June's Taste - Sushi Joa ~ Kirkland, Wa

Where did this month go? The end of June really snuck up on me. We found the time to visit Sushi Joa last Saturday in downtown Kirkland. The day was very hot for this time of year and boy did the heat carry into the dining area. That was one big disappointment for me. I know in the Pacific Northwest we are not used to the temps soaring past 90 degrees for such long periods of time but I don't like to sweat through my dinner either. Hopefully they will be able to remedy the temperature situation at some point because it is starting to look like these hot summers may become the norm. Temperature aside Sushi Joa was very good. They are sitting at #3 for overall sushi appeal and #2 for service.
If I had done my homework better we would have arrived around 3 pm for the start of their happy hour but we walked through the door around 2 pm and were seated right away. There were only 3 other tables seated at that time of day. The service was initially very quick but they became less attentive as the meal went by. I know it was slow and they were focusing on rolling the silverware for the next shift but all the more reason to pay attention to the tables you do have during the slow times. Believe me I was a server all through college.
We started off with our usual order of gyoza. Sushi Joa's has a chicken and vegetable filling and is deep fried to a crisp. As you may know by now I prefer a steamed gyoza but they had wonderful flavor and were brought to the table piping hot. The sauce served along side it was very good and I would have loved to have had it to dip my sushi in later but the server literally stood over me waiting for me to dip my last gyoza into it before she promptly cleared the plate and the sauce bowl right along with it! I was so taken a back by being watched that I didn't know how to tell her I wanted to keep it!

Chicken Gyoza

My better half, C, decided to order the Sushi Combo. It was a beautiful plate of sushi comprised of Tuna, Salmon, Albacore, Shrimp, Himachi, Mackerel and a Spicy Tuna roll. It also comes with a miso soup to start. He thought the Tuna roll was fantastic but the nigiri was hit and miss quality and taste wise. He did mention that the nigiri rolls had wasabi between the rice and the fish which we don't find very often. C really enjoyed this more traditional preparation but wished he hadn't added so much to his soy sauce as he isn't used to having the double dose. He paired his meal with an Asahi.

Sushi Combo

I ordered the L.O.B roll and the Creamy Scallop roll. The L.O.B. roll is made up of a spicy crab-meat mix, crunch bits, avocado and topped with seared salmon, spicy mayo and green onions. It even had a shichimi sprinkled over it. The salmon was silky with the the slightest sear. The roll was creamy and had just a hint of heat on the backend. Over all a very good roll.

L.O.B. Roll

The Creamy Scallop roll is a simple roll with the nori on the outside of the roll and a filling of scallops, masago, cucumber, kalware and kewpie mayo. The scallops were so tender and silky and the radish sprouts gave the roll a fresh, peppery finish. I would order this roll again.

Marina Roll (top), Creamy Scallop Roll (bottom)

We also tried one of the rolls on special, the Marina Roll. It was made up of a tempura shrimp in the middle of the roll and salmon, very thinly sliced lemon and jalapeno on top. The jalapeno was not overpoweringly hot and the lemon complemented the bright salmon on top. The shrimp in the middle gave the roll a slight fried food taste to the roll, so much so that it almost took away from the other ingredients.
Even after all of this I still felt like I didn't really have the full feel of the place so we decided to split one more roll. The server recommended the 7th Heaven roll as it is by far their most popular roll. I can see why. It is so different and the combination of ingredients pays off big. The 7th Heaven roll is made up of spicy tuna, green onion tempura (sooo good), kalware topped with seared albacore, avocado, 7-spice, sesame dressing and garlic chips. The whole roll is so soft it could almost be called melt-in-your mouth. The light heat of the spicy tuna is addicting and the sesame dressing was plate licking good. I was even more surprised at how much I liked the garlic chips. They were toasty and not overpoweringly garlicky. All of the components together made for one great roll.

7th Heaven Roll

The price tag for all of this? $85.41 If I were to go back I would probably try the happy hour menu to see what kind of savings we could find. Another thing that may bring me back to this location of Sushi Joa is that they are just a block away from the shores of Lake Washington. This makes for a wonderful after dinner stroll. Go check them out!

Sushi Joa

104 Kirkland Ave

Kirkland, WA 98033

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