Uni – A Sushi Place

How I heard of this place: Seraj, getting ready to celebrate his birthday, suggested it as a place to have dinner together, with a handful of his close friends.
Type of cuisine: «At Uni, all of our seafood and meats selections are purchase on a daily basis to guarantee peak freshness. They are then individually sliced and prepared when ordered to ensure the highest of quality.
We also pride ourselves on achieving balance by serving the finest, with dishes presented in ways of the old traditions dashed in contemporary flair. You’ll find that the venue is designed with a warm and lively ambiance, a place to enjoy a light-​hearted meal and to simply have fun!»
Ambiance: Up the dark, wooden stairs from the main street, we enter underneath the Mediterranean blue sign with cute, yellow font to Uni. As if we are about to enter a quirky, Seattle Capital Hill style apartment with creaky wooden floors and white-​painted walls, we happily make our way through the bell-​laden door and into an unassumingly large space. We are escorted down the bamboo hardwood floors, beyond the sleek sushi bar, away from the orange walls and into the space where green walls are sparsely decorated with four thick, silver-​framed photographs. Between seating areas, simple wooden basins hold long, dry shoots of bamboo, extending up towards the ceiling, creating a natural wall. Windows are covered with near-​transparent, white curtains, sparkling with flowered embroidery. Our light, birch tables, evenly set apart with ample space between dining parties, give way to uncomfortable wooden-​based seats with limited back support. Lighting is soft, with Japanese lantern lamp shades up against the glossy varnish of the orange-​toned walls.
What I ordered: We were eagerly ordering one dish after another, and enjoying (nearly) every bite as our meal progressed. We started with one miso soup with tofu & seaweed ($ 2.50), one Kaiso & Sesame salad ($ 4.95) with varieties of seaweed and cucumber, topped with crispy rice noodle, and my favorite: Ginger Mesclun salad ($ 3.95) with mesclun lettuce, seasonal veggies, picked red onion and crispy garlic in a ginger-​soy-​wasabi dressing. If I can recall all of our sushi options, we enjoyed two vegetarian rolls: Avocado ($ 3.50) and Shiitake Mushroom ($ 3.50), Inferno ($ 8.95) with spicy tuna, cream cheese and jalapeño, Black Widow ($ 8.50) with soft-​shell crab, red cabbage, cucumber and flying fish roe, Red Dragon Roll ($ 12), Lobster, tempura flakes wrapped with tuna, Dark Dragon Roll ($ 12), Shrimp Tampura and cucumber, wrapped with eel and avocado, Rainbow Roll ($ 11), shrimp and cucumber wrapped with tuna, salmon and avocado, Watermelon Roll ($ 11), sweet eel and egg wrapped with tuna and avocado, S&S Roll ($ 6), fresh salmon, crispy salmon skin, cucumber, and scallions, and Mango Salmon Roll ($ 6), fresh salmon with a hint of mint, rolled with mango and cucumber. To finish, we enjoyed one Chicken Cutlet ($ 7.95), which gave us not only a sample of something other than sushi, but a final, fried end to our meal.
What I loved: My favorite, overall, was the Dark Dragon Roll, following by the Watermelon Roll. The most odd was the mango Salmon Roll, and the most intriguing, yet somewhat disappointing was the Inferno.
Why I loved it: I love, especially, the ambiance, the quiet feng shui that feels warm, welcoming, with a comfortable and peaceful flow of energy throughout the establishment. I also love that their website considers Sushi Etiquette (
), enlightening first-​timers and reminding sushi-​frequenters of the simple pleasures associated with sushi consumption.
Cost: Average to high ($ 3.50-$ 12 per roll)

Their udon soup is AMAZING! I like that there’s only one choice of udon soup on the menu. It comes with shrimp, scallops, and fish in it, so it is perfect for seafood lovers like myself. But aside from that, the broth is delicious and could hardly benefit from any additional seasoning. Their sushi is great, but keep in mind you’ll get what you pay for, so a $ 5 eel cucumber roll will be very small and simple, and a $ 12 dark dragon roll is much more substantial and could even be a meal. Service is very attentive, and the restaurant is fairly small, so a waitress will almost always be within earshot if you need anything else.

Bought a bunch of
coupons for this place a few days ago then just found out that they went out of business last night (9÷16÷12).

This is a bit of a qualified 4-​star review, as I was one of the many who came in here with a
coupon. For those who lack basic reading comprehension skills, it does say on my certificate that the transaction will be cash only. I don’t like it, but I understand why… the restaurant is taking a huge hit to their margins to offer the coupon, and they don’t want to take another piece off the top with the credit card transaction fee.
I had the miso soup with oyster, which was odd but good. Instead of seaweed, the soup has what appears to be chopped bok choy (?). It took a little getting used to, but the oysters added a pleasant note to the miso.
The two knockout dishes I had were the Spicy Oyster Roll and the S&S Roll. The former is like the love child of sushi & the poboy, with a spicy sauce and red cabbage complimenting the fried oysters. The latter is a salmon roll with salmon skin, a crunchy little Omega flavor bomb.
And yes, this place is a little on the spendy side. Do you want good sushi or cheap sushi? I’m not sure you can have both.

For the people who give 1-​star for ridiculous reasons :
It’s YOUR OWN FAULT not to read the rules… Why should the small owners have to pay the 3% card fee to the 1% bankers, when they have already offered you a 50% discount? It’s on the FIRST LINE of the coupon with BOLD LETTERS that you had to pay cash for the remainders, not a tiny fine print on the back.
For the food. Fried oysters are good and tasty, 8.5 for 4 of them. Raw food is about average, decent spicy scallop roll. I think I would rank 3 normally. But I have to make a balance with those morons who just refused to admit their own mistake, so I’ll give a higher score.

The Good: The waitress was very friendly and the service was quick around 5pm. The mixed seaweed salad we ordered was great! Unfortunately, this is all the good I can say about this place.
The Bad: The maki sushi was overpriced for the tiny 6 mini pieces we got, and the nigiri was average for the price. I had a coupon from
and I was not aware that you had to pay cash only. I asked the manager to make an exception because I was not carrying any cash and he pointed to an ATM outside and said that we do not make any money off these certificates. I thought that was very rude and never had a restaurant ask for cash only and send customers to the ATM. If people using discount deals are treated with such disrespect then they should not be selling those deals in the first place. $ 60 with tip for below mediocre sushi, no thanks! I will not be back.

Caveat: I’ve only been for lunch. Since I have yet to really discover any place in Dupont that really excites me for lunch (though honorable mentions to Firefly, Afghan Kebab– but damn heavy for lunch, CF Folks– though a bit pricey, and Teaism), we decided to try out Uni. We arrived at 1:30 and we were the only folks in there (turns out the restaurant closes at 2 for the break between lunch and dinner) — perhaps we missed the lunch rush? Or perhaps there is no lunch rush? We both ordered the bento boxes and they were absolutely serviceable– the salmon was better than the chicken (too much teriyaki on the chicken!). Both were served with the usual big square of cold tofu, potatoes, salad, rice, and miso soup. For the same price as the bento at Teaism (which I enjoy but it’s often so crowded at lunch that it’s hard to really sit and enjoy), we had a perfectly pleasant sit-​down lunch (extra points for the jazz soundtrack– we must have gotten there during Coltrane hour) with perfectly tasty food. Add it to your Dupont lunch roster!

I was having some serious sushi craving and this was close to my office and the prices seemed reasonable. The place is nice — I sat by the large windows over looking P Street and it was wonderful! The portions were a little on the small-​ish but it was flavorful. Will definitely be back for more.
Summer time tip: Try their iced green tea! It was soooo refreshing.

Yeesh. Nothing about this meal was right.
Unfortunately during the east coast storms, Unilocal was down. That meant we had to literally ask people for suggestions on where to get sushi. We were pointed out to Sushi Taro ($$$$- long wait), Sakana (closed due to power outage) and Uni. We had no choice but to go to Uni. We were seated a few minutes after asking for a window seat. I’m pretty sure our waitress never smiles or doesn’t know how to be friendly.
We ordered the Ginger Salads (yum and huge portion), miso soup (hit the spot), and a bunch of nigiri sushi i.e. tuna, salmon, hamachi, scallop etc. The fish was okay and oddly warm in temperature. The rice that it sat on was too think and was warm as well. Nothing really stood out and amazed us. We opted to skip dessert. Coming from SF, we are pretty much spoiled by the great restaurants that are offered. I wasn’t surprised that the quality was lacking. However, I definitely paid that price!
Dinner came out to $ 72 for 2 people! WTH. It was not worth more than $ 25. Thankfully that will not be our go to restaurant as we live on the west coast. Unfortunately I wasted my money on mediocre sushi and service.

There are, in my mind, two basic types of sushi places. There’s your hole-​in-​the-​wall, cheap but low quality type of place, like Café Asia. And there’s your high-​end, expensive but it melts in your mouth type of place, like Kushi or Sushi Taro. What’s there’s not a lot of are places in the middle, cheap enough that it’s not going to break the bank, but reasonably good in quality. Uni is one of those places.
I shared a Picante Escolar roll and a Spicy, Crunchy Crawfish roll with my wife, in addition to a Nigiri Niners platters. The rolls were good, perhaps a little heavy on the rice, and while the Escolar wasn’t particularly spicy, the Crawfish definitely was! The Nigiri Niners came with a lot of the usual suspects, salmon, tuna, whitefish, that sort of thing, but it also included salmon roe and, of course, uni. The sushi was good, definitely a lot better than some of the low-​end places I’ve been, but also not as tender or flavorful as Kushi. We got out pretty cheap, though — together with a 750 ml bottle of junmai ginjo sake, we only spent around $ 80 for the two of us. This is definitely a place worth considering if you’re in the mood for sushi, but don’t want to spent an entire paycheck to get it.

We stopped in here three minutes before closing time on a rainy Sunday and they made us feel very welcome. The sushi is really good, especially considering the prices (from a NYC perspective).
The space is on the smaller side, but not terribly so. Décor is nice, though it wasn’t memorable enough for me to be able to describe it beyond that. The prime spot is near the big windows in front for a birds eye view over the P Street sidewalk scene.
As a vegetarian sometimes there is very little to choose from at sushi restaurants, but Uni has a really good and varied (and delicious) selection. The vegetable tempura roll was particularly amazing.
The only comment I can make on the fish items is that the bf was very happy with what he got… and he’s a sushi freak.
Overall I’d say that Uni is a solid choice for a good casual sushi dinner at a reasonable price. If you’re looking for an over-​the-​top splurge, however, this is probably not the place.

Excellent in every respect. Fresh fish. Great date night choice. Eclectic selection of sakes. Attentive yet not overbearing service. You never feel rushed. Interesting appetizers. Good miso soup (not too salty, very flavorful).
I am a drink two 750ml bottles of sake have a bunch of sashimi and 1 app. with the hubby kind of girl and this is my go to place.

We went here on a Sunday night because I’d bought a Groupon that gave us $ 60 to spend. Because neither my husband nor I wanted to drink that night, it meant we had quite a bit of food to consume to meet the dollar limit.
We both ordered miso soup with seaweed – very standard, hot and yummy. We followed that with the Rainbow Ceviche, which is misleading because ceviche implies that the fish has been cooked in citrus juice, and this was sashimi-​grade fish with a citrus dressing. In theory this is not a problem for me as I like both, but it was just a bland and uninteresting dish. Neither one of us would recommend it.
Our sushi order included the red dragon roll, extreme picante escolar roll, mango salmon roll, and the S&S roll. While most of the rolls were decent (though not large enough to warrant the price) the extreme picante escolar was disgusting. For whatever reason they put «garlic chips» in it and it was a completely unappetizing flavor and texture that totally overwhelmed anything else.
To end the meal we ordered some green tea mochi ice cream, but it had obvious freezer burn and the gummy outside got crumbly once it was in the mouth – very unappetizing.
All in all I am thrilled that we did not pay full price for this meal and will not be going back when there are other sushi places I enjoy much more.

Uni Sushi was a victim of an upstair fire last year, and they just re-​opened recently. This place is very close to my office, and I was pretty sad that they were closed. On Thursday, January 5^th, I had a chance to return.
The sushi was excellent. The staff were sweet and attentive (but not annoying). They also seem to have a real talent for seating people who are similar to one another near each other. I know that might sound like a small thing — but if you are on a romantic date … you really don’t want to be sitting next to a bunch of 8 year olds. Most likely, the 8 year olds do not want to sit next to a kissing couple, either!
Their gourd sushi, miso soup, saki. it’s amazing. This is my favorite sushi place in D.C. — and I love sushi. I can’t recommend this enough for couples or even business meetings. It’s not a frilly place at all, but it’s sweet and fun.

Overall bad in my opinion. Spent over $ 60 for two just so I can try a good portion of their menu and I would not go back there again. Sushi is meh… kitchen food like donburi and teriyaki was bad and the portion was very bad. The donburi was 80% rice, 10% egg, and 10% pork for $ 14 (over priced for 3 ounce of average cooked pork). The teriyaki bento box only came with the teriyaki, a piece of cold tofu, and a some potato salad (all poorly cooked). The usual side salad that comes with sushi was not provided because they put it in the bento box to fill up space. The sushi… just bad – cheap-​mid quality rice to maximize cost. Sushi quality is just bad. Fish prep needs to improve, buy better rice, and thicker sashimi will increase overall quality. I would not recommend this place to anyone.

Wasn’t real impressed with this place. The rolls I got were forgettable and the person with me wasn’t too impressed either.

Uni’s was my fave sushi place in the D.C. area until I found Yuraku & Samurai… But I can safely say it’s my fave sushi place in D.C.
The fish here is nice and high quality, and they have an extensive sake menu (with a nice sampler that you can try with several choices). They don’t have an extensive choice of rolls, but they’re all really good. And they have real wasabi, which has more flavorable tang than the regular paste you get at other places (you gotta ask for it and it’s extra). The décor is nice and funky. I’ve always had good service, and have never had any issues with the cleanliness in the place.

Good service and good sushi this Sunday early evening. We can here after we realized all the other nearby sushi places were closed in Sundays and sushi uni was open at five. I’m to sad to see that they had thus promotion going on but didn’t tell us about it!
We ordered six rolls and mist if them were pretty good except the salmon skin roll which was way too salty. The $ 2 fresh wasabi didn’t taste that different from the regular wasabi. Tempura ice cream was mediocre because the skin wasn’t as crunchy as we liked.
I liked the monkfish liver appetizer and all the rolls generally good including the salmon mango ones. However the pieces seemed a bit small. Good sushi at average prices.
If I were to return next time I would order the nigiri and sashimi platter with a group. The Japanese family next to us ordered it, and it looked quite appetizing.
Expect 20pp to have a filling meal.

My bf and I went there on 12÷29÷09; service was just a ok for me at first because that one waiter didn’t ask me what I want to drink for a long while, he went to another lady who actually went after me instead.
However, the foods there were ok, not great but fresh enough to go for next time. The Beef Tataki disappointed me a little, the sauce was different from the original and it tastes like curry.
I had an order of their Uni, it was fresh and good! Their Selection of Sashimi was fresh and for a reasonable prices of $ 21.95. I would only go back for their sashimi choices when the next time I visit DC.

I stopped by here one day, solo dolo mode for a quick bite. I had read the mixed reactions on Unilocal and wanted to check this place out for myself.
I walk up the steps into a rather small space. Is this it? At 6pm on a Sunday, there was only one other party seated. I guess it was a slow night.
Not at all discouraged by the potentially telling signs, I venture on and am seated immediately. I skimmed the menu and settle on miso soup with oyster, a Red Dragon Roll and a Spicy Scallop Roll.
I patiently plug away on my laptop for about 10 minutes or so before my soup arrives. I looove miso soup. However, part of what I like about it is the simplicity. All I want is a little tofu or a little seaweed… subtle accents. The miso with oyster here was $ 4.50 and had a significant amount of cabbage in it. Not that this destroyed the soup, but I didn’t feel that it added to it either.
The Red Dragon Roll (lobster, tempura flakes topped with tuna) was delicious, however the Spicy Scallop Roll (scallop, flying fish roe, scallions, and spicy sauce) came up short and lacked flavor. I finished it up wishing I had ordered something else. If the adjective in the name of the roll is non-​existent, that’s a problem. This roll was not spicy. I’m not even a spicy kind of girl… well, not in THAT way.
Additionally, my total came out to about $ 24, which was a little pricey in my opinion for somewhat lack luster sushi.