Omnivore - Sushi at Rain after seeing ‘Jiro Dreams of Sushi’
Who can measure up to the world’s best sushi?
- Cliff Bostock’s iPhone
- Sashimi plate at Rain
If you’re a sushi fan - or if you’re not, but like biopics - check out “Jiro Dreams of Sushi.” It’s the profile of Jiro Ono, whose 10-stool restaurant in Tokyo has a three-star Michelin rating. One of those 10 places at Jiro’s bar costs at least $300 for a meal that may last 15 minutes.
As much as a rhapsodically reviewed foodie movie, “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” is a story of obsession and what it’s like to grow up as the heir to a “perfect” father’s legacy.
After seeing the film at the Tara theater, Wayne and I raced across the parking lot to Rain, a Japanese-Thai restaurant with a sushi bar. While Wayne stuck to sashimi and nigiri, as were featured in the film, I wasn’t in the mood to engage in comparisons. So I ordered a spider roll and a salmon skill roll.
Weirdly, the fried ingredients of both rolls had a strongly sweet flavor and, I’m sorry to say, not much hot crunch. The sashimi, weirdly served before a miniature glacier, did not produce the transcendental state or riffs of Philip Glass that Jiro Ono’s does. But it was as good as most in town.
- Cliff Bostock’s iPhone
- Spider roll at Rain
Sushi truly isn’t what it used to be in our city. It was impossible to sit through “Jiro Dreams” without recalling the brilliant Sotohiro Kosugi, whose sushi bar here, Soto, gained national fame. He moved to New York where he picked up two stars from the Michelin Guide.
This year, the nationally lauded MF Buckhead closed after its owners closed their original restaurant, MF Sushi on Ponce de Leon, after 11 years. You can still find top-rated sushi in Atlanta, though. Taka and Tomo, both in Buckhead, are superior examples.