Sushi Saint is brought to you by the chef behind Michelin starred Soseki. We liked the sushi at Soseki, but weren’t fans of the hot food there, so we were interested to try this hand-roll concept.
The location is a bit funky, in the back of an industrial building off a parking lot, but the interior is nice. It’s divided into several distinct areas, including booths, a sushi counter, and a private room. We sat at the counter.
The secret to hand rolls is temperature and timing. The rice must be at the perfect temperature, the nori wrapper fresh from the warming box to ensure its crispness, and the whole assemblage delivered within seconds.
Sushi Saint excels at this. And unlike other hand roll concepts we’ve tried, this is definitely not an assemblage place where the rolls are largely constructed from already prepared tartares. Here they are delicately assembled one ingredient at a time, and the results show the difference.
There are a number of preset combos that are slightly less expensive than ordering ala carte, but once you know your favorites it’s easy to order just those.
We started with a wonderful sunomono. The cucumber was elevated by the inclusion of onions and ginger.
Our favorite rolls were:
- Akami
- Hamachi
- Salmon
- Ikura
- Unagi
The wine list focuses on sakes, but there are also several wines and sake-based cocktails.
Service was fast and friendly.