Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Sashimi

Sushi chef Victor Peng prepares a sushi dish for lunch customers at Formosa.

Formosa, a stylish restaurant located in a slip of space next to Beads Indeed on Campbell Avenue, energizes dining in Roanoke. Owner Chih "Sam" Hsu decorated the interior with globe lights, giving the place a cool, upbeat look.

This decor balances the room's extremes of an exposed brick wall and a bar gussied up in changing colored lights. Behind the bar, traditionally garbed chefs prepare fresh sushi to order.

Although Hsu calls his place "Formosa," a Portuguese word dating to the Spice Trade era meaning "beautiful" and the former name of today's Taiwan, the restaurant serves Japanese food.

The menu

This is a fine place to indulge in a variety of reasonably priced Japanese fare from the wide-ranging menu. Japanese cuisine is known for its simplicity, emphasizing freshness, flavor and presentation of basic ingredients. It lacks thickened sauces yet its components hold tantalizing seasonings; soy sauce is used with a deft hand.

Japanese food is light -- even fried foods such as tempura have a fragile batter surrounding morsels of seafood, fish and vegetables. Teppanyaki is a method of cooking on a searing flat iron griddle. Rice is a staple food, the foundation of most meals.

Raw fish preparations come from the freshest fish available. Sushi, made from thinly sliced raw and sometimes cooked fish, is formed by hand into a roll using vinegar-seasoned rice and accompanied with thinly sliced pickled ginger and wasabi. Creating sushi rolls is a highly regarded culinary art form with in-training chefs serving for several years as apprentices. Maki, nigiri, sashimi and chirashi are all variations of sushi. For an authentic experience, sip hot sake along with your selected sushi.

The food

Multicourse lunches and dinners provided an impressive assortment of dishes at Formosa. Appetizers include small calamari rings and tentacles, fried to their tender, crispiest best. A salad featuring tempura shrimp, encased in a wispy batter and fried to perfection, was an outstanding introduction to our lunch.

Palate-clearing soups include sumai, with its flotilla of feather-light shrimp dumplings, or hondashi, with floating small shrimp, transparent mushroom slices and seafood in clear broth. This prelude concluded with garden salads arranged on white rectangular dishes, gently seasoned with ginger dressing.

Teppanyaki entrees display great visual appeal. We chose a combination preparation of scallops and chicken, as well as chewy beef steak and seared shrimp. The meats glistened from fast cooking on the intensely hot grill, which caused juices to caramelize around the edges. A tasty assortment of vegetables -- quickly cooked onions, mushrooms and squash -- complemented our meals.

Dinner brought staggered service for three persons. At no time did we have the appropriate courses together. Two appetizers arrived: a superb lobster salad with caviar and a disappointing serving of fried calamari, its thick pieces covered with heavy batter.

When one entree replaced a finished appetizer, my exquisite asparagus salad arrived. Bright green asparagus spears stood straight in a wine glass, their ends in a delectable vinegar reduction. A bowl of noodles, the side to my entree, arrived well before my entree, and two bowls of fried rice, intended as a single side for a guest, was too greasy.

Luscious teppanyaki scallops turned out to be the winning meal of our dinner visit, while two Kobe steak entrees were the biggest letdown. Kobe beef is known for its exquisite tenderness and velvety texture, but these pricey steaks at Formosa ($30 each) were totally deficient in those qualities. They were impossible to eat with chopsticks and, because of abundant sinew, difficult to cut with a knife and fork, much less chew.

During the same visit, another entree brought the perfect teppanyaki meal with succulent tenderloin and seared shrimp and vegetables cooked to exemplary doneness.

Six categories of sushi provide an ample assortment of exceptional, freshly made cooked and uncooked rolls. It is fun to enjoy the tasting experience of sharing sushi rolls.

The sashimi combo features eight pieces of the chef's best choice and was wonderful. Ichiban maki consists of yellowtail, salmon, seared tuna, asparagus and crunchy tempura crumbs. All of these are delectable combinations I would select again.

Not to be picky, but ...

Formosa lacks consistency in food, meal preparation and service. These are the growing pains of a new restaurant, which experience will smooth. Glitches between the kitchen and dining room require correction; servers need mentoring. My biggest beef is with the inferior quality of the tough Kobe steak.

The bottom line

Formosa has a bounty of positive attributes and I anticipate returning many times. However, there must be more hands-on attention to details; valuing the principles of hospitality, correct culinary preparations and proper service go a long way toward achieving success.