Japan has some customs that are regarded as indelible such as not wearing shoes indoors, or thou shalt not stick chopsticks vertically into food. At the risk of sounding blasphemous to my Japanese compatriots, California may have a thing or two that it can teach Japan about creativity in the sushi world.
Coming from someone who eats sushi daily and has learned to appreciate the subtleties in the texture of hirame, having avocado and waterfall-like salmon gnawing at my unagi eel definitely induced winces. My friend thought avocado was just a food Californians ate to show the rest of the world how pretentious they are. And I admit, telling Japanese people how to reinvent sushi doesn’t exactly help my case.
San Francisco and L.A. are full of restaurants which produce salmon/mango/macadamia nut rolls by the dozen, but finding these Calimaki institutions in Tokyo was a bit of a surprise. Still though, with a prime location amidst Tokyo’s foreign population in Azabu-Juban and a extensive drink menu with many top sakes and such novelties as white wine mojitos, Rainbow Roll sushi makes up in taste and invention what it lacks in tradition.
The restaurant’s namesake, a crab-avocado California roll covered in generous slabs of shrimp, salmon, squid, and nobiko is succulent and unique, as is the Dragon Roll, soft warm eel embracing avocado. The ambiance is sleek and modern, and though the basic sashimi selection was fresh and well-prepared, I wouldn’t go back unless I wanted to experiment. There are myriad impeccable sushi restaurants in Tokyo, but only one where making fun of Californians is so much fun. Don’t take your Japanese grandparents… They probably won’t get it.
Rainbow Roll Sushi
Monte Plaza 2F, 1-10-3 Azabujuban, Minato-ku, Tokyo
(One minute walk from exit A5 of Azabu Juban Station on the Oedo and
Nanboku lines)
Tel.03-5572-7688
Tokyo Foodie.com 