I made a trip to Aoi on 12^th and walnut in center city Philadelphia. They have an all you can eat sushi thing for 20 dollars, which is a really good deal since Aoi is Japanese owned and they have good quality ingredients and a skilled itamae. The ratio of rice to fish in the all you can eat sushi is just a little off, but it’s more then fair in comparison to the price.

What Aoi is great for is izakaya (foods for drinking) type foods. They have a whole section in the back written in Japanese with items that are hard to find elsewhere in the city. The itamai Tashin-san will gladly prepare two of my favorite sushi: nattou and uzura tamago gunkan (fermented soybeans with quail egg) and mentaiko (a spicy fish roe) and avocado gunkan. Another thing Aoi has that so far as I can tell is impossible to find in Philadelphia is ramen. If anyone knows somewhere else to get ramen, let me know, because I often have the craving.

November 7th, 2007 by John (Cho-Tabetai)