sushifoode "catches his own sashimi"

Sushi Nishi-ya
March 2009

We went for our first omkase dinner at Sushi Nishi-ya on a Saturday night. I took my wife and son. When we got there, we got the usual “sushi only” and “no rolls” policy repeated to us that was written on the wall. Everybody get this message. The 7 seat sushi bar had a “Reserve” sign sitting on top of the bar with three customers. So we took a booth. Another party came in and saw the sign and promptly left. There were other couples that eventually came in later to take up other booths. As the sushi bar filled up, our service got slower and slower to the point where we got hunger pangs between servings. It became obvious that one chef cannot adequately support this restaurant even if it has only 21 seats and those at the sushi bar got prompter service. That night there was anywhere between 12-15 dinners. It took over an hour and a half to get 8 or 10 servings. The sushi itself was excellent but the portions were a bit small. I left slightly hungry cause I stopped when I got spicy tuna rolls. I figured that the chef was running out of options and I was not going to pay top dollar for stuff like spicy tuna rolls. We had to make something for my son at home to fill him up. The bill was over $300 that includes a tip and one small bottle of sake. The tip was for the waitress. She tried her best to apologize for the service.
Hint-do not go on a Friday or Saturday night. If you do, get reservations for the sushi bar

This is a very small restaurant. The restaurant has been there for awhile, It use to be under a different name like Kawamata or something like that. The new owner, Kenji Nishimura, took over about 2 years ago. He serves only sushi and hand rolls. he says he goes to the fish market every day and closes whenever the fish market closes. Consequently, the restaurant is closed on Sunday and major holidays. I took a take out order of bluefin maguro, toro, hamachi, and uni. I thought that most of the servings looked a little smal except for the uni which was one of the bigger helping I have seen. I was also a little disappointed in the toro. It lacked the creaminess I love in toro. The rest of the servings were fine.