Sushi Ogawa 鮨小川 — Restaurant in Washington

For our anniversary, the BF and I decided to celebrate with dinner at Sushi Ogawa. This has been in my bookmarks for a year now since their opening in Feb 2016. I have heard many good things about Sushi Ogawa, and I've been (im)patiently waiting to come here.

We easily booked reservations through OpenTable and scored parking right across the street from the restaurant. It was pretty empty inside; there was only one other couple having dinner in the dining room and another couple at the sushi counter/chef's bar. That coupled with the small, cozy space and ambiance made us experience feel more intimate. The dining room seats just 16 people, so I would recommend making reservations when possible. There are two private party areas and a seven-seat sushi counter.

We chose the omakase, which is $80/person ($100/person at the bar) and requires the entire table's participation. Normally, we'd have omakase at the bar (and I'd recommend doing that if you're looking for an omakase experience); however, we made reservations fairly last minute. If you're looking to do an omakase experience at Sushi Ogawa, I would recommend fronting the extra $20 and making a reservation at the bar where you can watch the chef in action.

The omakase menu includes an appetizers, sashimi course, sushi course, soup, and dessert. Omakase literally means "I'll leave it up to you," so it is whatever the chef has in mind for the day. We've had omakase before at Sushi Taro and at Sushi Nakazawa in NYC, and we've always enjoyed the experience.

Minoru Ogawa is the owner and chef of Sushi Ogawa, as well as Sushi Capitol in DC. Following his family tradition, Ogawa serves edomae (Edo-style) sushi, a style of sushi where fish is imported from the famous Tsukiji Market in Tokyo. Chef Ogawa has an impressive resume; prior to Sushi Ogawa and Sushi Capitol, he ran the sushi programs at every Mandarin Oriental on the East Coast.

We started off with three dishes - fried shrimp, oyster, and tofu. Next, we had our sashimi course with seven pieces. After that came our first sushi course with six nigiri pieces. Another sushi course followed with four more nigiri pieces, and four rolls. Next came our miso soup. And finally, we ended with dessert. Some stand-outs from our meal include chu toro, sake, and uni. I was a bit surprised and disappointed that the Chef overwhelmed some of his nigiri pieces with wasabi (made in-house); it overpowered a lot of our nigiri. We also never got our handroll, even though the menu states that it comes with the sushi portion of the omakase. Some pieces were not quite as winning as others, but even these still reign over some of the lesser sushi restaurants in D.C.

Of all the omakase experiences we've had so far, this is - without contest - in the bottom tier. However, it was still a good meal and I walked away with just the right amount of fullness. And honestly, $80/person is not that bad for an omakase meal. Plus, service was polite and prompt. If you're looking to try omakase and/or have some good sushi, stop by...

First, I will say I don't give mediocre reviews very often and to give something less than 5 stars it takes a significant experience. In Ogawa's defense, the food itself was good, but for the prices Ogawa commands that's not enough. I took my fiancée here for her birthday dinner and with the prepayment online of dinner, tax, and tip it was over $180 per person before drinks. The reason I mention the price is that Ogawa's not a typical California roll-type sushi place - it's a traditional omakase restaurant.

The cuts of the fish including the fatty tuna/otoro were some of the worst cuts possible comprised of the gristly part of the fish. The net effect was akin to rubber and not at all supposed to be the butter like experience of good fatty tuna.

Other sushi restaurants of this caliber give incredible attention to detail in ensuring things like the ginger and chopsticks are positioned according to the diner's arm usage, and the food is artfully placed on the serving trays. Here chunks of fish were splatted by hand on the tray before the chef went back to other tasks. I felt much like pig a being slopped.

Other small items like the cheap splintery chopsticks and sharp broken porcelain chopstick holders made the entire experience feel very cheap.

Also, I'm not sure if Ogawa is cutting food costs but I left hungry, and after a nearly $200 meal I shouldn't be hungry. At one point, we were the only customers in the restaurant, and a sous chef brought out two plates of bits of soft-shell crab and laid them down. The chef took one and sent the other one back, and then proceeded to further cut up the tiny bit of soft-shell crab.

Overall, I regret having to write this kind of review, but I wished I had seen these kind of words from someone else prior to going here. I honestly left angry at having wasted such a large chunk of change for such a mediocre meal and want others to avoid the same mistake. There are many other good restaurants to...

We went to Sushi Ogawa to celebrate my husband’s birthday. Since he loves sushi and the restaurant came highly recommended by a friend, we had high expectations.

Unfortunately, the experience didn’t live up to them. We ended leaving after the two appetizer plates. We were seated at the far side of the bar tucked away in a corner. While this wasn’t ideal, it wasn’t something that had bothered us. We had originally thought that there were going to be two chefs but when the meal began, the chef did not serve us one dish nor introduce any of the dishes to us. The host that had sat at the bar served us everything. There were no explanations about the food, and when we addressed this with the chef, his response was that that the other chef had called out sick and that the host/waiter was his assistant.

To summarize: • Our seating was poorly positioned at the end of the bar, our view was obstructed by a blow torch, we couldn’t see the chef preparing or plating the food. The table was also cluttered with various items. • The dishes were served by a host/waiter, not the chef. While the chef referred to the waiter as his assistant, I’ve never experienced an omakase where an assistant handles the service. • No explanations about the dishes were provided. • The chef would simply push the dishes toward the waiter with a gesture to serve us, which felt unprofessional. • Even after we politely shared our concerns, the chef didn’t respond with any apology.

I don’t know much about the chef’s background or how proud he is of his craft, but I believe it’s important to first master the fundamentals of good customer service. However we did get a full refund.

I hope he can learn to accept feedback with an open mind, regulate his emotions, and reflect on his actions. I sincerely hope that my feedback helps him grow and contributes to the success of...