Sunflower Cafe, Valrico
How do you commit to eating a healthy lunch when you’ve got a cooler full of freshly picked peaches and blueberries in your car? “But, Peaches and blueberries are healthy.” In limited quantities, yes. But as delicious as those fruits were, sweet and warm from the summer sun, I knew I wouldn’t stop at a reasonable amount. It took everything we had to not simply go home and gobble them all up.
On our path home there was a place I had been wanting to try and I thought the light and simple nature of fresh fish and rice would be a pleasant follow up to a day in the sun plucking unadulterated fruits from their burdened branches, as well as being less filling, thus leave room for some dessert berries, peaches and whipped cream.
Sunflower Cafe is an Asian Fusion restaurant with a strong focus on Japanese cuisine. They get great reviews for their sushi, bento box lunches and ramen. We got there a bit early–they open for lunch at 11:30, so we browsed the neighboring Fresh Market and Stein Mart to kill some time.
This was one of those potentially great holes in the wall of a strip mall, though this strip mall was not as nondescript as others. This one had a Chili’s and a Panera Bread.
Sunflower Café
3452 Lithia Pinecrest Road
Valrico, FL 33596
Phone: 813-657-8744
Hours:
Monday to Friday:
-Lunch 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM
-Dinner 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Saturday: 12:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Sunday: 12:00 PM – 8:30 PM
sunflowercafe.net
We walked back to Sunflower just as they were raising the blinds and flicking on the neon OPEN sign. Our hosts greeted us with smiles and asked us to sit anywhere. (We’ve been getting that a lot lately—Southern, especially Florida restaurants seem not to care where you sit as much as they do up North and service doesn’t usually suffer as a result.)
A look at the austere lunch menu had me torn between sushi or ramen. Yes, I had sushi on the brain before arriving, but the cool interior made the hot ramen more appealing, which had me becoming reminiscent of the dishes of Issei Noodle back in Lancaster. Sushi or ramen? Sushi or ramen?
Christa had it easy with the Lunch Box option. The Teriyaki Chicken Bento seemed the perfect alternative to the sushi she dislikes. With the accompanying soup, salad, and rice or vegetables the price was right at $9.
I went with my initial craving and decided on what looked to be the best sushi lunch deal: Sushi Lunch E for $13.95. It was a fantastic price for three pieces of nigiri, six pieces of sashimi and a spicy tuna maki. Soup or salad came with it and I opted for the miso.
We both opted for soup rather than salad–the miso for me and the clear chicken soup for her. I like miso after the sushi (it helps settle the food in your tum) but stateside Japanese restaurants have adapted to western course traditions, and either I’ve forgotten to ask for it or the server forgot to bring it (and I’ve forgotten it entirely) when I’ve requested it after. So I just go with it as a first course; if I save it for later it gets too cool.
I really like short and sweet menus, especially at lunch. It makes it easy to decide, and it makes it easy for me to eventually try everything. Consider this as well: Those places with massive menus—how do they manage all that food prep for whichever of a hundred menu options are going to start streaming from the printer? To offer all those things there’s got to be a lot of frozen, preserved, multi-purpose, and instant foodstuffs on hand to minimize waste. And a lot of cook-and-hold practices. Simple menus can mean fresher foods and better focus on each dish.
The miso soup was a strong dose of miso paste with medium diced tofu and thinly sliced scallion. The wakame was almost non-existent as if the dustings of an empty packet were shaken into the bowl prior to adding the broth. Not that I’m likely to get the most out of it, anyway. Regardless, the miso flavor was very good. At home, I usually make my soup weaker to make the miso paste last, but I appreciate a good helping and Sunflower Cafe does not skimp here. Due to the notably unfishy flavor, I think veggie broth was used, but if it was instant dashi or homemade, it had a mild flavor masked by the miso.
Christa’s clear chicken soup was tasty. I forgot to ask her about it and now she doesn’t remember any details. That bento box must have blown her mind.
A simulated canvas platter was painted with a stripe of green ti leaf, four strokes of white makis, one nigiri each of pink tuna, orange salmon, and striped shrimp, a daub of pastel green wasabi and a swirled dab of pickled ginger slices. A white bowl of fresh greens on ice held two folded sheets each of orange salmon, pink tuna, and beige mackerel sashimi, garnished with a purple orchid. The only thing missing was a signature.
The various fish were fresh, clean and flavorful. This may be some of the best salmon I’ve had. I usually prefer the tuna in this typical combination, but. though the tuna was nice, this salmon was rich and full of flavor—it had to be wild caught. The whitefish had the typical taste of mackerel that I’m not a huge fan of, but it makes for a nice range of flavors.
The nigiri were also first-rate as far as the freshness and flavor of the fish, though the rice–and this is just my personal taste–well, I just could not pick up any hint of vinegar; perhaps a one-time oversight, or perhaps I ate too many tart blueberries (like drinking wine after salad). The shrimp was cooked firm, but tender and had zero fishy taste, but was delicately and distinctly that of shrimp with a slight sweetness.
I’m not really a specialty roll person when it comes to sushi. I prefer the simple flavors of fish and rice with nuanced characteristics. The cream cheese, mayonnaise, tempura crisps, and other lubricious or cloying additions muddy my palate and don’t add to the experience to justify the price. They look nice, and I’ll scarf them up when given to me, but it is just not for me when I’m out to sate my sushi urge.
The spicy tuna roll was also very good. Usually, the tuna is mixed with a heavy sriracha mayonnaise that masks the tuna flavor. Sunflower Cafe’s was just seasoned with (probably) sriracha and you could tell the meat was freshly prepped, not the old collected scrapings of the fibrous trim. It was delicious.
Christa’s bento box was chock full of tasty food divided into separate cubicles. Two plump fried gyoza with dipping sauce in its own pool, a green salad with cucumber, grape tomatoes, carrot strands and a ginger dressing, fried rice, and the teriyaki chicken was glazed in a delicious sauce cooked with onions and broccoli and garnished with sesame seeds.
Each portion was ample and flavorful and they combined to make a satisfying and healthy meal that would be hard to beat for the price and quality. It was a fantastic and delicious value that will certainly bring us back.
I tried my best to take my time with the sushi and sashimi. I paced each bit, consciously aware of each chew and the resultant flavors and textures. But it was so difficult because it had been so long since my last sushi meal and this sushi was so good. But I stayed the course and made the most of it.
Meanwhile, Christa nibbled away at her lunchbox taking a little from one compartment, a little from another, back to the rice, the last gyoza, some more chicken, a bite of salad, etc. I must have been going too slow though because for the first time I could remember, She finished before me.
I placed my last piece onto my tongue and sunk my teeth into it. That was fantastic salmon. Though for maximum flavor enjoyment it’s wise to eat lean to fat, I’ve always saved one piece of my favorite from the platter to eat last, regardless of fat content. I’ve never saved a salmon for last until here and now.
We had a very pleasant time at the Sunflower Cafe. The food was high quality, prepared well and with care. The cooks are skilled and obviously care about what they are serving. The service was prompt, pleasant and accurate. The overall attitude of the staff is one of agreeable positivity. Everyone was all smiles, very friendly, seemed genuinely pleased to serve the guest, and were most gracious as we left. It was a dining experience I’d like to repeat over and over again. With a few more visits, I hope to find them to be consistent as well.
We said our goodbyes to Sunflower Cafe and their pleasant and adept staff with a promised to return the next time I craved sushi. Well, to return the next time we agree to satisfy my constant craving for sushi. Christa did enjoy that bento box and it is a flavorful alternative to the usual tempura chicken she typically chooses when we “go for sushi.”
We headed for home with satisfied tums, but still with ample room for some fresh blueberries and peaches. Any restaurant that satisfies and still leaves room for dessert is a talented one, indeed. Sunflower Cafe left a bold impression on us.
Thanks for reading!