What: Geisha Sushi
Where: 804 E. Broadway

I will admit it from the beginning: I am certainly no sushi expert. However, I really do enjoy going out for sushi occasionally, and was really excited when I heard that a new sushi restaurant would be opening on Broadway downtown. The first chance I got, I made my way over to Geisha to check it out.

The hostess ushered us into the restaurant and sat us down at a table next to a wall installation. The installation was glowing blue, filled with water, and had bubbles floating up inside it. While I’m sure that the intention of the installation to set a nice ambiance, it was difficult to look at, made me feel kind of dizzy, and kept me from looking to my right during my entire meal. My dining guest felt the same way about it.

The restaurant still vaguely resembled Quizno’s, which is the restaurant that had previously occupied that space. They had changed the furniture and painted, but the sushi was being made at the line where sandwiches had previously been made.

The waitress came over, dressed in a short kimono style outfit with a big bow on the back. All of the wait staff were women. I’m pretty sure there were men making the sushi rolls, and there was a man wearing a vest wandering around the restaurant, not seeming to do much. I saw him stare off into the distance for large chunks of time. The only Asian person I saw was the vest wearing man.

For an appetizer, we ordered a bowl of edamame, which was absolutely delicious. I’m a huge fan of edamame. I could eat it every day. Geisha’s edamame was some of the best I’ve ever had. They also gave us some miso soup while we were waiting for our sushi, which was pretty good.

Something a little odd that I noticed about the menu was that quite a few of the sushi rolls included chipotle mayonnaise. Some of them even had just plain mayonnaise. I had never seen this on as sushi roll before and thought that it was a little odd. However, I did go to Sunshine Sushi earlier today in the new Student Center and saw a couple rolls there with chipotle mayonnaise. So, maybe it’s not that odd. Just seemed odd to me.

I ordered one of the rolls with chipotle mayonnaise on it purely out of curiosity. When our sushi came, it was served on a multi-layer plate that looked like a boat. The sushi was all spread out and looked really good. You could tell that like the rest of restaurant, some effort had been made on the appearance.

The sushi turned out to be very tasty and delicious. Even the one with chipotle mayonnaise on it, although soy sauce and chipotle mayonnaise do not go well together. I definitely think I prefer my sushi without it, but it was still pretty good.

Geisha Sushi is a definite must try for any sushi fan in the Columbia area. Our bill totaled a little less than $30 for 3 rolls of sushi, an order of edamame and 2 sodas, so it was also pretty reasonably priced for sushi. Check it out if you haven’t already!