New Style Trio

What do you get when you cross sushi, steaks, Mexican food, a fitness menu, all-day breakfast and a brewery? The answer is Dena House.

Dena House is the latest entry to the new restaurants populating Old Pasadena. It’s located on DeLacy where the Union Cattle Company used to be, you know the place with the mechanical bull. Well, the bull is gone and so is the kitsch and what has emerged is a restaurant that offers a little something for

Sushi Chef Jason Lee holding Salmon Tartar

everyone and does it with style.

The restaurant is large and airy and has two seating areas in the front with an open bar down the middle. Behind that is the sushi bar area with seating at the bar and tables. Plasma screens are throughout the restaurant but are just above eye-level so they are not intrusive.

We started off by sampling items from the sushi bar. New Style Trio, a combination of tuna, salmon and yellowtail, topped with julienned jalapeño and drizzled with a yuzu ponzu arrived at our table. Fresh

Brushetta Chicken Sandwich

succulent pieces of fish tart with the ponzu combined with the mild heat of the jalapeño, no wasbi required for this!

Thin strips of salmon in a Japanese wine sauce arrived next. The fish was topped with finely chopped shallot and just a sprig of dill, all combined to make a sweet-tender taste sensation.

Sushi Chef Jason Lee personally brought our next plate of salmon tartar, an amalgam of salmon, mango and tobiko (flying fish roe) served with a yuzu cream.

Dena rolls

Firm, fresh and tasting of the sea, this dish was a different and tasty treat.

The “Dena Roll” was served up next, real crab California rolls topped with fresh salmon and mango. It was a delicious, sweet-savory mouth-full big enough to share.

General Manager, Andrew Pratt

Cobb Salad

told us that Dena House still had the brewery from a previous tenant and was currently brewing two types of beer; a Dena House Amber and a Honey Hapenweisen. Both beers are unfiltered and full of flavor. It takes sixty pounds of honey to produce a three hundred and seventy gallon tank of the Honey Hapenweisen and the resulting brew is a smooth pale amber beverage, light on the tongue with a slight sweet nutty flavor. The Dena House Amber is more prominent with a smooth and full malt body and a hint of sweetness. continued