Friendly vibe and sushi, too

At Sushi Too, talk to the guy making your food, take a seat at the sushi bar, and tell him… At Sushi Too, talk to the guy making your food, take a seat at the sushi bar, and tell him what you want. If you’re new to sushi, ask him what’s best. You might be surprised when your meal arrives, and you realize you’ve had the wrong idea of sushi all along.

Sushi Too 5432 Walnut St. Shadyside 412-687-8744 $-$$ out of

Upon entering Sushi Too, tucked into an unassuming slot on Walnut Street, you’ll notice a bar for drinking and a bar for eating, with tables spaced evenly behind them. What first appears to be a lunch stop takes on new meaning after you take a seat. The attentive staff has you started before you put the menu down, and it has your soup and salad in front of you right after that.

I ordered the Deluxe Platter A- California Roll, tuna, yellowtail, eel and salmon, preceded by miso soup and house salad. Although I normally pair beer with sushi, I opted for green tea this time around.

The miso soup turned out well – balanced and flavorful. The salad was abnormally good – maybe it was the perfect balance of vinegar and sweetness in the house dressing. It’s better to focus on the main course, though. Sushi comes in different varieties, and the term doesn’t necessarily entail raw fish: More properly, it specifies the rice. The roll variety, the rice embracing a center of vegetables, fish or both, is known as maki.

My California Roll was maki, while the other four varieties were nigiri, which is a small mound of sushi rice topped by sashimi, the proper term for raw fish. The eel sushi was partially cooked and glazed with teriyaki sauce, while the salmon, yellowtail and tuna were all uncooked.

The California roll provided excellent contrast of taste, the delicate but resilient crab and caviar rebounding off the crisp cucumber and fresh avocado.

Then I ran into a problem. I didn’t know how to eat the nigiri. It looked too large for the chopsticks. I asked the chef behind the bar for some directions and learned more than how to eat sushi.

First, I learned that I’ve been holding my chopsticks incorrectly for the last seven years. After correcting this mistake, he showed me what the small, saucer-shaped dish at the back of my place setting was for: mixing soy sauce and wasabi.

The final maneuver was taking the nigiri, rotating it sashimi side down and dipping the meat into the saucer. Contrary to popular knowledge, the soy sauce is not intended for the rice. In between sampling different sushi, you should eat the ginger slices provided to cleanse your palette.

The yellowtail was my favorite: It provided a light ocean taste, but contained more fat than the other samples. It was delicate but flavorful, and the starched rice cake matched the subtle complexity of the thinly sliced sashimi masterfully.

I was expecting tuna to be my favorite, but it came in second. It was still good, but not as airy as the yellowtail, and it tasted a little more like seafood. The salmon was even less tender but still tasty, providing a smart foil to the previous two. The eel was surprising: The sweet glaze made it taste like a dessert sushi, and the meat that held so well to the rice was remarkably tender.

As I was eating, the chef who showed me how to eat sushi also indicated what I should order next time. He laid out a long plate of maki, gilded it in crisscrosses of sauce and dashed green garnish over top. I watched closely; I knew I was returning.

Sushi Too provides a complete meal that’s difficult to forget. Opposed to heavier foods, the sushi gives a satisfaction of sensation that has more to do with taste buds than a full stomach.

You’ll find visual pleasure in the bright, festive colors of the sushi, matched by a plate that’s almost a work of art: the four pairs of nigiri all at the same angle, with six maki resting at the top of the plate. It’s nearly too pretty to eat, but to abstain would mean missing out on a great dining experience.