Perhaps this hardly qualifies as travel, but I had a good experience at a Sushi place in Lexington recently. It's called Sushi Friend, and it's located near the Kroger at Man o' War and Tates Creek. It's a small place with a sushi bar, and a few tables. The chef acted like he was the owner, and didn't speak much English. Several locals and a group of Japanese were there. The chef was approachable, and the two-person staff was very helpful and friendly. I'm not much of a sushi expert, but it felt more like Five Brothers Sushi in the LA area than I have experienced in KY (my son lives in LA).
I was hungry - I had Seaweed salad, Spicy Scallop roll, Salmon Skin roll, Unagi sushi, and Octopus sushi. Also some tea and a BIG glass of sake (we would call it a short glass if you were having scotch). Evidently this is a "party" place! It came to ~$36 (sushi offerings were about $4 - $7), but it was worth it!
Another plus - on Monday evenings they have a $1/piece sushi special.
Don't bother looking for them on the web, http://www.sushifriend.com is a Gerbil owners site. But they show up with a few good reviews on blogs.
Wake