I dined here last night, thanks to this post, and it was lovely. If you're lucky, the jazz will be old school bebop and not weather channel jazz, but it beats the ubiquitous Celine Dion at our corner sushi joint! The art is nice, and the place feels very open and clean.

SO and I both did the omakase at $30 at the sushi bar, and left stuffed (in comparison to our Tojo's omakase experience, with which we could have bought a used car, even if it was easily the best meal of my life). Everything was beautifully presented, very fresh, and a good value.

We had a little starter of gomai with a slice of fish cake and shrimp, which was only okay. The shrimp was overcooked and the fish cake, while pretty, is just not my favorite. It's too hotdog-like. The gomai was perfect, not too sweet. This was followed by a huge plate of salmon carpaccio with a nice handful of jicama and daikon salad on top. Then Kobe beef curry, also a filling portion. The steak was perfectly cooked, tender, meaty; the sauce was nice and thick, but very light. I enjoyed this dish, but wouldn't order it. The heavy flavor of the curry seemed a touch out of place.

This was followed by my favorite dish, a definite guillty pleasure, and luckily it's on the everyday menu. Spicy tuna on crispy rice: a scoop of perfectly spiced tuna on a very thin chewy fried rice pancake drizzled with spicy mayo and eel sauce, topped with a serrano pepper. He told us to eat it like a taco. Sooo good. But how could you go wrong wrapping spicy tuna in fried goodness and slathering it with sweetness and mayonnaise?

Then we were served a very nice palatte-cleansing bowl of miso, and then the last dish, an assortment of nigiri. All of it was great. Yellowtail, sockeye, skipjack, albacore (charred with a blowtorch), amaebi, and surfclam. We were both stuffed, but who can turn down a dessert when it's included? A very light bowl of red beans and mochi, warm and chunky. A very nice end.

The chef was very attentive and friendly, and took a lot of pride and care with each dish he prepared. Next time, there are some menu items I want to try, as I was thrilled to see they have okra tempura. As a southern transplant, my fried okra levels are running dangerously low! They also have a nice yakitori menu, and one of the specials was 9 skewers and a shot of sake for $13. That's my kInd of special.

It was only about 1/3 full on a Thursday night, so I hope that's not the norm. Kimura will be our go-to now, as it's much much better than most sushi places we've been to, has a lovely ambiance, a friendly chef, good service, and very reasonable prices.

We've been buying a free range country ham from col. newsom's every year for about four years now, and can't recommend it highly enough. Most country ham that you buy pre-sliced in the store or at restaurants throughout the south is good, if one dimensionally salty. But the difference between these country hams and a newsom's ham is like comparing kraft parmesan with reggiano. The newsom's ham (aged 2 years) has a wonderful gamey, complex, almost chocolatey quality that can only come with age.

We use it mostly as seasoning. It's really a steal, too, as it lasts us 4-5 months every year (if you have room in your fridge!). We got some sliced serrano ham from Edward's as a christmas gift this year, and I can't wait to try it and compare!

You may want to do some recon, LotusRapper. I went again last night, and it was very very mediocre. I got the soup with dumplings and homemade noodles. It was nice and simple, but only had three small dumplings...the noodles had a good chew. The bibimbap was super bland, and the stone bowl wasn't hot enough to give the rice any sort of crust, which is what I really like about the dish.

Also of note, we were there about 8pm and they had some terrible autotuned dance club music playing really loudly... Maybe it is best at a weird afternoon hour. Good luck!

It seems the consensus is that insadong is the gold standard, but I haven't been and can't compare. We've been to Choon ha choo dong twice...it's close and convenient. Both times at a weird hour for a v late lunch. I'm no expert, but I do love Korean food and get a craving every weeks. I wish I could speak to their BBQ, since I know it's what you're curious about, but I always go for the same few dishes. Sol dat bi bim bop (the rice dish with meat, veg and a fried egg in a hot stone bowl), duk mandu guk (soup with dumplings and rice cakes), or a spicy seafood hotpot. Everything was very good both times... not remarkable, but solid. The service was good (at 3pm we were one of the only tables), and the space would suit a crowd quite well. The private booths were large enough for a sizeable group.

Went the first week they opened, and there were some usual problems: lackluster service, things already taken off the menu, bad timing, etc. Went back today for lunch, and it was great. Affordable. Gargantuan portions. One thing I really appreciate is the burger is local free-range, grass-fed beef from a farm I've bought from before (Boutwell Farms). Great stuff. I'm not sure if the ground beef in the cabbage rolls were the same, but I hope so. They were delicious! I'll have a hard time not ordering them every time.