Sooooooooshi

First of all, due to its out of the way location, cozy mood-lit atmosphere, and potential for food sharing, we determined that Sushi-Ko is the perfect date restaurant. Provided you like sushi. And if you don't, none of my friends want to date you anyway.

Sushi-Ko is, from the outside, a hole in the wall. It basically looks like a shack, and when you first see it from the outside, you think, "hmm...no thanks, I'll go to the dive bar up the road." (Or, seeing that it's in Georgetown, you'll go to one of the swanky uptown dive bars.) But - SURPRISE! - you walk in to a lovely restaurant where classiness abounds.

Granted, I am a bit of a sushi novice. I think, about a million years ago, my family and I tried sushi when we were at a random Wolfgang Puck restaurant in Orlando. And of course, I've had the WM Sexchange sushi many times, but I feel like that doesn't count (since as Katie says, it's the McDonalds of sushi). So I was very excited for some real sushi, and was not disappointed. Because any restaurant that gives you warm lavender-scented wash cloths to wipe your hands with is a winner in my book.

As for the food, the menu offers some non-sushi offerings, for those freaked out by the thought of seaweed rolls. But we decided to be classic and stick with sushi. The menu had the three types listed: sashimi (just fish...of an amazing quality), nigiri (small chopstick-sized rolls), and tamaki (large handrolls). We got the nigiri and ordered about 8 bajillion different kinds...including:

*3 orders of California rolls
*Asparagus & red pepper
*Cucumber & avocado
*Spicy scallop
*Spicy tuna
*2 Crunchy shrimp
*Softshell crab
*Smoked salmon

Keep in mind, we started with sake-tinis. I have no idea what was in them, but they were delicious (more viscous then I was expecting, but no matter - they each had a booze-soaked raspberry waiting for us at the bottom of the glass). Also keep in mind we were 30 minutes late for our 7 pm reservation - the maitre d' said to me, "you're those people," in the nicest way a maitre d' can - so we were hungry enough to each eat an entire ocean of sushi. Which clearly, we did.

I really enjoyed the crunchy ones - the extra bad-for-you pieces with fried fish inside. The texture difference, as well as the added saltiness/fattyness really added a lot to my sushi experience. MMM fried.

Fried parts aside, sushi is always so refreshing because you can eat so much of it and not feel grotesquely full, which was the case at Sushi-Ko also. So much so, that we went to the Daily Grill afterwards and each downed two pints of beer.

Overall, a great experience. It was more expensive than most of us were expecting, but when you saw the amount of food we had and how great it was...it was SO worth it. Plus they were very nice to us even though we were late, which is a plus. Now I just need to find some cheaper lunchy-type sushi places. My co-worker Jackie says that there's a place called Wok & Roll in Chinatown that has dollar-a-piece "happy hour" specials. Heh heh. Wok and roll...



Technorati Tags: Sushi, Georgetown
Special thanks to Very Good with Computers, flickr, for the photo.