Murasaki Cafe

Easily one of the worst lunches I’ve had in a long time.
Very mediocre Asian food.
Not recommended at all.

The mister and I are ramen lovers, and the owner/​chef of Murasaki in West Hartford told us to check out the ramen at his other restaurant, Murasaki Café. Since we always have to drive to Manhattan for ramen, we kept our fingers crossed and hit up the Café this weekend.
The café itself is clean, bright, and has some Japanese design elements. It is not the kind of café you would expect most museums to have which are usually more like snack carts, but this one was definitely not as hip, trendy, or busy as some of the cafes found in museums in Los Angeles. But it’s Mark Twain’s House… how much traffic can you possibly get? :P
The mister and I ordered shrimp shumai, ramen, and chicken yakisoba.
The shumai was supposed to come with hot mustard, yet it didn’t, but it did come with a soy/​vinegar dipping sauce. The shumai itself, though, looked and tasted like the pre-​made frozen variety. Not bad, not great, just not fresh.
The ramen had a nice, clean chicken broth, which was really good. Typically, we prefer the more savory and potent broths like tonkontsu. Traditional Japanese ramen usually comes with a slice or two of char siu pork, but this one came with slices of chicken thigh. The chicken was tasteless and had that inherent nasty chicken taste that made it pretty unappetizing. The noodles were good, still nice and chewy.
The yakisoba was very traditional and reminded the mister of what you would get in a café in Japan. Again, though, the chicken had absolutely no flavor, so I elected to eat around it. The portion for yakisoba is quite large, and definitely big enough to share with someone if you’re not particularly starving! It was topped with some pickled ginger, which the mister enjoyed. Chewy noodles, lots of veggies (cabbage, broccoli, mushrooms, and carrots (?)) — and the amount of sauce was perfect.
The service was nothing memorable nor offensive, but I appreciated that she sat us right next to the window, overlooking the house, on a beautiful day. :)

All in all, this was an extremely enjoyable lunch. Just sad that all the sushi options are crossed off on the menu! I’d love to try the original Murasaki Japanese restaurant in West Hartford Center for their sushi options. But this is a museum café, and for that, the food is impressive. No soggy saran wrapped sandwiches here!
I met a few friends for lunch this afternoon at Murasaki in the Mark Twain House & Museum’s stunning visitor center. The café had a bright, clean interior with a patio for seasonal outdoor dining. So far, so good! The menu was quite limited but I really have to remind myself that this is a museum café– not a downtown restaurant. I’d definitely like to check out the weekend jazz brunch sometime soon.
My meal was scrumptious. A steaming hot bowl of Nabeyaki soba topped with scallions, mushrooms, a poached egg, and flavorful tempura shrimp. Excellent meal for a winter day. Both of my friends’ meals looked similarly tasty – one friend opted for the Murasaki Chicken Katsu Sandwich.
I probably wouldn’t come back here just for lunch — I’d go to the other Murasaki for the full menu– but for a museum café, this place dominates.

Attended Jazz Brunch this morning at Murasaki. Jazz trio played one set for ½ hour and finished. The brunch is buffet, which is not specificed in the description. The buffet tins were filled with COOL items, none were freshly prepared or table hot. Scrambled eggs, sausage, noodles, small fried chicken/​pork balls, rice… all cold. A green salad and choice of 3 sushis, edamames etc. Lovely fruit platter and cold non-​alcoholic beverages were included in the $ 35 price. Nice choice of noshy dessert pickings. BUT! This venue is not advertised as an EXPRESS JAZZ BRUNCH. They appear to be overcharging by at least $ 10. Jazz trio was very good, but serving cool food seems to be the afterthought. Plenty of good restaurants in CT do special 3 course dinners which are superb and the cost is the same.

The last thing I expected to see associated with Mark Twain’s house is a Japanese café! As with the previous review, we were pleasantly surprised. The food was much better than Saran Wrapped sandwiches and limp salads in plastic containers. We both had their miso… very nicely done! I had a selection of their sushi. The price was right, too. The fish was fresh but sliced a little too thinly for my taste. Still it was nicely prepared. My husband had pork Katsu and declared it good. I know we will be back to the Twain House for another visit. Look forward to another taste of Murasaki!

For Japanese fare, I didn’t expect much from Hartford. And especially because this was in a museum (Mark Twain House), I had low expectations. But I was actually pleasantly surprised! I got an unadon (unagi + rice) and my brother and sister in law got nabeyaki (noodles, one udon and one soba) that they really loved, citing the flavorful broth. My unagi was not bad, and the serving wasn’t measly. I would go back again, not knowing the rest of the Japanese fare world in Hartford. Not bad for museum café food!