai basil. They must know it's good, because they serve it with a Chinese style soup spoon, so that if you want, you can just slurp spoonfuls of the brothy sauce. You will want to.

Cathy, Libby, and Mikey seemed quite happy with the yakisoba, yakisoba, and crab cakes, respectively. And then we got dessert. I almost always skip dessert in restaurants, on account of usually being full and also having stuff on hand at home a lot. But the creme brulees - one ginger, one green tea - caught certain eyes, and were ordered along with red bean ice cream.

The ginger brulee was great - first you get custard, then you get ginger, then you get caramalized sugar, and the whole thing works at least as well as you'd expect. The green tea brulee tasted like no other green tea flavored thing I've ever had - I mean, there was clearly some green plant involved, but it wasn't bitter at all, just green and grassy and sweet and good. The red bean ice cream tasted like red bean, but it also tasted a bit like berries - another pleasant surprise.

The service was... friendly, occasionally dipping into over-friendly, but keep in mind I'm a misanthrope. The decor is nothing special, the Muzak is unnecessary, and there is no Wi-Fi, although a couple of unsecured hotspots from the apartments across Excelsior Blvd. taunted me by almost, but not quite, working. Careful diners could get out of Wakame for $15 a head*. There are enough reasonably-priced entrees that you can partake of appetizers, share some sushi, and/or have some dessert and still come in at under twice that.

Will I be back? Hell yes, if for no other reason than that squid. I seriously need to eat more of that. On top of that, it's close to home, seems to do a fair number of Asian standards better than you'd expect from a Jack-of-all-trades, and can provide me with my occasional, although increasingly rare, mid-to-high-end sushi fix. Between this and Burger Jones, my neighborhood has gotten a lot more happy-making this year.

* By the way, whenever I give these numbers, I give them as the amount you don't have anymore when you walk out the door, including tax and healthy tip. Just so you know.