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So I hit Sushi Rock yesterday from a friend from a rival company across the street. This was a much better experience than Pacific East. Sushi Rock is a trendy, upscale place built for people with money to spend, but not necessarily a huge eye for tradition.
I'll start with the easy stuff- Decor is that pseudo asian decor that uses water stones and funny lights. It's attractive ... but not particularly japanese. The bar is very well stocked with a good variety of options in terms of alcohol and liquors. Music is pop-ish, not particularly intrusive.
Talking to one of the chefs, fish shipments come in Monday and Friday. You do the math.
Beer selection was a little bit of a surprise, beyond the standard American and European brews, as well as the standard 3 Japanese beers, Harbin (Chinese, northern) and Morimoto Obi (Oregon brewed, Soba based) were also on the menu. That was a big plus for me. No Yebisu, or Sapporo reserve.
Sake selection was poor. Nothing into the daiginjyo category. A couple plum wines.
No toro of any grade was available. The chef noted that he only recommended the sake and maguro. I ordered Chirashi, and two orders of nigiri sake and maguro. The fish was rather fresh. Slicing technique for the nigiri was a bit blockish for me (sliced into a very even, and slightly thin, rectangle.) The inclusion of some of the tendonous elements was also notable.
Rice was unintrusively seasoned. It fit well with the fish and was solid in taste and consistency. I've had better seasoned rice, but this wasn't bad.
The Chirashi was brimming from the bowl and the rice bed was seasoned with sea salt, tobiko and nori. Despite the chef's claims otherwise, the fish was reasonably fresh. A decent selection of fish was atop the rice bed, ranging from tuna, salmon to octopus and egg.
This place isn't too bad... the pricing is a tad high, but at first glance, there's not too much competition in Cleveland. I'm looking forward to trying SasaMatsu (claims to be Izakaya!) and Matsu.
If any of you know of any Japanese run places here, please drop me a line. Heck...does anyone know any Japanese in Cleveland?!
For locale comparison:
Against venues at larger metropolitan centers: I'd give it a 3, largely because given relative cost of living, this place is relatively expensive for CLE.
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