Origami aims to offer fine dining in dining hall

Origami, located in the new Turner Place dining center at Virginia Tech, aims to provide a traditional Japanese steakhouse experience.

Recently, I set out with my family and a 6:45 p.m. reservation to have that experience. It began with scarce parking and running into a gauntlet of students, but eventually we arrived at the door.

Initial-visit protocol was a bit confusing because of general crowd chaos and an obscured “Enter Here” sign. Finally, we spotted a nearby cashier and a laminated menu. We saw the rest of the 10-person grill-top table already seated and knew that the chef wouldn’t begin until everyone was seated. I made a quick decision to order shrimp ($13.95) and vegetable ($10.95) entrees. That accomplished, we paid for everything and seated ourselves.

Once seated, our chef confirmed our order , a challenge over the noise of the open restaurant and dining hall patrons. A cheerful college student, he chatted up the kids and adults while cooking. Any shortcomings in tricks of the teppanyaki grill he more than made up for in friendliness.

We started promptly with miso soup , which turned out to be the weakest part of the meal. The tofu was too firm and hadn’t absorbed any miso flavor. There was no seaweed, and it lacked that distinctive miso bloom when stirred.

Next up were grilled vegetables. Fresh snow peas spruced up an otherwise unexciting industrial vegetable mix. Fried rice followed. Our chef attempted making Hokie tracks with pre-scrambled eggs before folding them into the rice. They weren’t perfect, but the effort made diners happy. The rice itself was tasty, as evidenced by the fact that both of our children actually ate most of it. All of the side portions were generous.

Last came the shrimp, which was cooked well and had a nice lemony soy flavor. The “vegetable” entree turned out to be a giant portobello mushroom cap.

After a brief grilling, it tasted about as you would expect a giant mushroom cap with little seasoning to taste: slightly mushy and bland. Having already paid, we took a minute to crowd-watch and left satisfied with our expenditure-to-experience ratio.

I coerced a friend into heading back to try the sushi bar. Aware of limited bar seating — half a dozen chairs right at the entrance — we planned on grabbing sushi to go. There was no line when we arrived, so we went ahead and ordered a spicy tuna roll ($6.95); a Turner roll, featuring scallops ($6.45); tuna nigiri ($3.95); and a vegetable roll ($5.65). The veggie roll wasn’t on the menu, but our request was happily accommodated. Possibly because we ordered multiple items, we waited more than 20 minutes while customers with single orders came and went.

The sushi was largely a disappointment. The rice was extremely vinegary, and there was too much of it. Tuna nigiri was the best of the sushi. The tuna was ample, tasty and fresh. The spicy tuna roll, however, was more fishy than desirable. It was difficult to tell how the Turner roll scallops tasted; there was roughly one tablespoon of scallop distributed among the entire roll.

Ultimately, Origami could be described as fine dining-hall dining. Its presence in Turner Place is a direct result of dining services’ student surveys. And if you’re a student or on a budget, Origami is a great place to have dinner with friends for a reasonable price.

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