Sushi Oishii

I love Japanese food. It is especially healthy and light in oil and the portion control is just the right amount to allow you to try different dishes. I grew up in New York City, aka the mecca of diverse cuisines, quality and at times, great bargain prices... Therefore, I know how to eat and I know quality when I see and taste it. My hobbies involve traveling around the world to try different foods and I have been to all the major cities in the US, always stopping in local restaurants to try their specialties.



A friend introduced me to Sushi Oishii. It is a new restaurant right near the University of Maryland in Rockville, MD and within the Traville Village Center where there are several large businesses as well as residential complexes. The center itself is very quaint. The place is new and ready for someone like me, new to the DC-Maryland-Northern Virginia area, to explore.



As I entered the restaurant, a young lady who happens to be the manager greeted me. Although young, she is extremely intuitive of customer's needs as she told me she grew up in the family business. Her greeting is in Japanese and I hope it meant 'welcome' since I don't know Japanese. The entrance foyer is beautifully decorated with a bamboo matted bench and a Japanese water garden with a small cascading waterfall and green vegetation. A chalkboard wall displays the specials of the day. They often have fresh blue fin tuna, oh-toro and live scallops. The restaurant is not very large but large enough for several large parties with many tables to spare. There is also a good size sushi bar where you can watch the sushi chefs prepare your maki, sushi or sashimi with attention to detail in the cut and the presentation. Just a quick note on the tableware and utensils; there is no bamboo chopsticks to break apart. The utensils are all of good quality wood or ceramic and the tables and chairs are of genuine dark wood. It does make you feel that the owners are into quality and attention to detail.



The menu is simple with a variety of selection in different categories from bento boxes to sushi and sashimi and udon noodles. Since I wanted to try the quality and freshness of the fish and to sample its tempura, I decided to order the lunch bento box sashimi special. The sashimi is fresh since I did not have a fishy after-taste. The sushi was just the right size to eat in one bite and held up without breaking apart. The tempura was lightly battered and not oily which is hard to find. In many Japanese restaurants, the tempura is overly battered and oily which meant they did not use the proper technique and used 'dirty or used' oil. My companion had the vegetarian sushi bento box. For a Japanese restaurant, it has a good selection for vegetarian. We finished our meal with Green Tea Mochii that was delicately chopped into 4 pieces. This was similar to many Japanese restaurants that I have been to. However, the happy ending was the Japanese Fried Ice Cream. It looked like a fluffy round tempura, which I think is what coated the outside of the ice cream. Inside the tempura battered shell was a layer of angel cake. This was smart as it prevented the ice cream from melting onto the tempura shell. The core was, of course, ice cream...a large enough scoop of sesame ice cream for two. We had hot green tea to wash everything down. The green tea was not pre-made but from tea bags. I guess that ensured the consistency of the green tea flavor for each cup.



Service was decent since we took up the manager's time asking her questions on the quality and her family business. The waitress was attentive when we were not speaking with the manager. Overall, the quality, food and service are top-notch and should meet the standards of the food connoisseurs of the Rockville and DC area. Stop by Sushi Oishii in Rockville, MD and give it a try. Check out their website www.sushioishii.com