TASTE: All Over the Map

The Lees, though, would prefer you think of their small, sweet café as Japanese, so they have dressed up some of the walls with kimonos and installed a blond wood floor; the tables are oxblood lacquer, giving the dining area the air of a modest family restaurant in suburban Tokyo.

That elegant little box on every table has forks for traditionalists who don't want to eat with the paper-wrapped chopsticks that serve as the default tableware here. Beyond that, the accoutrements are simple: flagons of salty brewed soy sauce, shakers of shichimi (a devilish Japanese condiment redolent of white pepper and orange zest) and a tiny salad bar, stocked with potato salad and greens, which diners may add on to their main courses for a nominal fee.

Even though Sandai serves sushi and hand rolls, much of the food here is more from the inventory of the low-fat, low-protein, high-carb dishes that Japanese people regularly eat. There is, for example, saimin, really a Hawaiian version of a classic Japanese ramen noodle soup, in a concentrated broth laced with green onions and topped with sliced chicken—comfort food at its best.

And there are other types of noodles: udon, thick wheat-flour noodles, which can be fried with vegetables or eaten in a salty broth topped with batter-fried vegetables; or soba, delicate buckwheat-flour noodles colored a pale jade green, light, delicious, and done in a number of ways here.

You may want to start off with one of the salads. I like the Asian chicken salad for its grilled chicken breast, crisp Romaine lettuce and toasty almonds, but I wish there were a few more fried noodles in it, and I prefer a sesame-oil dressing to the pleasant but insipid honey-mustard vinaigrette the kitchen uses. Sandai's special shrimp salad has the best house dressing here, a biting wasabi vinaigrette that cuts right through the avocado and red onion on the salad. There's also a spicy sashimi salad made with tuna. Nice stuff.

Hand rolls are prepared by the team of chefs in the obligatory bandannas and happi coats. One of the house specialties is the spider roll, fresh crabmeat and avocado in sushi rice rolled in panko bread crumbs. Red Dragon roll is a combination of crab meat, cucumber, avocado and tuna. I'm always keen to try salmon-skin roll, too. I like the nori seaweed wrapper and crunchy texture. This one is just fine.

The Lees do a workmanlike tempura of shrimp and vegetables, which they can work into a combination plate or bento (a Japanese lunch box). But the dishes I like best are really Korean dishes in disguise, barbecue short ribs, aka galbi, spicy pork and spicy chicken. The ribs have that sesame-and-garlic taste I crave in a Korean dish, and both spicy meats are a pale red, from a surfeit of chili, something that doesn't exist in Japanese cuisine. Do the meat in a rice bowl, too, or on a plate with rice and salads from the salad bar.

The only official dessert here is mochi ice cream, little balls of ice cream in flavors like green tea and mango, wrapped in glutinous rice-flour skins with the texture of an earlobe. Personally, I'd rather find someone who'd let me chew on hers.

Take heart—there is boba, a teenage sensation that is finally filtering into mainstream life. Picture gummy tapioca balls at the bottom of a frothy fruit shake, which you suck up through a straw with the diameter of a large catheter. The concept grows on you. My fave here is the white-chocolate mocha, but there are several flavored with teas, such as matcha green tea, Thai tea, taro and chai. Smoothie boba drinks include mango, sour green apple and pina colada. Look out. The Pacific Rim is going to bite you.