Sushi at Ginza Japan

John: [pointing to Claire's lunch] What's that?
Claire : Sushi.
John : Sushi??
Claire : Rice, raw fish, and seaweed.
John : You won't accept a guy's tongue in your mouth, and you're going to eat that?
Claire : Can I eat?
John : I don't know. Give it a try.


Matt and I had a rare night to ourselves; season tickets to the Clarence Brown Theater insures us an Alex-less evening every six weeks or so, and Saturday was our night.

After taking Alex out to eat lots and lots of chocolate, we dropped him off with my in-laws (ha!), then before we witnessed a fabulous production of As You Like It (the wonderful Carol Mayo-Jenkins, who played Miss Sherwood in TV's Fame, was a castmember), we made our second trip to Ginza.

We'd stopped in once before, a couple of months ago. It had been a rather impromptu visit, and we had a desperately in need of a nap Alex with us.

This time, we were able to relax, and have a nice dinner by ourselves.

Well, if 'by ourselves', I mean a conveyor-belt sushi bar filled with customers, many friendly and attentive servers, and a very cool and helpful sushi master; sure.

We'd learned from our previous visit that, for reasons unexplained, the items I normally order weren't on the menu. We also learned that they do, in fact, offer these dishes, so we knew we could order off-menu.

We started with green tea for Matt, and sweet tea for me (what? I don't always have to go traditional!), as well as bowl of edamame in pods, and a plate of light and crispy Asparagus Tempura.



The asparagus is still firm; it's like they cooked it long enough to disqualify it from the 'raw' category, then coated and fried it. Crisp, and so delicious. Matt's not much of a veggie eater, and he happily shared this with me.



We shared a few orders of Tomago; Ginza is the only place in town that makes it. We've been making tomago at home for years, but it does take some effort, and let's face it: neither of us have spent decades perfecting our technique. So, it's nice to finally let someone else take over!

The egg is just barely sweet, and very dense. We really, really liked it.



Just one order of Inari for me, and I'm glad that's all I asked for. This was the one disappointment in an otherwise excellent meal.

The aburage were only half-filled, and frankly, tasted a bit stale. Oh, I still ate them, I just didn't feel as happy about it.



Kappa and Avocado Maki; both very good. Expertly rolled, perfectly ripe avocado. What more can I say? It's just veggies in rice, people.



And Matt ordered two Smoked Salmon; I can't say much, since I didn't eat any. But he made happy noises, and the fish quickly disappeared, so I'm guessing it was good.

Forgive any glare in the photos: I was trying to discreetly snap pics of the sushi, without drawing attention, or offending anyone.

We've only sat in the sushi area, so I have no idea what the rest of the restaurant and service is like. If it's anything like the sushi area, it must be good.

We ate good sushi, didn't eat too much, but still walked away full, and didn't break the bank doing it.

Heaven forbid you find yourself in this area, but if you do, I most definitely recommend Ginza!

Ginza Japan
1612 Downtown West Blvd.
Knoxville, TN 37919
865.694.1688


Oh, and please allow me a moment to gloat: STEELERS WIN!! STEELERS WIN!!








Blog Party#7 has been announced, and this month? It's all about Red and Hot! Your cocktail and appetizer entries are due in less than two weeks, 16 February; so start planning, and hope to see you at the party!


Tagged with: Food and Drink, Blog Party, Sushi, Restaurants, Dining, Blogging