The phrase "sushi bistro" in the name of Kazuhiro Okochi's restaurant reveals a lot about the chef's style of cooking. Trained as a sushi chef in Japan, Okochi spent ten years as executive chef at Sushi-Ko before opening his own restaurant in 1998. While Kaz Sushi Bistro offers the usual range of nigiri and roll sushi, the chef has a daily-changing menu of specials that combine Eastern and Western ingredients in intriguing ways. These might include spicy broiled green mussels; tuna with foie gras; foie gras infused with plum wine; and delicacies such as smoked monkfish liver with jalapeño jelly. You can taste a range of the chef's cooking at dinner by ordering one of his eight-course tasting menus, priced at $60 a person.

Okochi is one of the few chefs in the Washington area trained to handle toro fugu, the Japanese blowfish that is a delicacy but poisonous if not properly cleaned. When it's available, he prepares a six-course fugu dinner for about $150 a person. Call to see when he might offer it.

Kaz Sushi Bistro, 1915 I St., NW; 202-530-5500; kazsushi.com. Open Monday through Friday for lunch, Monday through Saturday for dinner. No wheelchair access.