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Friday, October 04, 2002

By Sarah Billingsley,Post-Gazette Staff Writer

On first impression, one does not set their sights high for Nagoya Japanese Cuisine. The restaurant's sign glows electric blue in quiet Blawnox, a neighborhood typically associated with antiques, not gastronomy. The space Nagoya occupies, most recently a Chinese restaurant, is one of those locations that turn over and over, a different restaurant every year.

	John and Jenny Zhang display a maki roll they created at their new restaurant, Nagoya Japanese Cuisine in Blawnox. (Martha Rial, Post-Gazette)

But new owners John and Jenny Zhang's tasty Japanese bistro may well hang on amongst the antiques of Freeport Road. They bring to Blawnox experience, patience, skill and reasons for locating here that should endear them to any Pittsburgher: John is a Steelers fan. Why Blawnox? They live there.

The Zhangs came to Pittsburgh via Chang House in Harrisonville, Va., which they owned. Before that, John sharpened his sushi skills for 15 years all over the globe, from Japan to New York City, before opening Nagoya on May 1. His soft-voiced wife, Jenny, works the front of the house, a gentle blue kimono falling in folds over her jeans.

The Zhangs moved into the space and barely refurbished, or refurbished barely, its tiled walls and ceiling. Red paper lanterns and yellow leatherette booths provide flashes of cheerful primary colors to the spare, white interior. Only wooden screens and a high sushi bar, with stools, break the bareness of the room, though Zhang prepares the sushi in the kitchen, not at the counter. Nagoya's slightly chilly temperature is warmed by silly, happy pop music and, on our second visit, twice as many chatty customers filling the cozy booths as there were on our first try.

The term "sushi" refers to the special rice, which Zhang seasons with a traditional mixture of vinegar, Japanese wine and sugar, and cooks to the perfect coherence, neither sticky nor dry, providing a perfect pillow for the savory sushi toppings.

On the menu at Nagoya -- as well as standard Japanese entrees such as teriyaki beef, udon noodles and eight common Chinese dishes -- is sashimi, nigiri and maki sushi. Sashimi is simply raw fish, without rice. Nigiri sushi is pads of rice topped by fish, roe or egg omelet. Maki sushi are rolls of ingredients, typically rice, fish and pickled vegetables, often tucked inside thin sheets of seaweed.

At Nagoya, they give you good sushi, and lots of it. The maki sushi rolls are extremely generous; cut into as many pieces as any sushi I've seen in Pittsburgh, but the pieces are twice as fat. Thankfully, it's not bad form to eat a piece of sushi in two bites -- just messy. Though we ordered our usual amount of sushi at Nagoya, we had enough left over, even after stuffing our bellies, to amply feed another person.

Quantity doesn't imply sacrifice to detail at Nayoga. It's a small restaurant and unfortunately (so far) under-visited, so they're not pumping out product like other local establishments. Rather, they take the time to craft their sushi into attractive, delicious bundles of good quality, very fresh seafood, which the Zhangs have shipped directly from suppliers in Washington, D.C., and New York.

With sushi, presentation is half the pleasure, and Nagoya's is lovely: the contrast of reds and greens against black lacquer or tan wood, the slick pink fish, the pale orbs of furry rice, the coral, quivering roe and pearly, translucent squid knifed into linguine-like strands.

Favorite among the simple nigiri sushi were the tender hamachi (yellow tail, $4.25), glisteningly golden, and the roasted, meaty flavor of the unagi (freshwater eel, $4.95).

Nagoya's hand rolls were not only large, but every bite was balanced with flavors -- fishy, tangy, fresh -- and dense with textures. The spicy tuna hand roll ($3.50), wrapped in soft seaweed like an ice cream cone, protrudes fronds of vegetable, fish and pickle like a colorful bouquet of lilies. It's fun to eat.

The volcano roll ($5.95) of crab, cucumber and spicy tuna was a thriller of presentation: white rice rolled in red beads of spice, topped with a swirl of the cocktail-sauce-like condiment, which John Zhang calls his "house special hot sauce." It has a searing heat and cutting tomato acidity that's perfect with hearty tuna.

These were good, but my favorite two rolls were the pure, clean rainbow roll ($8.95) of cucumber and avocado, topped with multicolored strips of raw salmon, tuna and yellow tail, and the dragon roll ($8.95), in which roasted eel matches richness with buttery avocado.

Nagoya's fantasy roll ($8.95) was a little strange. Baked and served warm, its tuna and salmon had a creamy taste, no doubt due to a topping of what I suspect was Thousand Island dressing. This roll is a meal in itself.

Pre-sushi, miso soup ($1.50) was as salty as it ought to be, filled with warm, slithery scallions and seaweed, and tiny floating pillows of tofu. Hot and sour soup ($1.50) was not too thick but plenty spicy and crunchy with bamboo.

Gyoza ($3.95), thumb-sized pork dumplings, were supple and soft, their ginger not too assertive, and served in a tiny jewel box of a bamboo steamer on wilted lettuce.

I wasn't as impressed with the dinner entrees, offered for sushi-queasy diners. The salmon teriyaki was a tad singed, the teriyaki sauce starchy and heavy and accompanying broccoli, carrots and mushrooms tasted like they'd been kept on a steam table for hours. The flavor of the chicken yaki soba ($8.95) of stir-fried chicken over buckwheat noodles reminded me of the wildly salty, sandy-textured ramen noodle flavoring.

Considering Nagoya's inexpensiveness, its generosity with its quality sushi and its free BYOB policy, this place would be the biggest thing to hit Oakland since Mad Mex, were Nagoya in Oakland. As is, it is worth the drive from the city, and the people of neighboring communities -- Fox Chapel, Aspinwall, Oakmont, O'Hara -- are lucky to have some of the best sushi around in their own back yard.

Nagoya Japanese Cuisine
254 Freeport Rd.
Blawnox
412-828-8819

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays.

The basics: Menu combines sushi and standard Japanese fare -- udon, soba, teriyaki -- and Chinese entrees. 60 seats; all major credit cards; handicap accessible, but no handicap restroom. No smoking. BYOB, no charge. Reservations accepted, not necessary. Catering and takeout offered. Monday through Wednesday, all-you-can-eat sushi buffet ($5.95), $1 sushi special and $2 roll special.

Web site: www.nagoya-sushi.com

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