Aoi Aoi

I haven't had much sushi since I moved to Philadelphia. Although I love it, it doesn't really fit into the concept of a student budget, so I've avoided it as best I could. Last night, though, I was in the mood...really in the mood. I called my friend Jon up to see if he had any interest in going for all you can eat Sushi at Aoi. I remembered the place having pretty good fish, so it was worth a try.

Aoi is a strange place. You walk in to the black room with grey carpet and it feels more like a place out of the Philadelphia 1970's restaurant revolution (e.g. Fri Sat Sun with its fish tank and Christmas lights). There's half of a car sticking out of the wall over a bathroom -- kitsch at its best. It seems when they took over the restaurant, they spent as little as possible on renovations, adding just a couple of Japanese posters to the walls.

The waitress took a while to show up, and we informed her we'd be doing the all you can eat ($19.95). She took our menus away and brought special menus for the all you can eat. We then learned the rules:

• Nigiri = 1 point per piece
• Maki = 3 points per six pieces
• Temaki = 3 points per hand roll
• You can order up to 15 points per order
• No sharing
• You pay a la carte for any piece you don't finish (we'll get back to this one)

The fish selection was pretty good, with various combinations of tuna, mackerel, yellowtail, salmon, tamago, crab stick, and some shell fish/eel. We ordered our 15 points and she offered us soup and salad -- i took the salad and Jon went with the soup. The ginger dressing for the salad was quite good but pretty standard, although they also offered wasabi and sesame dressing choices.

Plate one comes out: I'm not too keen on the rolls -- the rice seems to be a little too chewy and sticky (a sign of not enough vinegar), but the nigiri is pretty good. A little too much rice, but hey, they're trying to slow down your fish consumption. The fish was surprisingly plentiful and quite tasty. The hamachi was especially good, with it's buttery bite and clean taste. The salmon was also quite fresh. Tuna and whitefish were less special, but still solid. We order plate two -- Jon is already struggling so he orders only six points, while I go for the full 15, limiting to just hand rolls and nigiri. I ask Jon to remind me to take a picture of plate two for the blog.

Plate two comes out: We both forget about the picture, and I go to town on my fish. I ordered tamago this time around to complete the meal (this is tradition in Japan according to Rachel J., who lived there for 8 years), and it's a little on the sweet side but still good. Again, I'm really surprised by the good quality of the fish.

Jon then reminds me that I haven't taken pictures. Because I care about all three of my readers, I decide to order more, albeit already pushing my limits here. I order two temaki and one nigiri. I can finish that, right? Wrong. The food comes out and I eat the nigiri with no problem. I start on the temaki. Problem. I've hit a wall. I have three choices:

• Pay the a la carte for the pieces I didn't finish (recall the rules)
  
• Take a short break and force them in
• Stuff them in my mouth, go to the bathroom, and spit them out into the toilet

I chose the latter. In a truly classic disruption of my dignity solely to take pictures for you, my three readers, I go to the bathroom and spit the food into the toilet. I push really hard on the flusher and luckily both rolls go down. The biggest issue: I haven't yet figured out how to get the photos off of my camera phone...

In conclusion, scary decor, good service, and decent sushi at a great price. I wouldn't recommend this place for a la carte, as for me, the best part of a la carte sushi is finding really creative rolls. I'm sure Aoi has creative rolls, but I find it much harder to ignore the rice consistency with maki than with nigiri. But for all you can eat? this place is great.

Aoi
1210 Walnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 985-1838