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Sushi Brothers
Uptown 1: Garden District & Environs: 1612 St Charles Ave. 504-581-4449. Map.
Nice Casual
AE DC DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY The Sushi Brothers is a bit more adventuresome in its menu than most local sushi bars. The inventiveness of the chef takes in a few New Orleans flavors. Here, for example, were the first rolls with names like the FEMA roll and Bye-Bye Katrina roll. Most such things are novelties, but everything here is made with skill and pristine ingredients.
WHAT'S GOOD Japanese cuisine food has been resistant to Creole hybridization, but it's happening here. The miso gumbo--standard miso soup with shrimp, fish, half a small soft-shell crab, and okra--tastes only a little like gumbo, but it's good. So is the Cajun soup, a thick potage with as much a Vietnamese flavor as a Cajun one, with crawfish, shrimp, cabbage, and cilantro.
BACKSTORY This old storefront on St. Charles Avenue has been a Japanese restaurant long enough that three notable sushi bars have come through. The first--a franchise of Little Tokyo operated by the people who now run Horinoya--set a high standard that has managed to live on. The Sushi Brothers--which really is operated by a pair of siblings--keeps that ball rolling.
DINING ROOM
Each new owner did a bit of renovation to the restaurant, but it's still not what you'd call glitzy. After entering by way of a brick ramp, you find a bright, spare dining room. Most of the action takes place at the sushi bar.
DOZEN BEST DISHES, DESCRIBED
»Shu mai (steamed shrimp dumplings).
»Miso gumbo.
»Cajun soup.
»Spicy sour seafood soup.
Squid salad.
»Beef tataki.
»Sushi.
»Chirashi sushi (seafood on a bed of sushi rice).
Sashimi.
Rainbow roll.
»Rice paper roll.
Calamari crunch roll.
»Mackerel and ginger roll
Una don (teriyaki eel on rice).
»Dinner boxes.
FOR BEST RESULTS
Sit at the sushi bar and engage the chef in conversation about what he might recommend.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The bathrooms need to be rebuilt.
FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
- Dining Environment -1
- Consistency +2
- Service
- Value +1
- Attitude +1
- Wine & Bar
- Hipness +1
- Local Color +1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Sidewalk tables
- 8-25
- Open Sunday dinner
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Open most holidays
- Open all afternoon
- Quick, good meal
- Easy, nearby parking
