You may have tasted the short end of the (chop)stick before, but you've never experienced a raw deal quite like this one: Pay $30 and bite into $60 worth of sushi and other delicacies at one of DC's finest Japanese restaurants: Kushi. Sink your teeth into plump pieces of... (show more)

You may have tasted the short end of the (chop)stick before, but you've never experienced a raw deal quite like this one: Pay $30 and bite into $60 worth of sushi and other delicacies at one of DC's finest Japanese restaurants: Kushi. Sink your teeth into plump pieces of wagyu beef or pork belly from the grill at this Mount Vernon izakaya; saddle up to the sushi bar, where chop-happy chefs spear fatty pieces of tuna flown in twice-weekly from the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo; and wash it all down with more than 11 Japanese suds and microbrews -- plus a list of 15 small-batch sakes. Washingtonian food writer Todd Kliman calls Kushi "a knockout," while WaPo's Tom Sietsema says "the next time someone tells me Washington isn't an interesting place to dine, I'm sending him straight to Kushi." Our review: We come hungry, we come often, and we always come back for more.