Taki Sushi — Restaurant in Denver

So I've gone here a long time ago and again twice on my current visit back.

All of the sushi fish has the taste and texture of an upscale coastal locations in affluent parts of town, but the pricing is still somehow incredibly attainable.

The fish has that slightly sweet, complex flavor and is buttery and consistent in texture with no sinewy or mealiness. The color looks natural and the skin has that sort of almost iridescent sheen you get from healthy, fresh seafood.

The teriyaki salmon is in the top 2 I've had anywhere in the United States. It's finally scratched the itch I've been chasing for almost 15 years after the one shockingly good experience I had in an Albequerque Whole Foods hot bar (i know that sounds terrible, but imagine my surprise when experiencing it and realizing nothing's compared before and after that month). The fish was cooked to perfection, just tipping into opacity, yet actually succulent and properly grilled or seared where you have the caramelized crispy edges. The sauce was good and surprisingly abundant, and you get two very large fillets for the order, twice what I've come to expect in any coastal state. Most places produce really dry and "stale/fishy" tasting cooked fish dishes to where I've come to just gloss over that portion of the menu, but I'm glad I took a shot here. I might just order this every time I'm back in town tbh.

Also, the miso soup!! They clearly use actual fish and miso paste in the soup, and the tofu and seaweed are not some cheap generic preprocessed content either. It's so good with a rounded complex profile as well, and again the portions are twice what you normally get anywhere else.

I really don't understand how the f everything is so satisfying and with portions so generous.

They also have the best array of rolls I've seen in a really long time. Personally, there's a good 17 combinations that I struggle to choose between because they're all so amazing. And you can absolutely make a meal of a soup and a roll here.

Places like this really push me to move up a few tax brackets so I can just go wild ordering from the same place...

I'm rounding up to 4 stars here because the staff was nice and the food was good. However, there was nothing that stood out as great about the experience, and nothing that made Taki stand out above other area sushi restaurants. If you live nearby, this would be a good neighborhood spot for a sushi night. But if you don't live nearby (and I don't), we didn't experience anything that would make us choose Taki rather than other sushi restaurants.

The meal was good, but nothing stood out. We ordered calamari as an appetizer, which was huge and nicely chewy. And edamame, which was ordinary and as-expected.

The rest of the meal comprised nigiri ordered as individual items, a dragon roll, and a salmon skin hand roll. And a large bottle of dry saki, which was just fine but not exceptional. Nothing bad, all good—but nothing that stood out as particularly noteworthy either.

The service was good and attentive, and the ambience was much better on the inside than I expected, given the outside of the restaurant and the surrounding street corner. Parking was difficult on a Tuesday, but we found a spot on the street two blocks away. I'd expect weekends to be pretty much impossible. But again, for a neighborhood spot in walking distance, this is a fine place to go. It's just not got anything that would cause me to drive there again.

Including the large bottle of sake (about $30), we spent about $65 per person for two of us, and were quite full. (And...

The late night sushi place.

+Hours: they're open about an hour later than most other sushi places. This is a big deal for night shift workers who like to sleep in on days off.

+Quality: The Sashimi is flavorful, cold, well textured and we did not find any bones. The house Sake is hot and mildly sweet, just how we like it.

+Extras: it might sound petty, but we really like the moist towelettes they serve when seating guests. It's the first place we visited with this feature. These are not the tiny wet naps standard to the barbecue world. These are the size of a cloth diining napkin and fully capable of cleaning both hands thoroughly. While I realize it's already customary to wash ones hands before a meal, I can't emphasize enough the refreshing nature of using these towelettes at the table. I wish more restaurants did this. They remove the towelettes and wrappers before orderimg. It's a tiny detail that greatly improves the dining experience.

+Service: Courteous, professional, fast and friendly.

+Variety: excellent selection of sashimi and sushi.

=Accessibility: it's not hard or easy to get to.

=Location: it's not terribly pretty or in a good or bad location. It's up against a liquor store.

=Atmosphere: it's clean and comfortable, but also small and a little cramped.

This is our goto late night sushi option. We rely on its consistency...