Ok. I admit it. I'm reviewing our first restaurant, and I am unashamedly choosing my favorite sushi place to review. It also helps that I ate there Friday night and had some of the best food I've had there yet - and I didn't even order the Panco Roll! Prepare yourselves, this will be a longish post, and there will be pictures.

Ginza opened up a little less than a year ago, and is the only Korean BBQ restaurant in town, and in my opinion, is the best sushi in town. An interesting combination, bbq and sushi. I haven't yet tried the bbq, but the other diners I have spoken with have given it rave, rave reviews. I am, though, a sushi fiend, and everytime I go in I tell myself I'll try the bbq, but I end up with several orders of sushi until I'm stuffed, and the bbq will have to wait for another time!

The decor of Ginza is very well suited. Dark wood tables and extremely comfortable chairs (imported directly from Korea, dammit, because I seriously want these in my dining room at home) fill the dining areas. Panels and trees are scattered about the rooms, and glass walls separate a family dining area from the sushi bar fronted main room. An eighteen or so foot long painting stretches along the wall behind the sushi chefs.

Of course, past and present are fused together nicely as well. A stylish curving (and well stocked) wet bar is situated around the corner from the sushi bar, small flat-screen LCD tv's adorn the family tables, and two widescreen hi-def lcd televisions are wall mounted behind the sushi chefs.

For Friday night's meal, I started with the sashimi appetizer. Dong (the usual sushi chef suspect) had recommended the Black Drum (a type of snapper), and so that was incorporated into the plater. He also ponied up a fattier salmon than usually is given. The appetizer consisted of tuna, fatty salmon, black drum, and I believe, hamachi. All the fish was delectable. The perfect texture, not too chewy, almost melt in your mouth. Ginza usually has the freshest sushi in town and again, did not disappoint. Dong's presentation, as always, was spectacular. 

First main course, the Black Dragon Roll. Innocuously, the menu description states "whole eel on top of california roll". Our interepid chef cannot simply place a piece of eel on top of a california roll and cut it into pieces, though. And he didn't even know he was getting reviewed! That's the kind of place this is. In fact, other than to say the eel was delicious as always (and I absolutely love eel),  all I can do is post up the picture. Because really, words cannot describe. Except that this dish wins the Taste Mafia "Best Sushi Presentation 2007" Award.

Finally, I decided to test out the beef tataki, Ginza's variation on beef sashimi. Made very similar to tuna tataki (which I already know I love), they take a prime cut of tenderloin, quick sear the outside of it with spices, chill it to stop the cooking process, and then slice it thin.  It's served chilled with two types of ponzu sauce, normal and spicy. I, of course, like the spicy...although it wasn't really that spicy. Swirl in a little wasabi, though, and soak the slices in it? Perfect! 

Everything else I have eaten at Ginza, and I eat there a lot, is worth trying. From their nigiri to their basic sushi rolls to their specialty rolls - and if you like spicy, you simply have to try the Volcano Roll - everything is fantastic. At least on the sushi side. The Panco Eel roll is to die for, the Bama and Auburn rolls are excellent twists on the usual fare offered by other restaurants around town, and even their normal, every day rolls like the crunch shrimp and spicy tuna rolls are given an extra kick of something special.

Go for the food, stay for the atmosphere and experience, and leave fuller, happier, and possibly more enlightened than you went in.