YW Picks: Japanese/Sushi restaurants

[SunWuKong]

my favourite sushi place in the greater DC area has to be Japan Inn at Georgetown. i think it's one of the few sushi places in the area that are actually ran by Japanese people themselves. the decor is very excellent, and the food is great. however, the portions aren't big and it can be kind of pricey.

http://www.japaninn.com/

[applehead]

you should try a sushi place that's run by koreans.
you order a plate or sushi or sashimi or a combo of both
big enough for your party.
and they bring you all these side dishes. the bigger plate
you order the better side dishes you get.
then when the side dishes are done, you get the sushi/sashimi.
when that's done they make a spicy casserole using
the fish head from the sushi you ordered.
you get rice and then the typical side dishes you would
normally get at a korean restaurant.

[SunWuKong]

you should try a sushi place that's run by koreans.
you order a plate or sushi or sashimi or a combo of both
big enough for your party.
and they bring you all these side dishes. the bigger plate
you order the better side dishes you get.
then when the side dishes are done, you get the sushi/sashimi.
when that's done they make a spicy casserole using
the fish head from the sushi you ordered.
you get rice and then the typical side dishes you would
normally get at a korean restaurant.

most of the sushi places in the DC area are ran by Koreans. but they don't serve the sushi/sashimi like you described, with side dishes. you'd get side dishes with your sushi/sashimi if your order it at a Korean restaurant, though.

[yoMAMA]

I think most of the Japanese restraunts in Hawaii are runned by the Japanese [yakuzas].

In Minneapolis I like Nami and Kikugawa.

Benihana kinda sucks and never been to Origami.

[moJo]

Sushi Tomo on Geary Blvd., by 22nd Ave or near there.
decent prices, quality sushi/sashimi.

[FrankieY18]

I think most of the Japanese restraunts in Hawaii are runned by the Japanese [yakuzas].

In Minneapolis I like Nami and Kikugawa.

Benihana kinda sucks and never been to Origami.

i like the benihana in chicago :tongue:

[yoMAMA]

Sushi Tomo on Geary Blvd., by 22nd Ave or near there.
decent prices, quality sushi/sashimi.

yummy....sashimi....... :tongue:

[BigLew]

Sonodas in LODO Denver.

[Cipherous]

A place called Asahi in Laurel MD,

they have the best sushi buffet I've been to.

[kboy75]

Sushi House in Alameda, CA in the Shoreline shopping center on Shoreline and Park - Korean-run, but good food. decent prices.

Kamakura in Alameda, CA on Santa Clara and Broadway - fresh, not cheap

Kirala in Berkeley, CA on Shattuck and Ward - fresh, not cheap at all, doesn't take reservations

[BeTheReds]

Quality - Matuba, Bethesda, MD
Value - Sushi Sushi, Bethesda MD
Xtra Value - Taipei Tokyo, Rockville, MD

[Irezumi Kiss]

If you're in New York, you can't go wrong with this quad...

BOND STREET
6 Bond St. / Tel. 212-777-2500
Open daily, 6 PM to 12 AM; closed major holidays / Dinner from $25

JEWEL BAKO
E. 5th St. / Tel. 212-979-1012
Open 6:30 to 10:30 PM; closed Sundays / Courses $34 to $85 (multi-course omakase)

NOBU
105 Hudson St. / Tel. 212-219-0500
Open weekdays, 11:45 AM to 2:15 PM, daily 5:45 to 10:15 PM / Multi-course omakase from $80

SUSHI SEKI
1143 1st Ave. / Tel. 212-371-0238
Open 5:30 PM to 3 AM; closed Sundays / Multi-course omakase from $35


Jewel Bako is good for romantical-like dates.

Seki is a right as rain alternative to Nobu if you can't get in.

Bond is funky. Plus my homies work there, so I gotta pimp them out when I can.

[younggiftedandblack]

Nobu is expensive as hell.

Here in Vegas we have a Todia (sp?) and several Hamada's.

[mrazntre]

There are a bunch of trendy sushi places in Pasadena. I've never been there so I don't know.

I don't really know how to tell good sushi from decent sushi. I know what bad sushi is though (it's like how cute don't always mean cute, but ugly is always ugly).

Apparently there's a really good place in the valley off of Reseda and Plummer (it's in the plaza on the northwest side of the corner). My friend swears by that place. *shrug* Prices seem decent at about $15+ a person.

There's this one japanese restaurant by work on Overland and Venice called Yokohama. I usually go there for the lunch specials, never had their full sushi plate or anything. My coworker who is a former Bank of Tokyo employee (back in the 80's) is agreeable to this place - she used to always eat sushi during work dinner functions.

[Shuriken]

The Best Sushi Restaurant in L.A. (http://forums.yellowworld.org/showthread.php?t=9447&highlight=sushi)

[Hanuman]

NOBU
105 Hudson St. / Tel. 212-219-0500
Open weekdays, 11:45 AM to 2:15 PM, daily 5:45 to 10:15 PM / Multi-course omakase from $80

Jewel Bako is good for romantical-like dates.

Seki is a right as rain alternative to Nobu if you can't get in.

Bond is funky. Plus my homies work there, so I gotta pimp them out when I can.

Yeah Nobu is very expensive, isn't that the restaurant where the Iron Chef Japanese works?

[Irezumi Kiss]

Yeah Nobu is very expensive, isn't that the restaurant where the Iron Chef Japanese works?
I think in name only these days. I thought he opened up a new restaurant in Philadelphia or somewhere else a few years ago and only comes back to Nobu for quality control once or twice a month...but I could be mistaken!

[misschopstix]

Blowfish Sushi - Sushi to Die For. Badass sushi restaurant!! Here in the Bay Area.

Check it out:
http://www.blowfishsushi.com

[SunWuKong]

anybody know a "traditional" sushi bar in the DC area where the chef picks what you're going to eat?

[Shuriken]

Well, here is what the L.A. Weekly's food critic, Jonathan Gold, thinks of my favorite sushi restaurant, Sushi Nozawa:

Cult Jam

Nozawa is the center of a sushi cult in Los Angeles, a grungy mini-mall restaurant dedicated to the proposition that the customer is never right and decorated with signs that say “Special of the Day: Trust Me” and “Don’t Think: Eat.” Mr. Nozawa was not the first sushi chef in Los Angeles to refuse to make the baroque rolls and spicy tuna concoctions that were proliferating around him in the Studio City sushi ghetto, but he was among the initial wave, and when I began going to the restaurant back in 1986, his spare, rigorous style seemed almost revolutionary. You ate what he served you, in the order that he served it to you. If you managed to make it through the meal without committing a major faux pas, you were rewarded with a fresh crab hand roll the size of a reggae star’s spliff.

But sushi has moved on, and Nozawa hasn’t. His practice of dictating the pace and the content of each meal, which once engaged and enlightened his customers, now seems to distance him instead, and while he still cuts the fish, an assistant serves it up on worn plastic plates. On a recent visit, there was a rote, rapid-fire barrage of big, sloppily cut pieces of fish pressed onto indifferently molded blocks of rice, deli-counter sashimi and that crab roll. Nozawa never looked up. And the experience it reminded me of was less a glorious 1980s Nozawa meal than a quick, cheap sushi lunch at a faded Little Tokyo drugstore. 11288 Ventura Blvd., Suite C, Studio City, (818) 508-7017. Lunch Mon.–Fri. noon–2 p.m. Dinner Mon.–Fri. 5:30–10 p.m.




:confused:

For the complete article on L.A. sushi restaurants, go here (http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/32/restguide-sushi.php).

[hooligan]

Sushi House in Alemda, right on the bay. Cheap, a lot and great.

[Irezumi Kiss]

Well, here is what the L.A. Weekly's food critic, Jonathan Gold, thinks of my favorite sushi restaurant, Sushi Nozawa:

:confused:

Wow. He didn't pull no punches, huh? You think he just went on a really bad night? I'd trust your tastes miles before I'd trust that review!

There's more than a few places here that would garner a similar review, but for those in the know, they LOOK the part and so, your Spidey-sense would alert you leagues away in approach.

[hooligan]

Sushi House in Alameda, CA in the Shoreline shopping center on Shoreline and Park - Korean-run, but good food. decent prices.

Kamakura in Alameda, CA on Santa Clara and Broadway - fresh, not cheap

Kirala in Berkeley, CA on Shattuck and Ward - fresh, not cheap at all, doesn't take reservations

Missed this one, I'm assuming you're around that area.

[deez nuts]

masa and sushi yasuda.

i've never been to masa. but, i've heard great reviews from co workers and friends that went and they all say it's worth the $400/person omakase experience.

[kasia]

in socal - oomasa in little tokyo. up in the bay area - hatoba in pleasant hill.

[Irezumi Kiss]

masa and sushi yasuda.

i've never been to masa. but, i've heard great reviews from co workers and friends that went and they all say it's worth the $400/person omakase experience.
I've heard mixed reviews on Masa. Quality is there, but is it really worth all that moolah? I trust your taste, so I'll wait 'til YOU go first! Here's the tail end of a review from The New Yorker:

It was a memorable meal, as different in style, dimension, and scope (and, of course, cost) as a TV rerun is from a first-class Broadway show. But when I returned a few weeks later, my experience changed in a number of significant and not-so-significant ways. Perhaps it was because I’d already sampled the meal (Takayama’s menu tends to change seasonally, as opposed to weekly or even monthly), or perhaps it was because I was dining with my discerning wife. A refugee from the land of midwestern malls and cineplexes, she was mildly horrified at having to walk through a glorified shopping center (“Is that Muzak?” she whispered) for the most expensive meal of her life, and as a dutiful, empathetic husband, I became mildly horrified, too.

Then, instead of taking a place at the bar (and, in fairness, that’s where the staff at Masa suggests you sit), we asked for a table away from the charismatic chef and his hardworking band and were seated in a dim, windowless corner of one of the restaurant’s two mini dining rooms. There, in the contemplative, templelike gloom, a dysfunctional air duct hummed noisily in the ceiling over our heads, and a group of gray-suited corporate revelers were talking perhaps too loudly at the next table.

The tuna tartare and caviar tasted as fine as I remembered, and so did the uni risotto. But the portions seemed a little meager compared with the ones I’d had at the bar. The Kobe-beef sukiyaki had disappeared from the menu entirely, and nothing was substituted in its place. When the foie gras shabu-shabu appeared, my wife perked up a little, but when I told her the rest of the meal would consist of sushi only, she looked at me with her mouth agape. “You realize,” she said in a flat, matter-of-fact voice, “I could have bought a ticket down to Florida, chartered a boat, and caught my own tuna for the price of this meal?” She’s more or less correct: We spent $834.31, including tip, sake, and two $10 bottles of mineral water. (The bill for my first meal, at the bar—with the Kobe-beef sukiyaki—was exactly the same.)

[deez nuts]

I've heard mixed reviews on Masa. Quality is there, but is it really worth all that moolah?

not if i'm the one paying. i'm not a big fan of sushi. if i was gonna blow the money, i'd rather go spend it at lugers.

[amietron]

A few sushi joints for the Bay Area folks:

Sushi Sam's
218 E 3rd Ave
San Mateo, CA 94401
650-344-0888

Sushi Maru
308 Town and Country
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
408-530-8464

Tanto Japanese Restaurant
1306 Saratoga Ave
San Jose, CA 95129
408-249-6020

Sushi Zone
1815 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-621-1114

Zushi Puzzle
1910 Lombard Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
http://www.zushipuzzle.com

Sushi Ran
107 Caledonia Street
Sausalito, CA 94965
415-332-3620
http://www.sushiran.com

Angelfish Japanese Restaurant
883 Island Dr
Alameda, CA 94502
510-749-0460

Tomodachi Sushi Bistro
24123 Hesperian Blvd
Hayward, CA 94545
510-940-3800