After last night's tasting, Mel and I took the opportunity to stop in for some sushi. Man, they are doing great work! Here's the play-by-play:
We ordered 4 rolls: Fire Scallop, Bluegrass, Sunset and New Orleans. A different protein on each and varying flavors of acid and spice. Young, our server was not only helpful in our menu decisions, his hospitality was top-notch, responsive without being overbearing, knowledgeable without being elitist. He made Hiko proud, for sure.
Hiko was working the back-kitchen and the sushi chef (whose name I didn't catch) was a fairly young fella. We walked in with 3 other parties and all ordered sushi at the same time. From personal experience, I know this can weed a sushi chef. He banged it out with enthusiastic aplomb. The plates looked and tasted great. Mel picked a favorite in the fire scallop, I couldn't make up my mind which I liked best, although looking back, I think I dug the sunset roll most, with it's prevalence of fresh lemon. Then again I enjoy very straightforward, clean flavors.
The green tea they serve, whole leaf through the strainer really made me ponder terrior. Coming from a wine tasting, one would expect that topic to be pushed to the front of consciousness. There was something special here... I could detect the nuance of the sea, like kelp, or something umami. No salt to it, just a light backnote that screamed 'Japan!' Internally, I remembered a 'lesson of Brett Davis.' He spoke of some Australian wines having eucalyptus nuance because the vineyards were next to these aromatic trees. Hmmm... wonder if this was the case here, or if it was the environment, or if it was my mind playing subconscious tricks?
They have added daily sushi specials, on a board beside the bar and it seems they might have lowered their prices just a bit- not sure. At the end of it all, for $40 (not including tip), the level of the experience considered, definitely a great value!