Stepping into the Zen-like calm of this Japanese dining room is transportive. Street shoes are shed for soft slippers, cell phones are turned off, and bags are slipped into the wooden stool/bin that’s your seat for the evening. The $60 eight-to-ten-course tasting menu means ordering is stress-free, too. The element of surprise–there’s no printed menu–can up the adventure factor. Diners also have the option of ordering from an à la carte menu of sushi and Japanese delicacies.
The tasting menu is orchestrated much like a ballet: Courses rhythmically come and go, and thought goes into every detail, from the sake glasses–each sake commands a different one–to the personal pans for cooking shabu-shabu.
What to get: Smoky mussel soup; rice-cracker-coated soft-shell crabs, fried and served with chili and green tea; shabu-shabu of well-marbled beef; tuna, scallop, and floundernigiri; mackerel and yellowtail sashimi.
Open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner. Very expensive.
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.
