In essence, it's more of a spring roll than a traditional sushi roll, with soy paper around assorted veggie bits, some yellowtail and Japanese Kimchee. But Ken, the sushi chef / owner of the place gave me some extra Kimchee sauce to dip my roll pieces in. One word: Heaven.
But that wasn't all that was great about the place. I started off the meal with Special yellowtail sushi-- chopped yellowtail belly with green onions and wasabi tobiko, stuffed into seaweed the same way you see scallop sushi served. Brilliant execution for a simple, sublime bite of food.
Brain had the Chirachi, which was, well, it is what it is, raw fish atop rice. It was a mistake in ordering because the real gem of this restaurant is Ken. He knows how to combine and balance flavors in a way that, for me anyway, leave me wanting to try things again and sample other dishes. It's a sure fire recipe for a successful restaurant.
Brain's other order was a much smarter move: the Ceviche Salad, a bunch of chopped up fish tossed with lime, cilantro, avocado and some ponzu (for the Japanese effect), atop a bed of arugula and some sliced cucumbers. I had a taste and I can say that the dish every element on the plate seemed to compliment each other.
At the end of our meal was a surprise dessert from the kitchen: fried bananas topped with mango ice cream. I have nary a sweet tooth, but even I was impressed. The hot fried banana slices with the frigid ice cream was a nice, semi-light, delightful end to an extremely satisfying meal.
I will be going back to Diawa on Friday for lunch, but I don't feel like I'd be going out on a limb if I said this might be the best sushi place in town. It's definitely in the top three, based purely on the creativity of the chef.
Diawa. Really good stuff.
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