The Humble Gourmand

Walk into Uni, just a couple blocks off Dupont Circle in D.C., and you’ll be greeted by the chefs with a familiarity that makes you wonder if they’ve mistaken you for a regular. Whether to grab an order for take-out, sit at the sushi bar, or dine in the small dining room, the friendly and familial service makes Uni a popular choice among D.C. sushi lovers, Japanese-expat and otherwise.

My companion and I started with bottomless chrysanthemum tea and an order of agedofu ($5), lightly-fried tofu, which was sized perfectly as an appetizer for two and set a nice, balanced tone for the sushi to follow.

Uni’s menu includes an interesting, though not overwhelmingly large, variety of sushi and maki, along with a number of other non-sushi Japanese dishes. The two of us shared several varieties of maki, including tuna and avocado, salmon and cream cheese (hey, I’m from Philly), spicy tuna, real-crab california, and rainbow rolls, each of which was of high-quality and well-prepared. My two pieces of maguro nigiri — slices of tuna on clumps of rice — were excellent as well.

Dessert at sushi restaurants is often an adventure, and Uni was no different. My companion was underwhelmed (to say the least) with the two small hockey pucks of iced cream she received, one flavored with green tea and the other with red bean. I ordered sake ice, which was essentially shaved frozen sake with a fruit compote, and it certainly packed a punch. Overall, dessert was underwhelming, but not surprising.

The wait staff was perhaps overly attentive, asking to take dishes away before we were finished, but was also quite friendly and accommodating. The decor of Uni is certainly not its strength, with cheap furniture and low lighting to disguise the for-sale artwork on the otherwise-underwhelming walls.

Uni’s offerings, at $6 and $12 for our rolls and about $3 per piece of nigiri, are perhaps slightly higher-priced than your typical D.C. sushi, and that made it a relatively expensive evening. As long as you skip the dessert, the sushi and service make it worth the price.