About Sushiko I
Washington’s Japanese food scene has never been livelier, and the city’s oldest sushi bar is no longer the big fish in a small pond. Three-plus decades after it opened, it has settled into its identity as a place that may not wow you but pleases with its attention to the little things—note the quality of the rice-making and the precision of the knifework.
Choose the omakase, or tasting menu, if you want to explore the full breadth of chef Koji Terano’s talents, which extend beyond nigiri and sashimi: He makes delicate soups, turns out fried foods of unsurpassed lightness, and can whip up a terrific dessert—his espresso panna cotta is one of the best finishes in town.
Don’t miss: Miso soup with mussels; seaweed salad; salmon-and-avocado roll; nigiri of seared fatty salmon, yellowtail, fatty yellowtail, and spot prawn; sashimi assortment.
Open: Daily for dinner. Moderate.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
