Restaurant Review – Favorite Spots Revisited

We’ve gone back to DaRuMa which is a Japanese hibachi, steakhouse and sushi place, and Cooper’s Hawk Winery in Ft Myers. Both are great and are on our “dine often” list!

We’ve been to DaRuMa twice with two other couples. The first time was for the hibachi show which was very entertaining watching the cook with good knife skills throwing around the food and starting some of it on fire! Very entertaining. Although for me, getting into and out of the hibachi table took quite an effort. I hate getting old! So the next time we went we sat at a regular table and ordered a variety of sushi, a rice bowl and some appetizers. All of the food was excellent! I’m just getting into sushi and sashimi (that’s raw fish without the rice), so I don’t know much about it. Its a good thing to have experts there like Vivian and Andrew along to guide us all through the menu! The only problem we had this time around was everybody got their food orders at different times. So instead of all the food delivered at the same time, one got theirs, a couple minutes later another one got theirs, 5 minutes later another one got theirs, etc. So some people were done before the last person got their food! The only thing I can figure is we got there right at 5pm when the doors open. There’s a line of people waiting and everyone is seated very fast. I think the waitress wanted to take our order at a particular time, but we were socializing too much and hadn’t look at the menu yet. When we finally placed our order the kitchen was swamped with orders. But still, my wife and I had restaurants for 25 years and got swamped many times, but never sent out a table’s order piecemeal like that. But like I said everything was delicious and the socializing kept us happy! So did the drinks (which are very good btw). The pics below are of what we ate that night. If you want to take a look at the flaming hibachi food, here’s the link to that review. Here’s a link to DaRuMa’s website.

Next up is Cooper’s Hawk. We’ve never had a bad meal here. All the food has been great. We started out with the Wedge Salad. Their version comes with Italian dressing on it in addition to the Bleu cheese dressing. We just wanted the Bleu cheese dressing, so we got it on the side and the salad was delicious. This time I tried the fish and chips and I got four large pieces of cod that were very hot! The hottest fish and chips I’ve ever had! (Temperature wise, not spicy) My wife had the Spaghetti and Meatballs. It was lunch version, but still had to take some home as I did with my fish and chips. We were stuffed! As it should be because the prices are a little on the high side. The cheapest appetizer on the menu is $13.99. I attached a shot of the appetizer section of the menu for you to check it out or you can got to their website by clicking here. By the way, if you’re not into wine, check out their non alcoholic drinks on the menu. They are delicious! I had the Passion and Spice. It says jalapeno is an ingredient, but don’t be afraid. Its very subtle!