100 Very Best Restaurants 2013: Kaz Sushi Bistro

To veteran Washington diners, the East-meets-West menu at Kaz Okochi’s 13-year-old sushi restaurant is as familiar as the metal lettering atop its entrance. There’s the foie gras nigiri, with its chubby hunks of liver and dollops of plum-wine gelée, and the lemon-and-salt-topped seared scallop with fissures of char cracking the mollusk’s surface. Italian truffle slivers decorate thick slices of fresh tuna; a nori-wrapped lobster salad gets a kick from wasabi mayo—a playful riff on a lobster roll.

That these well-known dishes still have the power to dazzle shows the restaurateur’s commitment to quality—a fact not lost on the downtown lunch crowd, which shows up in droves to feast on value-driven bento boxes. Don’t miss: Seared salmon belly with soy-lemon sauce; yellowtail crudo with crushed wasabi peas; Bird’s Nest (thinly sliced baby calamari with uni, quail egg, and truffle-soy sauce); sushi-and-sashimi bento box. Open: Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner, Saturday for dinner. Moderate.