In my quest to try different sushi restaurants in the Twin Cities Metro area, there has been one I have been wanting to go to for quite some time, and circumstance, until now, denied my request.
Sajiya is located on Grand Ave in St. Paul, right across the street from my favorite spice store, Penzey's. It is my understanding that they recently remodeled, but since I hadn't been there before it made little difference to me. In fact, my first impression of the place was that it looked a bit on the worn side.
On this occasion I was on my own and had a hour to fill before a hair cut appointment. I took advantage of the opportunity and decided to try the sushi. I was greeted promptly and asked if I would prefer a table or the sushi bar. The place was not too busy for a Thursday lunch and the sushi bar was empty. I chose the bar.
The sushi chef was very pleasant and recommended the Chef's Special: 6 California rolls, 6 nigiri, salad, soup and "dessert" for $10.00. I thought that sounded delightful and ordered a green tea to accompany it. The soup and salad came very quickly and I skipped the salad in part because I didn't want to fill up on lettuce and in part because it was iceberg lettuce and I didn't want to fill up on iceberg lettuce. Soup was good - a basic miso soup with tofu in nice small cubes.
Service was quick, presentation was very nice and the taste was excellent. The California rolls were artfully arranged in a lovely flower pattern - like a daisy. The nigiri was shrimp, yellowfin, salmon, egg, bluefin and one more that I have forgotten. Everything was bite sized. One of my biggest complaints with sushi places is making the pieces too big to fit in my mouth in one bite. I don't like messy sushi.
The desert piece I couldn't even describe other than it was delicious. It was various pieces of fish all wrapped up with rice, topped with roe and seasoned with a bit of oyster sauce and sesame seeds. I would go back for that alone.
My meal:
Chefs Special $10.00, green tea $2.00, tip $2.00. My tummy...happy.
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