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Oishii
612 Hammond St, Chestnut Hill, MA
617.277.7888
2 stars
- Neighborhood: Brookline
- Directions: Sheafe Street
- Hours: Tues.-Fri. 11:30 am-3 pm and 5-9:30 pm, Sat. 1-10 pm, Sun. 1-9 pm
Oishii brought Boston into the world of innovative sushi. This is an unusual role for a nine-seat sushi bar with one table and a lot of take-out business. You could drive by a lot of times without knowing that there are three chefs and sometimes a cook in the back kitchen, which is actually larger than the seating area. All this staff has a pretty good time cutting sushi to order, and keeping track of customer-invented specials like "Jeff’s Maki," "Brad’s Torch Maki," and "Joe’s Kazan Maki." Internet sushi-philes have a running debate about whether or not Oishi is as good as Nobu in New York. Your instructions when you get to Oishii are to have the customer-denominated sushi and sashimi, and to chat up the chef, Ting San. If you must deviate, try something like a seafood udon, a truly glowing giant bowl of thick noodles with a delicate broth infused with shiitake mushrooms, scallops, shrimp, two kinds of fish sausage, and a little squid. The bargain vegetarian version is Kinoko soup — the same bowl with a spicier broth and some extra mushrooms, cabbage, daikon, and fresh tomato slices to replace the seafood.
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