The interior is pretty swanky. They plumped a lot of money on the decor of this place. I know this because they used the same "wavy wall" product that I used on my new office building. It costs a pretty penny. The feel of the place is very loungy which in DC always seems to be synonymous with sushi. If you want to impress a date with a sushi place and don't want to drive to DC, you might be able to trick him/her into feeling like they made the trip with Kumo.
So what to order! Kumo has a pretty diverse menu. The first that jumped out at me was the softshell crab appetizer. This is sometimes incredible at restaurants so we tried it out. I was indifferent toward their frying method. It wasn't awful but I like a very light fry or tempura fry with softshell crabs and theirs was a bit heavier and crunchier than I'm used to. The crab taste great though.
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| Tempura Soft Shell Crab |
Now the next course caught me completely off guard. The waitress recommended trying the live scallop for 12 dollars. I recently had a very nice live scallop dish down the road where they made three pieces of nigiri with the fresh scallop and I enjoyed it. But when I asked if they could prepare it nigiri style, she gave me a firm "no". Most servers are trained to never say no, but to instead provide an explanation of why that's not in your best interest or why it's not possible. After another attempt, I gave up and just said to go ahead and bring it how they prepare it. Take a look at what they brought out.
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| Live Scallop Special |
The dish on the left is sliced Scallop Sashimi in a lime-vinegar sauce. Each slice of Scallop is paired between pieces of thinly sliced lime. The Scallop (why am I capitalizing Scallop now?... because it deserves the capital S) is incredibly fresh and the flavors surrounding each bite are perfection. Good raw seafood always seems to warrant a description of "melts in your mouth" and that's exactly what this did. I could eat three platefuls of this stuff.
The dish on the right I didn't care for. They took all the rest of the scallop parts and tried to disguise it as something appetizing. It had a very mayo-cream flavor that completely drowned the protein. They could have just served me the sashimi Scallop and I would have felt that the flavor and presentation were well worth the 12 dollars.
I really enjoyed their presentation and it was shocking, to say the least, for strip mall sushi.
Next came the sushi. The yellowtail was just how I like it. Big enough to feel like I know where the money went but not obscenely sized so that it is awkward getting it into my mouth. I don't remember which spicy roll that was but it was good, as well.
Our eyes were a little bigger than our stomach (missing from the review is the salad and soup) and we decided to try their Japanese chicken curry. I really enjoy curry in just about every form and my mom sometimes served Japanese style curry growing up although I turned my nose up at it then :) Kumo's chicken curry is pretty good! It was much different than I had expected it to be and was a medley of 29 different vegetables. Ok, maybe not 29 but I swear I got a different vegetable in every bite. If I tried this again and didn't eat it LAST (and after the Scallop), I would probably rave about it. I recommend you try it if you enjoy curry.
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| Chicken Curry (white rice, not pictured) |
Kumo sushi is a very solid Sushi restaurant with good service, sexy ambience (for a strip mall) and so close to my house that I can walk there. They will be seeing me again soon and often.
Rating - 4 out of 5 stars
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