I love sushi. Go figure, a guy who’s all about food, in just about every waking hour, loves something that is a “boutique food”. I had my first “sushi” in 1992 flying to Korea for the Army. What I was Actually served was “kimbap” a Korean variant of a sushi roll but not containing any fish at all.
Kimbap(Gimbap) is a Korean variant that includes pickled daikon radish, carrot, cooked egg (like an omlette) and sometimes marinated and cooked beef. This is then wrapped in seasoned rice and rolled in seasoned seaweed sheets (Nori). As I’d said, this was my first exposure to “sushi” and also my first exposure to Korean food and I hated them both.
The texture was soft and mushy, it was very fishy tasting (actually it was the seaweed) and I was Not happy (14 hour flights will do that to you).
Fast forward to 1996, I’m now living in Hendersonville, TN a suburb of sorts to Nashville, and I’m working as a dietary manager at a retirement home. The owner/manager took me with him on a conference to Knoxville and the closest restaurant nearby was a sushi joint. Being like most white kids with no exposure, I ordered the California Roll (the whitest sushi known to man) and it was actually pretty good. I loaded it up with wasabi paste and pickled ginger and went to town.
So, there’s the background, now, on with the review.
Tokyo Diner is not the only sushi spot in Lancaster or York, but in my opinion, it’s one of the best. I can often be heard complaining that they don’t use “sushi rice” (yes, there IS a difference), however, I feel that they happen to have some of the freshest fish in both Lancaster and York.
You will note that this is an opinion, and not a statement of fact. I am not a food safety inspector, just a guy who loves food, so take it with a shot of soy sauce as you will. Anyway, this most recent visit to Tokyo Diner sees us at the location on 462 in York, behind the way too large sign for Fuddruckers. It’s thursday, right at about 6:30 pm and there is 1 waitress, 1 sushi chef and about 40 people in the restaurant. To say that the waitress was breaking her back is to do her disservice. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single waiter/waitress really push as hard as she did.
Sorry, back to the food. The party tonight was Eric, Kelby and me. Kelby, being our vegetarian friend, often gets the short end of the stick when going for sushi. He likes Inari rolls (sushi skin roll) but there’s so much beyond that. This time, he ordered the “Green Roll” in addition to his standard and what a fantastic choice that was. The green roll is one of the specialty rolls so it’s a bit more expensive at 6$ for the roll, but according to Kelby it was worth it. The presentation and content were really well done. This roll featured approximately 6 oz of seasoned spinach, wrapped in rice and then covered in what appeared to be about half of an avocado, and then slathered in a sweet and savory sauce. Kelby explained that this was a Very good roll for him.
My dinner was the semi-standardized “Sushi Deluxe”. At about 19 dollars, this was 10 pieces of sushi and a tuna roll. In my experience, this sushi combo plate features both eel and mackerel, neither of which I like, so I always ask them to leave those out, which generally gets me better fish. I was presented with 2x each of Tuna, Salmon, Red Snapper, “White Tuna” and Yellowtail. This presentation has become pretty standard when ever I ask to omit the fish that I hate. You’ll notice that white tuna is in quotes up above. The reasoning is, what American sushi places label and serve as white tuna is actually not tuna at all, but Escolar, mislabeled under several different names, but regardless of naming, is actually banned in Japan as a “toxic fish” since 1977. I honestly only learned of this misnaming practice today, and I’m disappointed, as this was one of my favorites. Here goes the breakdown of the nigiri sushi bites. Yellowtail: somewhat thickly cut, but happily so for me, and topped with scallions. Semi-strong in flavor, I’d give it a 7. Standard Tuna nigiri: Very firm flesh, smooth texture, not that strong in fish taste, a solid 8. Red Snapper nigiri: Very solid almost dense flesh feel, slightly stronger in taste than the tuna. Overall enjoyable, another 7. Fresh Salmon (instead of smoked): One of my favorites. Not as thickly sliced as the yellowtail or snapper, but still good. Great flavor, great texture, a solid 8.5. Finally we get to the “white tuna”: Up until this morning, after I did a web search for just what type of fish this came from, this was my #1 favorite, ranking a solid 9 on the love sushi scale. The texture was soft and smooth, the flavor literally tasted like it was dipped in butter, and it had a semi-sweet finish that I’ve really grown fond of. Now, I as well as many others have gotten “intestinal distress” after consuming a large sushi deluxe type combo, and almost always blamed it on “bad sushi” or “unclean hands”, etc. Well, it’s Actually the Escolar. This fish is considered toxic in Japan, banned in several other countries, but we serve it up here and I loved it. Well, never again. Please note: I do Not hold ill will to Tokyo Diner. They’re great, the food that I get there is always top notch. However, they Do serve this fish, whether or not they know of it’s problems, I simply won’t be ordering it again.
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