Nashville Food Friday: Koto Sushi Bar

Last week Steve and I were heading to TPAC for a show and wanted to grab some dinner on the way. Koto Sushi Bar is located downtown and just a few blocks away from the theater, so we decided to give it a go.

When we arrived we were seated right away, but within 10 minutes the place filled up with people going to see the same show. There appeared to be only one waitress for all the tables and I felt bad for her because that's just way too many customers for one lady. Probably because of this, the service was slow. Later on in the evening a different lady came out from the kitchen to help with the rush of customers.

The night was cold so for starters we ordered some hot sake and a pickle plate. The pickles took a very long time to arrive at our table, considering they are cold and just have to be plopped on the plate. Because of the odd timing the sake arrived way before the pickles. Oy. Anyway, the pickles themselves were quite enjoyable. They had a good crunch and strong vinegar flavor.

For dinner we ordered four rolls: Dragon roll, Yummie roll, crunchy shrimp, and the salmon skin roll. I also ordered some sea urchin because I love the stuff. When the food came I was slightly disappointed right off the bat. Appearance and presentation is an integral part of the sushi dining experience, but their rolls were just NOT PRETTY. It appeared that they took no time in making their sushi look delightful and perfect. The rolls looked mangled and the pieces were all different sizes. One sea urchin looked pretty and one was horribly ugly and kept falling over. The end pieces on all of the rolls were also ugly and did not contain much filling at all.

Besides the presentation, the sushi was just ok. It didn't wow me but it was passable. The salmon skin was over cooked making it very hard in spots. I felt like the crab topping on the Yummie roll needed something else: mayo, spice, avocado? Just something. The only thing that Steve and I agreed on was that the crunchy shrimp was quite good.

Overall, I wasn't impressed with Koto. But its downtown location and proximity to the theater, arts district and broadway is pretty hard to beat when looking for a decent (non-touristy, non-chain) place to eat downtown. I feel like I personally should give them another chance on a night when they aren't so swamped.