Review: Mizu Sushi Bar in St. Louis

St. Louis seems awash in sushi. Search for “Japanese/Sushi” on Sauce’s online Restaurant Guide and 58 entries pop up. Granted, most are restaurants or bars offering sushi as part of a larger menu, but still, no matter how you slice it, there’s a lot of vinegary rice and raw fish in this town. With so many choices, it is logical to wonder about the distinguishing factors. Based on my experience, it boils down to three things: freshness, creativity and ambiance. Mizu, a frenetic new sushi bar geared toward the young and hip of Washington Avenue – where Rue 13 and Wasabi already serve sushi – hits all three, depending on your definition of the terms.

While competently executed, there is nothing particularly innovative on Mizu’s populist sushi menu, just straightforward fresh and neat sushi, from the 11 maki selections (rice, fish and vegetable-stuffed long rolls wrapped in crisp seaweed and sliced into bite-size pieces) to the 25 nigiri (slices of raw fish, shellfish or fish roe laid over compact rice balls). We marked our choices on the paper menu using the little stubby golf pencils; evidently, a perfunctory move given that our waiter wrote down our order anyway.

Our nigiri selections hit all the usual notes: fresh and clean-tasting yellowtail, bracing and salty salmon egg, crunchy and colorful smelt egg, and mild freshwater eel brushed with sweet sauce and quickly grilled. The tamago (think layered cold omelet) disappointed, however, lacking the delicate fluffiness that defines the egg sushi.

If all that sounds too pedestrian, Mizu offers 26 “special” maki sushi and nine more creative, and expensive, “chef special” rolls for further study. The Imperial Guard – Mizu’s most popular chef special – sparks visual intrigue. A foil packet fashioned into what looks like – and there is no other description for it – the longhorns of a Texas steer arrives at the table on a flaming plate. Inside the packet rests a delicious maki filled with shrimp tempura, avocado and crab meat topped with slices of grilled eel, Japanese mayonnaise and four types of tobiko (flying fish roe), colored and flavored with green wasabi, pale orange ginger and black squid ink. Mizu may mean “water” in Japanese, but fire makes this dish visually arresting, adding new meaning to tableside cooking.

Ping Ping Girl Roll, another creative and delicious chef special, consisted of a trio of tuna, salmon and yellowtail accented with masago (smelt egg) and wrapped in delicately flavored pink seaweed. The sashimi (raw fish) is omakase, or chef’s choice, and can be the most expensive. Splurge, and you may end up with something exceptional and unusual.

The other, fancier-looking menu offers a large selection of main courses, from appetizers and salads to rice and noodle bowls to Japanese dishes like tempura and teriyaki dishes to American meals like salmon and steak for the non-adventuresome. One night it was bulgogi, a sizzling plate full of thinly sliced sirloin seasoned in a Korean marinade and mixed with onions, cabbage, broccoli and green peppers. Another night it was a Japanese comfort meal of tonkatsu, a late 19th-century invention consisting of a breaded fried pork cutlet sliced lengthwise atop a bed of shredded cabbage and served with mixed greens and sweet, thick katsu sauce on the side; a small bowl of sticky rice accompanied the dish. Both dishes were good choices for the non-sushi-eaters at the table. All meals include a bowl of miso soup that, while a bit salty, tasted richer than most I’ve slurped down elsewhere.

Mizu occupies a massive open space, with a bar for drinking on the left flowing into the longer sushi bar, where you can dine solo and watch skilled sushi chefs. You can also watch a lot of television; three large LCD screens dominate the space above both bars. The ambiance is decidedly Wash. Ave. cool with nary a fishing net, fishing boat or fishing village motif in sight. Aside from the sushi bar, the only hint of Asian influence is the cluster of sea turtles painted on the back wall. About 15 tables line a single banquette along the length of one wall, with about another 15 tables filling the open dining area. The soothing water-and-earth color scheme belies Mizu’s energy level, at times producing so much volume you can barely hear yourself eat. Be prepared to compete with Mizu’s soundtrack; the throbbing, thumping disco-pop-dance music overwhelms any attempt at a quiet conversation or relaxed meal. The concrete floor, wooden tables and the exposed galvanized ductwork snaking across the high wood ceiling – while sleek and visually interesting – do nothing to dampen the deafening decibel levels. At times, I wondered if Mizu was a club or a restaurant.

On one visit, Mizu was packed with several large parties, many of them watching Michael Phelps shatter world records and win Olympic gold medals. Oh, were the service as speedy. Many of our dishes were ill-paced, with appetizers, sushi and entrées arriving in the wrong sequence. Co-owner Sue Yu quickly rectified a lost drink order with two free beers, showing that she and husband Eugene are working through the kinks of operating their first restaurant while keeping their eyes on the gold.