Koi Koi Sushi & Roll

Koi Koi Sushi & Roll: 450 West Broad St #117, Falls Church, VA 22046; (703) 237-0101; koikoisushi.com.

We’ve tried a handful of the restaurants in this walkable area of Falls Church, including Maneki Neko; Hot N Juicy Crawfish; Caribbean Plate; and Milagro’s Pupuseria, which we plan to review after another visit or two. There are plenty more places around here to visit, and we just crossed Koi Koi off the list. It didn’t disappoint.

We’re always on the lookout for rice-free sushi rolls, and this place offers two: the Cucumber Roll (specify “with fish,” so as not to be confused with the vegetable roll) and the Pink Lady. The latter consists of a mixture of real & imitation crab and cucumber wrapped in tuna. (These items are listed under “Fresh Fill Rolls” at the link above.)

We get the Cucumber Roll with Fish, as well as the beef gyoza appetizer. With no rice, this roll is a challenge to handle with chopsticks; we treat it as nigiri (finger food, in this case served with toothpicks like a club sandwich, to keep it all together). There’s plenty of fish — four kinds, according to the menu, though we only detect tuna and salmon (as well as avocado); there’s no masago nor whatever the fourth kind of fish is supposed to be. Maybe they ran out. There’s plenty of food on the plate so sometimes it’s nice to go with a lighter-than-rice roll.

The beef gyoza are especially good — crispy (we order them fried, they’re also available steamed), with plenty of meat and not too spicy. We add a little Asian chili spice to our sesame-oil dipping sauce to kick it up. Even fried gyoza can sometimes be oily; not these.

We place the order for take-out, as you see, because we’re excited to break in our new sake set at home — a handmade tokkuri bottle and five cups, ordered directly from Seto, Japan. More to follow on that.