So, living in Los Angeles for 5 years spoiled me to the luxury have having fresh sushi. I’ve been nervous as hell about trying it in Wisconsin… I mean, it’s like 2,000 miles to the ocean! Can you really expect them to get the fish that far in a reasonable amount of time so that it stays fresh??

I didn’t ask.

So, it was off to Ginza of Tokyo on the west side of Madison. They’ve been around a long time, so I figured it was as safe a bet as possible being in the situation I’m in. Heather and I have wanted to get sushi together for a long time, so it was nice to finally go.

We arrived at around 8pm and waited a few minutes for a table. The first thing I noticed, that was different than any sushi bar I’d been to in CA, was the fact that there was a huge bar (alcohol), and 95% of the workers were white or Hispanic. Hmm… I missed my usual “irasshai” welcome from the real Japanese places.

We asked for 2 seats at the sushi bar… which turns out isn’t a bar at all. There were 4 seats along the actual “bar” - but ended up at a table in the “bar area.” I guess this will do. Instead of calling out your next order to the chef like I’m used to, we used the little paper menu and checked off a few items to start with. Mistake number one… it turns out the 2 chefs at the sushi bar were the only two in the entire building, making sushi for everyone - dining, alcohol bar, and sushi bar. Our first small order took almost a full hour to get to us… luckily Heather and I have good conversation.

We placed a second order right away, as we were told the next wait would be apx 35 minutes, and dug into the first order. The quality of the fish was surprisingly good, and the seaweed wasn’t chewy like I thought it may be. The mackerel, my favorite, was nice and smoky while the salmon was very light and flavorful.

The second order came and it was more of the same: good food, long wait. My lone desire is to find a sushi place in or around Madison that somewhat resembles a “real” sushi joint… a big long sushi bar with enough chefs to serve each order promptly so I can order one or two items at a time instead of having to plan in advance. The whole joy of having sushi is picking the next item as the taste for it occurs… something I missed at Ginza.