Uni, Washington, D.C.

Last night, Leo and I finally popped in to Uni for dinner. Uni is on P Street between 21st and 22nd, next door to Mimi's, a place where we brunch frequently, so we've wanted to try Uni for some time. We'd also gotten a take-away/delivery menu from the place, and it looked intriguing. Taking its name from the Japanese word for "sea urchin,"

Uni is a sushi bar located on the second floor of an old row house. As one enters the restaurant, there is a leopard-print carpeted dining room to the right and a wood floored sushi bar to the left. Smooth, plain, light-colored wood paneling adorns the walls, and the windows are covered with square hangings of green tea ice cream-colored fabric. They advertise free Wi-Fi connections, and we saw several people in the establishment with their laptops. We got to sit by the front window in the overhang over the P Street sidewalk.

The menu is standard sushi bar fare, with the non-sushi items being some appetizers and some of the half dozen or so bento box offerings. Their beverage list included a number of interesting gourmet teas I wanted to try, though I ended up with iced green tea (Leo had dragged me all over downtown Washington on foot, and it was hot and humid out!). We started off with a salad of sliced, seared ahi tuna pressed with sesame seeds and cracked peppercorns topped with thin slices of green onion, and arranged on a plate drizzled with sesame sauce and garnished with a big mound of shredded threads of carrot and a parsley sprig.

I was feeling rather unadventurous, so I ordered the maki mix, a standard sushi roll assortment. They brought me a square, white, ceramic dish with six pieces of California roll arranged in the center, then in each of the corners of the dish were three pieces each of cucumber, tuna, salmon, and eel sushi rolls. Small mounds of wasabi (green horseradish) and gari (pickled ginger) were at the nine- and three-o'clock positions, respectively. All of the sushi was very nice and fresh, and I was particularly impressed with the California rolls. The ubiquitous California roll (cooked crab legs, avocado, and cucumber) is so typically haphazardly thrown together and is one of the "common" sushis that everyone eats, that care is not always taken. Uni's version, though, used real crab meat instead of imitation, and they used flying fish roe to decorate the outside instead of the less expensive masago roe, all lending itself to a very tasty, rich taste.

Leo ordered a la carte, selecting tuna, fatty tuna, eel, and sea urchin roe sushi nigiri. They each were very large pieces of fish, and the uni was served with two pieces of roe instead of the usual one. Leo let me taste one of his unis, and I was impressed with the freshness and smooth richness of the roe. Uni has a rather unique, intense flavor, and I wasn't quite expecting the double dose I got! Leo also liked the restaurant (he usually trashes most Asian restaurants) and said the fish was very fresh.

For dessert, Leo had tempura ice cream, where a long roll of vanilla ice cream was encased in tempura batter, deep fried, sliced in half, then drizzled with chocolate syrup. I assume it was good, since, despite his "diet," he ate the whole thing. I had the sake ice. It was lovely. Now, sake is the the traditional Japanese rice wine, and it was mixed with sugar and water, frozen and mixed, and it ended up coming out very much like a granita, looking like a pile of distinct ice crystals. They took preserved Japanese cherries and plums, put a few in the bottom of a large martini glass, then mounded the sake ice on top of the fruit. As the sake crystals melted, they "marinated" the fruit in sake. It was a wonderful dessert for a hot, steamy, Washington evening.