This Japanese restaurant doubled in size but still reveals the delights of tiny sushi bars

The long, narrow plate of pesce shiro maguro arrived with buttery slices of escolar curled over bunches of softly crunchy daikon radish sprouts. The tangy, ginger-sharpened ponzu sauce underneath made my lips smack involuntarily.

A dish called golden salmon had just the barest thread of char, not seared in the manner of tataki, but touched by a flame passing over to tighten the surface and add a whiff of smoke. It sat on a bed of greens and sushi rice crusted with the seasoned seaweed mix furikake.

These are two specialties I always crave at Asuka (4600 Washington Ave., 504-862-5555), and I think they’re all the more compelling because this has long seemed an unlikely place to find such touches.

After a big change, though, Asuka is starting to look more the part while also still reflecting what I value about the low-key range of the sushi bar spectrum (more on that below).

The restaurant has a new home in Gert Town at 4600 Washington Ave., in the location that was previously the ramen destination Kin (which closed permanently after Hurricane Ida last year).

The move has more than doubled the size of Asuka, although practically any change would have entailed an expansion from the tiny original.

Towers and truffle oil

In the ever-shifting realm of New Orleans sushi bars, there are the specialists, with an omakase approach or a menu distilled down to just a handful of specialties. We are enjoying a fresh crop of such restaurants around the area now.

And then there is the neighborhood sushi joint, often quite small and unassuming, easy to overlook but beloved by its regulars to the point of dependency.

Asuka has filled that last role for the better part of a decade, back when it first opened in a garage-sized wedge of space on Earhart Boulevard.

I started eating here because I like to ask chefs where they go eat in their free time. I heard Asuka more than once.

It looked then like a utilitarian operation, fielding a busy takeout business from a location more about proximity to many neighborhoods than ambience. There wasn’t even a proper sushi bar, just a prep counter and a handful of tables.

But then I had the tuna dressed with truffle oil, black salt and fragrant, citrusy yuzu sauce.

I had the “tower,” a construction of spicy tuna and salmon, crab stick, sushi rice and avocado that looks like box sushi crossed with a "Star Wars" droid, with a scattering of wasabi peas for good measure.

And I had the pesce shiro maguro and the golden salmon mentioned above, and I have been returning ever since.

Asuka was opened in 2013 by Louis Lu. The current owner, Gary Wei, took over in 2018.

Its fans have had time to miss it. Wei kept the dining room closed through practically the entire pandemic. Then last spring, the now red-hot-popular Creole tavern Nice Guys Bar & Grill expanded into Asuka’s original space.

The new location, which sits near Xavier University, underwent a significant renovation from its Kin days. Wei built a second dining room, which more than doubles the dine-in capacity. And Asuka has a real sushi bar for the first time, with Kin’s former dining counter converted for the task.

The neighborhood sushi joint

Asuka is still a low-ambiance, fast-moving restaurant. But it also still gets to the heart of what I like about tiny sushi bars. They do not serve life-changing meals, but a visit might just change the arc of your day.

Even those that look like nothing special may serve sushi bar specials that will fixate your attention with compelling bites. When you want something light and fresh and prepared right then and there for you, when you've made no reservations but want to treat yourself, when you're dining solo and want an easy berth for one, the neighborhood sushi bar awaits. 

Sometimes I sit at the six-seat sushi bar at Lakeview Pearl (6300 Canal Blvd., 504-309-5711) and watch the family-sized takeout orders whisk through the doors and eat whatever is on the specials board, an approach rewarded recently by fatty salmon with a drape of garlic chili crunch 

If I’m near Fuji Sushi (8814 Veterans Blvd., 504-466-1924) in Metairie and it’s the weekend, I know there’s a good chance they’ll have toro, the indulgent tuna belly, as one of the many hand-written specials taped up around the bar.

And it was while on an errand that I did not foresee including sushi that I spotted Oishii Sushi House (5163 Gen. De Gaulle Ave., 504-218-4228) all but hidden in the back of an Algiers strip mall. My plans changed on a dime. Thus entailed a small sashimi sampler on its own little boat-shaped serving tray that made my day all on its own, and a riff on the tuna tower, this one a burly column of minced fish, crab stick, rice and creamy sauce that was filling and fun to deconstruct.

Some of these places quietly slip away. Good Time Sushi, a reliable neighborhood stop in Gentilly, closed during the pandemic. Lotus in Lakeview, which opened just before the pandemic, has shifted to catering and private events, closing its lounge-style sushi bar for regular service for “the foreseeable future,” its owner told me.

I was worried that Asuka might have closed when it disappeared from Earhart Boulevard. But it's back, with a quantum leap in capacity, the same menu and the same neighborhood sushi bar appeal.

Asuka

4600 Washington Ave., (504) 862-5555

Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

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