One new opening in the DC restaurant scene that I was looking forward to was a standalone sushi counter by chef Masaaki “Uchi” Uchino. My wife Jun and I had visited his counter at the Square food hall a couple of times before and generally liked what he offered from his experience having worked at Sushi Nakazawa DC. When we chatted with chef Uchi while he was at Square, it sounded like he was hitting a few snags on opening a more formal counter in the same building. He finally opened the new Kiyomi restaurant this spring, starting with $40 omakase lunch deal followed by dinner service recently. Knowing what we had experienced at chef Uchi’s Square counter, we thought we would have a satisfying sushi dinner. Instead, we were quite surprised that the recent dinner at Kiyomi didn’t live up to our expectations.

The $135 per person dinner omakase course consists of a couple of starters followed by a series of nigiri pieces, and then wrapping up with miso soup and dessert. As a soft shell crab enthusiast, Jun appreciated that the first course was soft shell crab with agedashi-style dashi-based sauce; I thought the dish was good but perhaps the seasoning was a little too strong? My initial concern about the seasoning quickly became even more apparent from the nigiri pieces that followed such as seabream, striped jack, cherry salmon, horse mackerel and straw smoked bonito. Even the pieces that I thought had very good fish quality, like golden eye snapper or the trio of tunas with different cuts and black cod, also had too much marinated sauce going on.

Throughout the dinner, Jun struck a conversation with a white lady who was dining by herself, and even she agreed that the seasoning was a little too much. I’ve heard stories of sushi chefs sometimes masking mediocre quality of fish with extra layers of seasoning but I just didn’t think that was the case at Kiyomi; I would have gladly eaten these fish at home, just without the marinated flavor bomb. Additionally, the fish to rice ratio was off compared to our previous visits at Chef Uchi’s counter. Jun confessed to me the day after our visit that she felt bloated for the first time in a while from a sushi omakase meal. Even the miso soup that came at the end was a little too salty, and we relied on the New Zealand kiwifruit that came as a dessert to cleanse our over-saturated palate a little bit.

Right now, Kiyomi is open for dinner only on Fridays at 7 p.m. (the reservations are released two weeks in advance) so if you want to check it out, advance planning is required. The décor of the counter is in line with what you typically see in a sushi-ya. There is a full bar with interesting wine and sake offerings; the sake options are smartly categorized by different styles. Kiyomi was one of the biggest disappointments Jun and I have had recently. Knowing the talent of chef Uchi, we were just shocked how out of balance the flavor was, which was a shame because there was nothing wrong with the quality of the fish that were on the table. Perhaps chef Uchi was being overstretched (he also oversees the sushi menu at another restaurant Katsumi), or perhaps he just had an off day. In any event, we will probably need to hear about some tangible improvement before visiting Kiyomi again.

KenScale: 7.25/10 (Jun’s Score: 7.25/10)

Address: 1895 L St NW, Washington, DC 20036

Website: None

Reservation via Resy