Whole Foods, Alexandria, Va

One day I asked my sushi chef friend what he thought of grocery store sushi. His reaction was that’s no sushi that’s sushit! But alas I found humor in his grumpiness, because I have yet to find a sushi chain in the grocery store that made me go back for more.

Sometimes I go and eat it because I have a craving for sushi and it fills it. Sometimes I regret it instantly afterwards, other times I’m just left having to scratch my itch later with better quality sushi.

Whole Foods I never have to worry about the quality of the ingredients. I don’t have to worry that I’ll have dysentery several hours later. But it misses the mark.

The sushi rice is better than some places. It was better than the Chinese place. But it just wasn’t quiet right. There is an art of sushi rice that many places just can’t seem to master.

If you’re into brown sushi rice, they have that. I never had brown rice sushi. A lot of places don’t offer it and I’ve never been a fan of brown rice. The pricing seems okay a little expensive for a grocery store, but then again Whole Foods is generally expensive compared to other grocery stores.

They don’t give you wasabi in your take out tray. I had to go back to get it. The ginger was the white kind without preservatives. If they had chopsticks they aren’t easily accessible. So I had to eat my sushi with a fork. That was hard so I ended up using my hands.

Rating: C

Montclair Chinese Restaurant, Montclair (Dumfries), VA

I had a craving for sushi last night. But I really didn’t want to drive to Woodbridge. I turn to Google discovered a Chinese place that served sushi. Sounds a little suspect, but with sushi becoming popular in recent years, you may see sushi type items popping up on menus even American style restaurants.

So I headed there after my massage. I had passed this place many times before but never really paid attention to it. I think I may have gotten food from it when I was younger but I don’t really remember. As I get out of my car I slowly realize that this place was not a sit down establishment. It’s purely a take out/delivery place.

If you were to judge this place by the outside you wouldn’t want to try the sushi. But inside it’s very clean and organized. There are signs boasting that they are the Top 100 Chinese Take Out Place (not sure in the whole USA or VA didn’t say). Judging by how busy the receptionist was this claim may not have been empty words.

They have a very extensive menu both Chinese/Japanese. I finally decided on a Dynamite Roll, California Roll with masago, and an order of sake (salmon). Then I waited.


I ate the Dynamite Roll in my car. It was going to be like 30 minutes before I got home and I was starving. It was fantastic! It was salmon, imitation crab meat, deep fried with spicy mayo and eel drizzled on the top. I have a new favorite specialty roll. It was so darn tasty. It was a good blend of flavors. Very impressed.

So after I got home I open up the other box. Visually I was impressed by the sushi. It looked fresh and delicious looking. The salmon tasted great. The cali roll was slightly different from the normal avocado, crab meat, and masago. They mixed the crab with mayo, cucumber, avocado, and the eggs on the outside of the roll. It was good. I thought the roll was a little soggy, but I think it was the fact that I waited 30 minutes and the eggs got the rice soggy. Because the rice with the salmon nigiri wasn’t mushy.

Now the sushi rice isn’t top quality like in the real sushi places. It was okay. Pricing is almost the same as a traditional sit down place. Which seem a little steep for a take out place.

Rating: B+

Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse, Woodbridge, VA

My good friend and I went to Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse in Woodbridge, VA. It’s the main competition for Sakura Japanese Steakhouse in Woodbridge. I wasn’t impressed with their hibachi cooking. Seasonings seemed a little bland. But I’m here to review sushi.

Tokyo has an extensive menu of Japanese cuisines. So for your non-sushi loving friends they won’t have any problems. They have a sushi bar that flows into a regular bar, then they have a lot of seating. So if you want to have a little meeting and enjoy sushi they have plenty of space for a mediumish party.

Now their sushi. Their sushi meat is of good quality. In all honesty they probably get their meat from the same place as Sakura. You can get cattle meat from 100s of different distributors but there is a smaller amount of sushi grade distributors out there. I think I heard only two in our area.

But Tokyo’s sushi while presented well is average. If I didn’t have the pictures I would have forgotten when I ordered. I got kappa maki (cucumber roll), spicy tuna roll that was fried, and salmon. Spicy tuna roll was made with the sriachi sauce that I’m not a huge fan off. I mean I like it, but it was way too much, detracted from the tuna. I did like that it was fried, it was something different. The kappa maki wasn’t rolled tight so it fell apart easily.

My friend got shrimp tempura roll, Las Vegas Roll, and a spicy salmon handroll. He was pleased with his sushi. I didn’t realize this, but said he only eats sushi with me, because he trusts me. So when I suggested Tokyo instead of Sakura he was a little hesitant. He’s not as adventurous trying out new locations. But he was happy.

Tokyo Rating: B

Osaka Japanese Restaurant

I met up with one of my best friends at Osaka Japanese Restaurant. My friend lives in Washington, DC and this place was pretty much in the middle. I have seen this place while passing it on the way to the Springfield metro station. So I was interested in seeing what this place is all about.

The place is small but very cute. They have tables and a few spots to sit in front of the sushi chefs. We were sat at one of the tables. They had an extensive menu filled with non-sushi entrees for any of your non-sushi eating friends.

Their menu is filled with a lot of specialty sushi rolls as well as the norm. They charge their nigiri by the piece instead of 2 pieces like some places. Their prices were very reasonable. We ordered a shrimp tempura and veggie appetizer. They also served us miso soup and salad. If you’re a big salad eater the salad won’t really impress you. There wasn’t a lot of lettuce in the bowl. I think if they picked a salad bowl that’s a little smaller it may be a better presentation. But that’s just me being anal.

We get our shrimp tempura after our soup and salad. It was good. As soon as we got our tempura our sushi was ready. Score!

It was beautiful. I think half the fun of eating sushi is seeing the presentation. Any chef can roll it and serve it. But when you have a beautiful platter of sushi it really gets you excited.

We ordered Spider Roll (soft shell crab), Lasagna Roll, spicy salmon roll, deep fried spicy tuna roll, and 2 pieces of sake (salmon). Let the fun begin.
Everything tasted fresh and was good. I really can’t fault anything with the sushi. If I was asked to go again I definitely would go back.

Rating: A