There is a particular warmth in the mood generated by a well-operated family-run resturant. I was remindedof this recently while eating a late afternoon lunch at Toyo, a small sushi resturant in Cheshire.
We were sitting at the sushibar. The chef a yound man from Hong Kong, was making sushi rolls behind the bar while his two young children are their lunch at a table tucked out of the way of customer traffic. The boy and girl were clearly part of the resturant family, eating something the kitchen had put together once the paying clientele had been served.
A meal at a sushi bar is Typically an event. Despite its simplicity (or perhaps of it). Japanese food is by nature formal, and sushi chefs dramatic. Sometimes, the chef is primarily an artist, executing his craft in near silence with exquisite ingredients and an almost spiritual discipline. Other chefs play host and performer, welcoming customers to participate in a performance of edible art.
Toyo's chef, however, is offering something more casual; he prepares home cooked meals in the same spirit in which he feeds his familit. The aesthetic is simplicity, practicality and good value over originiality. That means that the quality of the seafood, while not superalitive, is good enough; the selection is weighted toward choices that will not challenge the American palate (you won't find monkfish liver here). The emphasis is on sushi rolls, currently very popular in America, and spict rolls in particular because, as the chef explained to me, thats what people ask for.
Although I've never loved sushi rolls (exquisite quality can get lost in the mids of so many ingredients), they are the thing to order at Toyo, along with some of the appetizers, which are quite good.
My favorite appetizer was the takosu, a cold plate of sliced, cooked octopus garnished with sticks of pale green cucumber, bathed in ponzu sauce and topped with seasame seeds, sliced scallion and a drizzle of wasabi mayonnaise; the sauce has an engagingly smoky, citrus taste that compliments the octopus. Pepper tuna and sunomono were similarly sauce with ponzu and wasabi mayonanaise. The former featured black pepper-crusted tuna, seared on the outside but still raw, then sliced thin; the sunomono combined a variety of seafood, including pieces of octopus, squid and finfish.
Both preperations were spicier than the tako su, though that may not have been intentional. In any case, I preferred all three to the barbecued squid, which was tough in its soy-ginger sauce.
Age tofu, deep fried triangles of togu served in a ginger-bonito broth, was very lovely, the tofu light and soft. Toyo also makes a respectable tempura, and pork gyoza (very nicely seasoned), though all of the deep-fried appetizers are somewhat greasy.
as for the rolls, I particularly liked two simple vegeterian choices, the Oshinko toll, encasing strips of pickeled radish, and the Seaweed Salad roll, in which the seaweed was very fresh and not overpowered by the taste of seasame.
Avocado has a lovely, rich texture, which it lends to several rolls, including the Kind Dragon (essentially a California roll covered with barbecued eel and sprinkledwith crunchy bits of tempura crust). the Dinosaur (shrimp tempura and cucumber inside, finished with eel and tobiko), the Godzilla (made with spict tuna and tobiko) and the spict scallop roll, with fiery minced scallop and tobiko.
And I was frankly suprised to discover that the nabeyaki idon (thick wheat noodles in broth with chicken, vegtables, shrimp tempura and poached egg) was far better than average sushi bar udon. The broth was flavorful and satisfying, and made a fine meal for the nonsushi lover at our table.
Toy is a neighborhood bistro, Japanese style. The chef is serious about pleasing his customers, the service is amiable and often sweet, and the prices are attractive.