Sushi Wars

The other day we were perusing Citysearch’s lists because we had nothing better to do and about 20 minutes in which to do it. Every now and again we hit upon a morsel of an interesting suggestion, but mostly we just disagreed with everything. Our biggest pet peeve is most definitely their Best Sushi list.

How can Hiroshi’s (on Eastlake), with its generous slabs of buttery fresh fish, and interesting and creative rolls not make their list? We were especially perturbed because Blue C Sushi (which is fine for fast food, but honestly, you want your sushi to travel the restaurant a few times before it gets to you?) made their list, and so did Wasabi Bistro, which, though very cool, specializes in sushi rolls that aren’t raw, and there is something very wrong with that.

Hiroshi’s problem (if they have one – hey, they are always busy) is that it is in the most inconsequential strip mall, but these days the coolest restaurants on Eastlake are in bizarre strip mall locales (see Sitka & Spruce, for example). But there are no problems with his sushi: no yellowtail in Seattle can compare with Hiroshi’s meltingly tender, rich, thick slab. All nigiri portions are generous, but oh, how we adore the entire scallop laid open on each ball of rice. And while Hiroshi makes all the rolls you expect to see in a sushi restaurant in Seattle, it’s his specials that make us swoon. Last week we salivated over the Saigon Roll, with yellowtail, jalapeno, cilantro, and avocado. And we can’t go a week without Hiroshi Roll No. 39 (no, there isn’t a 1 through 38), a spicy tuna roll covered with alternating strips of tuna and avocado.

For those who can enter a Japanese restaurant and not order sushi (beyond our capabilities), Hiroshi’s huge bowls of steaming udon look fantastic, and from the slurping sounds made by the myriad customers glued to the World Cup on the giant screen, they probably taste pretty fabulous too. We have also been known to snack on our dining companions’ tempura, which is always fresh, crisp, and never greasy, and on a rare occasion we have sampled his wonderfully flavorful Black Cod Kasuzuke, but we try not to fill up on non-sushi items. Hiroshi’s lunch specials are ridiculously priced, almost too good to be true, but please don’t tell him that or he’ll raise them. They always include a number of items, sashimi among them, so we get around our can’t-leave-Hiroshi’s-without-some-raw-fish rule that way.

So while we normally wouldn’t care what Citysearch thinks, leaving Hiroshi’s off their list makes us wonder about all their others.