Departure

My wife and I have been coming to Departure for about 5 years now. It's been consistently good every time we go, and we feel like this last visit was the best one yet. This time we ordered the hand roll, KFC Bao, Crab fried rice, and Thai tea custard. Everything was delicious and seasoned perfectly. If you go while the KFC Bao is on the menu do yourself a favor and get it, it's soooo good. The service was great, we were very well taken care of. Not sure why people complain about the dishes coming out at different times. It's a made to order style restaurant and every time we've been that's the first thing they tell you when you order food. We recommend it to all our freinds for special occasions and good food. We'll be back for sure!

Went here for my wife's birthday and left disappointed. We booked our reservation two weeks ahead specifically for patio seating (it's at the top of a downtown hotel with awesome views), but got a text the day of saying the patio was closed for a private event and we'd be seated inside instead. When checking in, one person in our party couldn't make it last minute and the host made an oddly tone-deaf comment about being glad that they weren’t the person celebrating a birthday. The food was mediocre and overpriced for the portion sizes, not what we expected for the price point. Service also felt pushy around the birthday stuff. My wife doesn't love being put on the spot, so she declined the sparkler dessert. The server pressed her on it, then later brought a sparkler out to another table and made a comment to my wife like "see what you're missing out on." Not a great way to handle a guest saying no thanks. The interior is sleek and well-designed, that's the one high point. But between the reservation mix-up, the comments, and underwhelming food, we won't be back.

The atmosphere and decor was really nice. We enjoyed several elements of the dish, but felt the balance of seasoning and richness could be improved across the dishes. The Departure wings were fried beautifully, with really crispy skin, and the accompanying salad was a great pairing. The sauce, however, leaned sweet without enough savory depth. Something like soy sauce could add umami and create a better balance. The shrimp toast was crispy, but the bread felt saturated with oil, making it heavy and difficult to enjoy beyond a few bites. The shrimp topping also tasted mostly salty, without much distinct shrimp flavor or umami. Less oil absorption and a more pronounced shrimp flavor would make a big difference. The branzino was grilled just right. The seasoning, though, came across mainly as sour and salty, and I would have liked more aromatic depth and complexity. Drawing further on Indonesian flavors—perhaps with a sambal accompaniment—could make the dish more interesting. The crab fried rice was much too oily for us and also overly sour. For me, good fried rice should be flavorful while balanced enough that you want to keep eating it. Here, the richness and acidity became overwhelming, and the two of us only finished about half the plate. Reducing both would help the rice and crab flavors come through. I enjoyed the Thai tea flavor in the Thai tea custard, but personally would have preferred a lighter, more delicate texture—perhaps something closer to a softly set jelly. The dense custard felt quite heavy, especially after the preceding dishes. Overall, the crispness of the wings and the cooking of the fish stood out positively. More balanced seasoning and a lighter hand with oil would have made the meal much more enjoyable.

We had heard good things about both restaurants at The Nines, so decided to try Departure. Was really excited because of the top floor location and a colleague's recommendation. The view didn't disappoint. We were seated right in front of the window with a nice view of downtown. The food, unfortunately, was a bit mixed. We got three sushi rolls, the Suzuki, the Spicy Tuna, and the Biko Salmon. The Biko Salmon was really good and we ended up ordering another of these. For the Suzuki and the Spicy Tuna, it's was almost like they tried to get too fancy or too unique. They were either just average (Suzuki) or odd (Spicy Tuna). The Spicy Tuna almost tasted a little flowery and I think it was the furikake. But the extra flavor ended up ruining the roll. We also had the Lani's Poke, which was good, but was a very small serving. And then the Blistered Shishitos were good, in my opinion, but others in the party didn't like them. The Yuzu Mayo made it for me. For dinner, I had the Alaskan Halibut. That was good, definitely a Thai twist to it with the coconut yuzu. And then we tried a version of the Wagyu Ishiyaki - that was fantastic, as expected. Melts in your mouth. So good. For dessert, I had this Mochi thing (not sure how else to explain it). It was just the outside, gooey part, no ice cream. It was interesting and definitely unique. Or course I ate the whole thing, so must not have been bad! Servers were good, friendly, and attentive. It was a good experience, overall, especially given the view. And I'm sure other items on the menu are great, we just didn't give them a try. But from what we ordered, it was about 50-50.