Oregon Sushi Restaurant Review

Misako Japanese Restaurant
5 East 8th Ave
Eugene, OR 97401
541-686-3464

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Misako is located on the ground floor of Eugene's historic Tiffany Building, at the corner of 8th Ave. & Willamette St. The lighting is subdued, and there are several semi-private booths, in addition to numerous open tables and an eight-seat sushi bar. The decor is fairly traditional, with the usual collection of kitschy Japanese knicknacks, cluttered in a casual, friendly way.

I was promptly seated at the bar, handed a menu, and asked what I wanted to drink. I chose tea, and perused the menu. When the waitress arrived with the tea and a complimentary appetizer of pickled bean sprouts, I had already made my choice: the $34.95 Misako Combination, which includes ten nigiri (hamachi, maguro, ika, sake, tako, tai, tamago, tobiko, unagi, and ebi), matsu sashimi (maguro, sake, and hamachi), California roll, spicy tuna roll, and negihama roll.

Since I've learned that many Japanese chefs in America harbor a quiet disdain for the ubiquitous and unadventurous California roll, I told the chef to feel free to substitute whatever he liked in place of it. The saying goes, "every time a sushi chef makes a California roll, a little bit of him dies."

The waitress informed me that there could be a bit of a delay this night in processing sushi orders, and I told her it wasn't a problem. I learned from one of the chefs that, due to their booth at the Asian Celebration, some of their chefs and much of their equipment had yet to return to the restaurant. Indeed, while I waited for my order, I caught sight of one of the chefs from the booth returning with some kitchen equipment, including three large poly cutting boards.

As I watched the chef prepare my dinner, I drank my very good miso soup and tapped my foot to the reggae-inspired music of Curtis Mayfield, whose CDs were on rotation that evening. I also chatted with my fellow diners and played with a few of the little plastic sushi wind-up toys in front of the sushi case. One of them seemed to have a broken leg, because it kept trying to move in circles. :)

My order arrived on a large circular tray, attractively presented and garnished with shredded daikon and a shinko leaf. I started with the unagi, which was still warm and dissolved immediately on my tongue. I moved on to the other nigiri, all of which were excellent: everything that should have been melt-in-my-mouth fresh...was. The rolls were likewise very good: the spicy tuna was noticeably spicy, but not enough to drown out the tuna. The negihama roll was good, but I've had a hard time finding one that lived up to the negitoro temaki at the Raw Bar in Chico, so the bar's set pretty high. In place of my California roll, the chef substituted the aptly-named Oiishi roll, which contains sake, hamachi and avocado.

When I was nearly finished with my sushi, I was informed by my waitress that since the Misako combo is technically a two-person meal, it's supposed to come with two bowls of miso soup. She asked me if I wanted the second bowl, and I told her thanks, but I would be doing good just to finish the sushi. Not wanting to short-change me, she suggested a bowl of green tea ice cream instead, and I said that would be very nice.

The green tea ice cream was delicious. I've had green tea ice cream that tasted more of tea than cream, but this ice cream flavor was sweet and well-balanced. It was served in a small glass goblet, and even though I was holding the bowl in my hand, the ice cream was cold enough not to melt before I'd finished it, and yet not so cold as to give me brain freeze. Very nice.

All in all, I was very pleased with my meal: everything I had was very good or excellent, and (based on a single visit to both places) definitely superior to Shiki's. This seems to fit in with the word-of-mouth I'd received from Eugene sushi buffs over the previous two days, who also gave Misako higher marks than Shiki, despite Eugene Weekly readers' opposite reaction. One person told me "don't trust the Eugene Weekly food polls," and since EW readers give Second Place to a conveyor-belt sushi bar, I'm also inclined to be skeptical (though to be honest, I haven't tried that conveyor belt place, so maybe it really is worthy of second prize).

Anyway, I give Misako an "A," and I'll be back for more. They have a $50 two-person sashimi dinner I'm dying to try with a friend. Any takers?