Raw

With Ali (the sister) transferring from Randy Mac to GMU, we realized we were without a local sushi place to go to when I visit. When I visited her last year in Richmond, we would hit up Sticky Rice every time and enjoy our rolls and tots*. It was a sad day when we realized this luxury would be no more.

So what are two sushi loving girls to do without a place to go to enjoy the rawness?! We decided we needed to Lorelai a few places in the GMU area. First up, by recommendation, was Arigata in Fairfax near 29 and 50. I really liked the look of this place with the simple wood tables and sushi bar. It's hard not to continually make comparisons to Sticky Rice which, besides their sometimes rude waitresses and annoying door guy (sorry, V), is quite charming and have I mentioned, delicious?

The other thing I had forgotten that is different about Sticky Rice is that it is like the Americanized version of a Japanese restaurant. The sushi is authentic but the ordering is easy and nothing comes as a surprise (such as, "What IS a fish cake!?"). So since I have quite the aversion to all things mushy and/or sour cream-like, I get nervous when ordering something new. They had given us a little appetizer tempura thing which was good...until I hit the warm cream cheese part and had to tell Ali to be quite for a moment so I could concentrate on not vomiting.

We went for an all-around taste test of the place ordering three kinds of sushi (avocado, California, and tuna) and noodles for each of us. The sushi was superb! Even though it's totally gross to think about having fish eggs in one's mouth, roe on a roll really seals the deal. I think the avocado were my least favorite since I don't really like the fruit (it's a fruit, right? Has the seed and all...) but had been hoping for something comparable to the South Roll at Sticky Rice which is some heavenly concoction of, oh wait, is it sweet potato? Maybe I ordered the wrong thing.

Then our noodles came. This is also when I laughed so hard I started crying. Mine was served in what Ali called a "bedpan" but were quite tasty. I was worried about the chopsticks (Oh, no silverware!) since I usually use a fork for anything other than sushi but it went better than expected. I was glad to be eating with Ali so I wouldn't have to worry about spilling and having noodles hang out of my mouth, etc. (attractive, eh?). What Ali had ordered turned out to be more like soup. Udon soup, if you will. It looked very good (and was-I tasted it) but she realized she was in quite the predicament as she had chopsticks and one of those weird spoons they give you as her eating utensils.



Making it even more difficult were the waitresses keeping an eye on us which made it tough to experiment with eating strategies. The noodles wouldn't cut easily with the weird spoon and would slide right off when she tried to scoop them up. I tried so hard to not laugh but her facial expressions and commentary was too much for me and I slipped into a silent fit of giggles which, as usual, ended with me practically crying. We decided to take the rest of our noodles with us for later since we were full anyway. We decided Ali had made a noticeable dent in her noodle soup and we asked for To-Go boxes and our check.

I would definitely go back to Arigata. I don't think I would get the noodles again as they were a bit pricey but the rolls were very good and I look forward to trying the more daring kinds. (But none with cream cheese, goat cheese, or any other weird consistency.)



*Tator tots. A bucket of them. The best bucket of tots you've ever had! With tot sauce!