Tokyo Bay-- Cuisin Art Resort, Anguilla

For our first night in beautiful Anguilla (I'm on Spring Break) we decided not to leave the hotel, but to stray away from the Caribbean style of food and go for some Japanese. Tokyo Bay is Anguilla's first authentic Japanese restaurant, so I didn't have the highest expectations. We sat down in a pretty quiet restaurant near the window which had a great view of the rest of the resort. The first dish we ordered was the Yellowtail Hamachi, which was supposed to be raw and cold-- however, it turned out to be more like a ceviche, because it was cooked with acid and was room temperature. Still yummy, but not quite what we wanted. Then, we had the Red Snapper Crudo- at least this time it was raw. The citrus flavors mixed perfectly with the burst of cilantro and the spiciness of the jalapeño- however, I found the snapper a bit too chewy. Next, we ordered the pork buns with kimchi bok choy-- WAY too salty.  The pork was tender and yummy, but the kimchi was overly salty and disrupted the taste for the rest of the dish, which was probably pretty good. (We couldn't even tell.) Then, we ate the Duck Duck Gyozo dumplings, which were little, spicy dumplings with a sweet teriyaki dipping sauce.  I found these dumplings to have a ton of heavy flavors even without the teriyaki sauce, which was very impressive. After these four appetizers, we transitioned to rolls. First was the Shrimp Tempura roll, which was by far the greatest dish of the night. The shrimp inside was perfectly tender and had a hint of coconut sweetness. The aioli sauce added a spiciness to the sweet shrimp, and the small shredded carrots added a crunch. Quite possibly one of the best rolls I've had in a long time. It seemed so complex, but at the same time very simple and delicious. Next, we had the habanero salmon roll, which the waitress warned was 'very spicy for kids.' Usually when they say that I don't even listen, but this salmon actually put my mouth on fire. The creamy avocado on top mixed with the saltiness and rawness of the salmon perfectly. Also, contrasting from the shrimp roll, the habanero salmon was wrapped in a rice paper instead of seaweed, which was an unique little touch. And finally, for the grand finale-- pineapple fried rice. The vegetarian fried rice dish arrived in half of a pineapple (I absolutely love that presentation) and had possibly the sweetest fragrance ever. It smelt liked vanilla, but the chef said it was just caramelized pineapple. The rice was sweet and the grilled pineapple contributed a sweet baking flavor to the rest of the dish. It was more of a dessert than an entree. Wow, what a night! So many dishes, so many flavors, a few bad, and some great. At the end, I give Tokyo Bay 4 pineapples. For the first Japanese restaurant in Anguilla, Tokyo Bay definitely exceeded my expectations, even though it got off to a rough start.