S3

I almost didn’t want to write about this, but I thought I would after all. Last Friday, Kliewer, Nate and I ate at the “Super Secret Sushi Place” ™ – or S³. I’m not going to tell you the name of it or where it is though. It is near my house and a few of my friends have already been there. But I hadn’t. I tried to go a few times, but not that hard. Now I’m mad that I didn’t try harder earlier, because after just one visit, I’m hooked.

Here was the rumor on the place beforehand:

It’s run by a Japanese couple. If they don’t feel like working that day, they’re closed. If the husband didn’t like the fish at the market that morning, he doesn’t get any and they’ll be closed. Maybe they want to go to Japan for a vacation- they’re closed. Maybe there’s decent fish, but the weather’s good and the husband wants to go play golf- they’re closed.

There’s not really a sign on the place. There’s a light bulb behind a small noren on the outside. The place is tiny. Sometimes there are a few people milling about outside- sometimes for a long time- which corresponds to what I heard about the place being tiny. I also heard that they didn’t have a menu in English (more on this below). So in my head- I’m thinking “Coool!” but I’m also worried that this tiny place would be like going to a (polite)sushi-nazi’s restaurant should I ever get in, and once/if I did, I wouldn’t know what to order and would get banned!

But that wasn’t the case at all. The three of us ventured down on foot with a backup plan in place should we not get in. Everything was set. We got in early, the light was on! and we walked in to see a tiny place with a small table to the right of the door with a family of three already seated and a small bar area with a couple already seated at the far end. We asked the owners if they had room for the three of us, and they said we could take the seats at the end of the bar (leaving two seats left – to my right- at the bar). We quickly sat down. So far so good! And great timing too.

Not more than a minute later a couple walked in and started to make for the last two seats, but the husband/wife team said that they were expecting a couple any minute and that they couldn’t have those seats. Perhaps they should try later. And the answer was no, they couldn’t make reservations for a specific time. Just try later (like 2 hours) or another night. Wow. A few minutes after that the other, expected, couple did show up and they took the last seats.

I should note that space is tight here, people can hear each other’s conversations and that’s a good thing in this case. Everyone wanted to talk to the owners about things and that lent it the cool neighborhood feel. We hadn’t even ordered yet and we already felt like we were eating in someone’s house.

The customer at the end of the bar had just come back from Japan on a business trip and was telling the owners about that. He had brought back some real wasabi root in his luggage for the owners. The chef was even preparing it with his sharkskin grater! Nate and I could see the counter so we knew what was going on. It appeaered they were in the mood to share the wasabi with us too, so we knew things were going to go well.

We got our food and needless to say it was fantastic. The pieces of fish were very high quality (and large) and the few rolls we did have were exquisite too. Normally I don’t notice this in rolls at most restaurants- but these rolls were able to present the quality of the simple ingredients in a great balance. For example, we knew the salmon was great from the sashimi we were eating, but in the salmon roll we had the quality of the avocados stood out in equal parts to the fish.

We wound up eating a lot, but in a good way. At first we were worried about not ordering enough because there’s a fifteen dollar minimum for each person. Not that that mattered, I would’ve kept on eating had they not stopped me. But we noticed that there really was a list of rules for the restaurant behind the chef. And the minimum was a rule. Some of the others we learned from the couple to my right- to them, the most important rule was that you can’t come more than two times in a one week period.

All in all a great place, and I look forward to going back. And it was a great Friday. You can’t beat having good food and good conversation with good friends.