Exciting menu, chef will impress

Brush Sushi Izakaya in Decatur features ambitious selections.

Go to Brush Sushi Izakaya, sit at the sushi bar and order the omakase. You will be very pleased. It is as simple as that.

Omakase is the Japanese equivalent of a tasting menu. It means something like “I trust you,” more or less a way of saying “chef ’s choice.”

Those words give the chef a chance to say, “Forget the menu, I’ll just serve you the best I have right now.” If you have the time and money, why not listen? Especially at a sushi bar, where you may have the chance to sit directly across from the chef as each bite is cut and prepared. What could be better?

This is what I generally believe about sushi restaurants. Go to enough restaurants and any dining rule is proved wrong, though. Atlanta’s recent influx of high-end sushi bars have embraced the izakaya style, serving up small plates of fried, grilled and otherwise hot, prepared food. O-Ku on the westside, for example, is a place where I’d say forget the serenity of the sushi bar, grab a table, and order some plates to share.

Judging by the ambitions of the Brush menu, I expected that the omakase rule might not apply. This is, as far as I can remember, the most ambitious izakaya-styled menu I’ve seen in Atlanta. Wagyu gyoza. Bicho-tan charcoal. Snow crab chawanmushi. Pork and chicken yakitori with meat as carefully sourced as the yellowfin tuna. Not just a seaweed salad,

CONTRIBUTED BY BECKY STEIN Sea urchin, scallop, Maruyama Nori at Brush Sushi Izakaya.