Sushi Nishi-ya

If I had more money I would eat here more often. The sushi and sashimi is amazingly fresh. Owner chef and his wife very charming and gracious. Thrilled to have fresh sushi and sashimi on this side of town, away from Sushi Row.

Only wish the owner chef would innovate and add some variety, including simple cooked foods, to his repertoire.

The salmon arrives with a film of seaweed over it that he made himself. The jellyfish is crunchy and sublime. Uni and hamachi, like butter. The Maryland blue crab hand roll divine, you’ll want two and why not, you have two hands. The nori is always noticeably fresh.

One drawback is every time I go, he serves everything in the same order same way. The second is there are no cooked items — no edamame, no roasted gingko nuts — to help fill in the budget or hunger pangs. The bill adds up very fast.

This is a great place to go to if you really like Omakase style sushi. It is a small, unassuming place with only a few tables and one sushi chef. They only serve sushi and hand rolls, and although you can ask for things in particular, it is best to let Kenji, the sushi chef, choose your courses for you.

The portions are quite small, but the fish is of utmost excellent quality. The idea isn’t to get full off a few orders of sushi, but rather to let the chef take you on a tour of what seafood was fresh at the market that morning. In general it will take about 10 to 12 orders to get full, but if you’re into this sort of experience, then you are in no rush.

The price is rather expensive, but the service is very personal and the food is of outstanding quality.

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