Love Japan but can’t afford the round-the-world jaunt? Save your money on a plane ticket and treat your palate to a vacation at Mount Vernon Square’s hottest gastropub-sushi bar, Kushi, where $25 gets you $50 worth of Japanese delicacies. Stamp your passport to mouth-watering wagyu beef or pork belly... (show more)

Love Japan but can’t afford the round-the-world jaunt? Save your money on a plane ticket and treat your palate to a vacation at Mount Vernon Square’s hottest gastropub-sushi bar, Kushi, where $25 gets you $50 worth of Japanese delicacies. Stamp your passport to mouth-watering wagyu beef or pork belly from the grill; 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 15 mainstream Japanese suds and microbrews, plus a list of 30 small-batch sakes. Washingtonian food editor, Todd Kliman, calls Kushi "a knockout, the most exciting restaurant debut of the year," 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: Based on our frequent visits to this place, we're confident this deal will spark a wallet+tummy love affair that won’t be lost in translation.

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