You know how, sometimes, you walk by a place a hundred times before deciding to finally give it a try? Well, it's easier to pull of when you're not talking sushi.
Sushi is, how to put this delicately, not a food group to take risks with. Yes, I know some people get off on eating blowfish. And some people don't really MIND eating raw fish on Sunday nights (when, presumably, the fish is already at least 2 days old). But me? I love sushi. I want to keep loving sushi. So I don't throw caution to the wind when it comes to trying new places.
Anyway. Back to Ginza. We walk by this place several times a week. We drive by it every day. But countless Google searches proved generally fruitless. Nothing on eGullet. Nothing on Craigslist FoodFo, nothing even on Chowhound! Then, one day, up popped one rave review. Then a couple of weeks later, another one.
So, a couple of weeks ago, I was craving sushi but also feeling lazy, so I suggested to C that we walk on down there; if it was really scary, we could always head somewhere else. Imagine our surprise when we walked in, and saw one of our neighbors at the sushi bar. He told us that he eats there several times a month, and they always take great care of him, and introduced us to the sushi chef.
We ended up having a lovely meal, and decided to go back on our own this past Friday night. We allowed the chef to send us whatever was freshest, and also took an order of chicken karaage (which, for me, is a huge test of the kitchen's abilities).
Everything was wonderful. The fried chicken pieces were moist and tender, with a perfectly crisp and utterly ungreasy coating. The batter was light but flavorful, with some nice garlicky spice. It was served with tonkatsu sauce, but really, this chiken didn't even need a dipping sauce.
All diners at Ginzu get a bowl of miso soup, and a plate of edamame to share. The edamame were OK, having a slight freezerburned taste to them. But as with our last time, I was floored at the deliciousness of the miso soup. Wonderful depth, it is the essence of umami. One of the better miso soups I've had, honestly.
The nigiri flowed freely. We had:
- Maguro (C liked this more that I did -- it was a very dark red, and tasted strongly of iron)
- Sake (which I usually don't care for, but I did like this piece very much)
- Ika (above average)
- Hamachi (amazing)
- Mirugai (great flavor; I still can't get past the texture)
- Unagi (nice flavor, a bit bonier than I like)
- Hirame (very light and delicate)
- Uni (quite good for an "unknown" place)
- And, I always finish with an ume temaki. Both times, the handroll has been very delicious and expertly prepared (so that there is a bit of ume in every bite, and so the last bite isn't all rice!), but they've been pretty different from one another. I like that little bit of surprise
We were also sent a little plate of mussels with some kind of mayonnaisey sauce with some tobiko, which were really delicious. Wasabi is paste, and not fresh grated, but the ginger is the nice 'real' stuff as opposed to that awful pink-colored stuff. As is traditional, our meal ended with peeled orange wedges.
Prices here are incredibly reasonable; our dinner on Friday night was $50 (including tax, tip and a large Sapporo).
I think Ginza may be owned by a Korean family as there seem to be some Korean specialties posted throughout the restaurant (though not on the menu). There is a sizable selection of interesting-looking rolls, plenty of traditional Japanese cooked dishes (I'm looking forward to trying their tonkatsu)
Ginza Japanese Restaurant
303 Broadway Ave.
Oakland, CA 94607
510.451.2224
