I had lunch with my friend Zoe at Sushi of Gari 46 Sushi of Gari 46, which was empty at noon but filled up around 1pm, in a sudden whoosh of people. I asked to sit at the sushi bar but that is reserved for Omakase only. When we opened the menu, we saw that there was a Lunch Omakase for $50 and we thought, ok let’s go for it. I asked again to sit at the sushi bar but unfortunately, that omakase did not count.

I decided on the Deluxe Sushi, which was 9 pieces and a roll. Zoe opted for Chirashi. Our waitress then asked, “Would you like soup or salad?” I replied “salad” and Zoe did the same. The salads were very pretty, with a nice dressing.

Zoe’s Chirashi was also quite pretty (sorry the pic was too dark) but my Sushi Deluxe looked pretty regular. The top four fish were fresh and above average but I was terribly disappointed that the scallop was cooked. The salmon had a lightly smoked flavor which I enjoyed, and the cooked shrimp (I don’t normally care for in sushi) was cleverly poached in a broth, possibly fish and miso, adding flavor to the once flavorless. I had mistakenly saved the Uni for last, but it was only creamy, not flavorful. The Salmon Roe were a tad slimy.


The highlight was the roll; I’m assuming it was toro. There was some scallion mixed in and the sushi rice was seasoned wonderfully, to the max amount of flavor without masking the fish. However, I’m surprised that this well-known sushi place has very average wasabi.

While most of it was pretty good, neither of us were too impressed, resulting in a somewhat forgettable meal. When we got the check, it went from forgettable to a negative memory. They had charged us for the salad! When we inquired about it, the waiter said something condescending about how only cheap Japanese restaurants include the salad, not this place. We explained that our waitress had misled us by giving us both the impression that it was included. After all, if you just ask soup or salad…why not ask if we wanted any other appetizers? They had other starters to offer. Also, she asked us soup or salad after we placed our main course order, again, implying that it came with it as a choice. The waiter apologized half-heartedly and just walked away.

Throughout this experience, I felt as if I was not welcome. So, feel free to go if you’re in a suit, on an expense account. This ended up being a $50 lunch and it just wasn’t worth it.

posted by jessica at 09:00 PM Filed under Asian, Restaurants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.