Bamboo Sushi

310 Southeast 28th Avenue
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 232-5255

Bamboo Sushi is my neighborhood sushi joint, but kind of an upscale version of my neighborhood. 28th and Burnside has evolved considerably in the past 15 years and Bamboo is a fitting addition to Crema, Esparza's and Ken's Artisan Pizza - all within spitting distance of Bamboo.

Um waiter, there's a cucumber in my water glass. Nice sake pitcher and cup though, and served up piping hot, if that's the way you like it, and I do.

The gratis edamame appetizer is an awesome touch..

Nice ambiance, good crowd, some nice happy hour specials.

We ordered up a couple of rolls - the Ring of Fire and... ? Both very tasty:

You almost have to have the AmaEbi, look at those crunchy heads - and very nicely spiced at Bamboo. 

What else? Salmon Roe, ... love em, though I half expect to get hooked in the cheek and reeled in one day, so close they are to looking like fishing bait ;-)

I've got to give Bamboo the full 9 points out of 10. 

Hama Sushi

Hama Sushi

4232 NE Sandy Blvd
Portland, OR 97213

(503) 249-1021

Hama Sushi is a small restaurant and could be easily missed. It is right on Sandy and we found a parking space just in front.

There were plenty of seats available and we had our choice. The staff was pleasant and the service prompt and efficient.

The Sushi menu was large. The Hama roll, tempura shrimp/crab topped with avocado, is shown in the above photo along with some of our other favorites. 

Our favorite on the night was the eel hand roll (shown above). The salmon eggs and the sweet shrimp were also very good. Again, the photo of the sweet shrimp heads is missing because we ate them too soon.

I would recommend Hama Sushi and rate it a 9.0.

WRP

Meiji-En

Meiji-En
2226 Northeast Broadway Street
Portland, OR 97232
(503) 284-6774

The fish in the fish tanks are one of the many charms of Meiji-En. Others include a full bar, fresh sushi, good happy hour specials and a spacious quiet seating area.

Our waitress seemed new to the job and had to glance at a cheat sheet to explain things. She's the customer facing side of an excellent sushi restaurant but it'd be nice to have someone who really gets sushi. Not the first time we've run across that though.

We started with the Sushi and Sashimi Apps which the chef crafts day by day depending on what he feels like. Ours was a very generous collection of food and delicious.

We had the tempura which was excellent and some delicious eel handrolls, which were my favorite thing on the menu. They are like little sushi burritos ;-).

Not having had enough eel though we ordered up the Unagi on it's own as well. Excellent.

I was disappointed with the Amaebi - shrimp heads. I really like these to be piping hot and ours were warm at best. 

I love Meiji-En anyway and would give them a solid 8 out of 10 rating. It's an excellent restaurant and worth a visit when you get a chance. Don't forget to say hello to the giant fish in the tanks on your way out. Charming :-)

Bara Sushi

Bara Sushi
2625 Southeast 21st Avenue
Portland, OR 97202
(503) 233-4100


Does the yummy sushi never end in this town? We went to Bara Sushi this week to try them out and were rewarded with $1 sake specials (limit 3 per person). The sake bottles are cute and served hot, the way we like them and the meals are served with candle light.

The room is small but well suited for groups of 2 to 4. We had the oysters on the half shell to open up. They are served with seasonings and were good sized.

The rolls were quite good. We need to go back and try some more.

The unagi came later and we devoured it before the cameras came out. Good stuff. The Ama Ebi were good but not hot enough. Too bad. The flavor was very good.

All in all Bara gets high marks consistent with several of the other sushi restaurants here in Portland. Need more light though to get better photos. For those of you looking for numbers... for me this was a solid 8 1/2 out of 10. Very good stuff.

Kappaya

Kappaya
(503) 233-3122
3384 SE Division St
Portland, OR 97202

Kappaya is a Japanese restaurant on Division Street. It is named for a mythical Japanese character. 

My son said that I need to start helping on the reviews so I will try. We arrived just before they opened at 5:30 PM. We were the first customers in the restaurant. 

They have an extensive menu. We started off with the tempura. It was nice and fresh with both fish and shrimp. 

We tried several rolls including a house specialty, the Kappaya roll. All were tasty. 

The sweet shrimp were especially good; the heads were gone before we could take a picture. 

We finished with eel salmon eggs and Hamichi. I would rate Kappaya 8.9. 

Blog Post written up by WRP :-)

BlueFin Sushi

BlueFin Sushi

4138 NE Broadway
Portland, OR 97232

(503) 288-3644

BlueFin Sushi is where I first discovered how wonderful Hamachi can be. Hamachi, also called YellowTail, is so good here that it seems to melt in your mouth. I don't know why BlueFin's is so good, I guess it's especially fresh.

Overall, BlueFin is excellent. The decor is nice and the Sake is served in beautiful cups. We had a local sake from Oregon which we got by the bottle. We had some of it cold and some hot. The japanese like it cold, but it was a cold winter day in Oregon, so I preferred the hot.

We tried several of our favorites here and followed our host's recommendation for the special. Never caught the name, but it was beautiful and tasty!

Parking is on street, but manageable. The staff are courteous and timely. The place is a little on the small size, so probably not a good bet for a large group.  All in all though this place is a hidden gem in the heart of Hollywood. They earned a solid 9 out of 10.

Shiki Sushi Restaurant in Portland Oregon

Shiki
8931 Southeast Foster Road
Portland, OR 97266
(503) 771-4000

It is bizarre to me how some Sushi restaurants in Portland are almost standing room only while a restaurant like Shiki is nearly empty. Granted Shiki is out pretty far on Foster Road, but still, the food here is absolutely delicious and we had the place almost to ourselves. Do yourself a favor, get out there folks!

You'll know Shiki by the brightly lit sign out front:

There's parking out front and a sign points towards a lot behind the building. We had moviestar parking right up front. The place is clean and service is prompt both good points in my book. The room was this busy, but soon cleared out so we had it all to ourselves:

The Sake is served truly hot which is excellent and includes an extra cup to put on the top of the bottle to help keep it hot and a paper napkin to help handle it. Careful, the bottle is hot!

We ordered several of our standards:

The crispy fried shimp heads are some of the best we've found in town. If you are going to try them, Shiki is a good place to do so. Unlike some other places where they seem to have pulled them out of a fridge somewhere, these are hot and delicious. The Unagi also pictured above is a personal favorite and was excellent.

All of the sushi is extremely fresh tasting here. We ordered the Fuji roll pictured above on the right, it was good fun and as enjoyable as the roll we'd had the last time (NW Explosion roll??). We also had the White Tuna which melted in my mouth.

Missing from the pictures are the fried oysters because we got them first and devoured them before a photo could be snapped. Not surprisingly, they rate highly as well.

My dad's a little reluctant about picking favorites but when pressed he admitted that the Ama Ebi (shrimp) were very very good here. I'd concur and put in a second recommendation for the 4 piece fried oysters (on special). If you can get there before 6:00 there's a happy hour special that discounts many of the sushi specials.