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Taiko Japanese Restaurant, Backlick Road and Oriole Avenue in Springfield


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Sushi Taiko is now open....it does not appear to be a chain and it has a Japanese menu, including Taiko Omakase Supreme. I haven't tried it yet, but it's on my short list.

Same plaza as Delia's and El Sabor Boliviano, across from Brookfield Plaza.

I'm not sure when Taiko opened, but the website is advertising 20% off until June 30th - it's ambiguous whether that's for dine-in, carryout, or delivery, so I would call to be sure.

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Got coupons in The Clipper for Sushi Taiko, and tried it for lunch today. With about a dozen diners and one server, service was extremely slow, but friendly. Miso soup had a smokey flavor, not unappealing. Green salad with ginger/orange dressing was pretty standard.

My husband seemed to enjoy his Teriyaki Shrimp Lunch Box, that included sticky sush rice, a shrimp tempura, a gyoza, a few pieces of California roll, and steamed vegetables. I had the Sushi & Sashimi Combo: 1 tuna roll, 4 pieces of nigiri sush, and 4 kinds of sashimi. The fish was some of the freshest I have tasted in recent memory, and the rice in the nigiri sush pieces stayed together--didn't fall apart in my hand the way many do.

Specials at the Sushi Bar included "live" scallop and king crab California roll.

Now I have to go back to Blue Ocean to compare.  Prices are competitive, and if they can step up the game on the service (maybe they were short-handed today), they'll do very well. I'll definitely return, maybe for dinner to try the omakaze.

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Lady KN, Daughter KN and I ate at Taiko Sushi on Saturday night, and we can all declare it "surprisingly good." It's easily knocking on that small, thin door of "best sushi in Springfield" right now.

First, the decor is very nice for your typical suburban strip mall on a busy road. It's pleasantly appointed in soft browns and clean sight lines, but someone needs to address the Muzak tracks....we were treated to an odd range of Auld Lang Syne to Beethoven with a few hits of pop thrown in....and the service on a Saturday night, when the restuarant went from three 4-tops when we walked in to about eight 4-tops when we walked out, was suburban-adequate but on the slow side. Alas, these are the growing pains of a newcomer with upside. Nonetheless, our server (Tony) was gracious and attentive, to the best of his ability.

And the food was pretty darned good. This is sushi and sashimi that hints at the quality potential of Yamazoto. We ordered a sashimi platter -- perfect slices of tuna, white tuna, salmon, yellowtail, and snapper, and every bite was perfection from the sea. We also ordered a hefty pile of rolls and nigiri, including my first-ever Backlick Roll -- my favorite name for a road in all of Virginia is Backlick...! Add a Rainbow Roll, Alaska Roll, Taiko Roll, and Dragon Roll, plus a few more hits of sahimi and sushi, and the feast was more than we could eat. Yes, we took some leftovers, and yes, we ate them later during a movie night at home.

A special word about their presentations, which indicated to me that they're trying hard enough to matter....each dish of sushi or sashimi came out with some of the more elaborate and colorful presentations I've seen in any suburban sushi restaurant. We're talking about the simple, from a small model bamboo tree filled with a few pandas, to the more inventive, like a plastic ice cube with flickering lights in it covered with shreds of daikon. The dishes were beautiful, and if you really start eating with your eyes, first, then you'll be salivating when these platters hit your table.

Prices appeared to be a little on the high side -- sushi portions were priced at 1 piece per order, and some of the specialty rolls were at $16.95. No brown rice was available -- I get it, that's an American dietary thing, not a traditional Japanese sushi thing -- so I confined myself to the sashimi. No problem whatsoever with that.

We declare this place an up-and-coming hit, and we intend to come back to satisfy our sushi cravings often.

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Had an interesting dinner at Taiko Sushi tonight. I was by myself and opted for the omakase at the sushi counter. I think perhaps the sushi chefs (is that the right term,?) tonight were new? When the waitress told them of my order it began a rather lengthy discussion of what that entailed. I was eventually presented a lovely platter that included the night's specials toro and uni.

The fish was outstanding. Very, very fresh but the presentation was lacking. I would have preferred that all my nigri wasn't doused in ponzu. And in hindsight, I don't think I got enough sushi to add up to the $35 price. But.... the dinner was plenty filling and the service charming. I think they are perhaps more used to diners who are in to the specialty rolls and varied sauces rather than the straight up sushi/sashimi experience.

All in all, I will probably return just for the quality of the ingredients. And perhaps next tine order a la carte instead of omakase.

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We have been to Taiko twice, most recently a few days ago.  We like it.  So far, my favorite item from the menu is the Yellowtail Jalapeno from the appetizer section.  Raw yellowtail served with a sliced jalapeno and ponzu.  Delicious!  I prefer their regular rolls over their specialty rolls simply because I don't care for sauce on a sushi roll.  Their spicy yellowtail roll is very good.  Their sashimi is also very good --I prefer sashimi over nigiri.  I was quite excited to see 'horse mackerel' on the menu, but when we tried to order it, we were told that they don't offer it anymore because no one orders mackerel.  To be honest, I probably wouldn't either, had I not had the horse mackerel served by Koji at the late-lamented Sushi Ko in Glover Park several years back -- to date, the best piece of sashimi I've ever eaten.  Their gyoza and shumai are decent, although I think I prefer the shumai at Kana Sushi just up the road in Springfield Plaza.  Looking forward to sampling more of the menu.

I learned from a neighbor that Taiko delivers -- unfortunately, I don't think the Yellowtail Jalapeno would travel well.  

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