Arlington, VA 22203
(703) 351-8787
Visited: April 17, 2009
Sushi...ah yes, the beautifully addictive food that is so sexy when properly prepared and when the quality of fish is excellent. With that said, what separates a good sushi place from a great sushi place? Well it's a question that may be answered by two more questions:
What are you looking for?
What are your expectations?
Allow me to describe Matsutake to better convey my choo-choo train of thought...
As you walk into the main area of Matsutake, you'll see the wide selection of sushi on display; the centerpiece of the restaurant. Yet you must accept that as a patron of Matsutake, you're immediately embracing the idea of "quantity" versus "quality".
The quantity of sushi you stuff your face with is amazing for the price, but you'll notice that the quality isn't top notch...then again most people that come to sushi buffets aren't looking for top quality sushi. For this reason, I myself keep Matsutake in a separate category from other sushi places because I know it’s a buffet and its assumed that the fish quality won't be on the same level as a non-buffet sushi restaurant.
With that said the sushi isn't bad and is tasty...for buffet quality sushi. The quality of the fish isn't to the level of Todai's fish, but its good. The one thing you'll need to remember as the weather warms up is to get to Matsutake a few minutes before noon. Anytime after the 12pm mark will guarantee a looooooong line at the sushi bar. Badged employees from the various local offices congregate at Matsutake with blank faces, growling stomachs and one single thought (which probably has that drooly Homer Simpson like voice) playing over and over in their head, "Suuuuuuu-shiiiiiii".
Get there early! By 12:30pm most of the rolls and fan favorites (such as the Unagi) will be dwindling or will be complete gone. The times I did arrive late, I ended up dining on some of the hot bar food (noodles, fried rice, General Tso's chicken, Teriyaki Chicken, etc) until the sushi was replenished. The sushi buffet has a small hot bar with food that's not the best, but will hold back the hunger until they bring out more sushi.
For those of you that don't want the buffet, you can order sushi by the roll or by the piece. Matsutake also has "hot grills" where they'll cook up the food in front of you.
Now with the description out of the way, let me get back to my main point about "What makes a sushi place great?" Depending on what you're looking for and your expectations, we can answer this question. I've always had low expectations of sushi buffets, and for this reason the quality of Matstuake's fish can't be held to high standards. The fish won't make you sick and is not bad, it's just "okay". I (and my coworkers) seek out Matsutake for its relative cheap lunch buffet that allows us to gorge ourselves on a wide variety of sushi.
So "okay" quality combined with cheap eats makes Matsutake a "good" sushi place...definitely not great but what do you expect for the money you pay. Plus we tend to frequent Matsutake for it's close proximity to our office. My coworkers and I are just like the other mindless cows that are drawn to the sushi buffet line by hunger and the attractive notion of leaving an all you can eat sushi buffet with bloated stomachs. :-)
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