What Hosoyo does so well is create sauces that blend perfectly with his rolls. He has a special onion sauce that is made with ginger and is a great mix with the Flash of Lightning roll.
That roll comes with a spicy tuna, imitation crab, salmon, smelt egg and red chard. I especially enjoyed the chard, the slightly bitter leaf really added another flavor to the roll and countered the sweetness of the sauce.
“I’m thinking which fish is good with which sauce,” Hosoyo said. “This I see what vegetable goes with the sauce and the fish.”
In every dish I tried the process works flawlessly. Hosoyo is not bound by any sense of what sushi should be, even though he has worked in both traditional and fusion sushi houses.
That goes for the décor and mood of the restaurant as well. The long hallway leads to the restaurant that looks like a back room where a poker game might break out. But there was Hosoyo smiling and greeting every customer warmly, many of whom are devoted regulars.
When I was there for lunch, Bob Marley was playing in the background and I think that is a first for me at a sushi restaurant.
Unconventional though is what Toshi’s is all about and it seemed every dish I have had there has a definite uniqueness to it.
One of my favorites was the Kobe Beef roll and this coming from someone who eats steak maybe twice a year. The roll had the quality beef on top of imitation crab and avocado inside and had been lightly seared. There was no hint of any gristle or fat, and the meat was so tender it almost had the same texture as the avocado.
