The Silver Spring Penguin

It’s that time of year when pink blossoms pop from cherry trees, and everyone starts jonesing for sushi. Why crave raw fish wrapped seaweed and not cherry pie or cherry cobbler? Probably because cherry trees along The District’s Tidal Basin were gifts from the Japanese government and blah blah blah. Whatever.

If cherry blossom season has you itching for unagi and dreaming of wasabi, you can score your fix at a couple of joints in downtown Silver Spring:

Asian Bistro
8537 Georgia Ave, (301) 589-0123 

This bright restaurant, parked on premium real estate in the Downtown Silver Spring shopping center, does sushi as well as Chinese and Japanese entrees. Penguin taste testers went nuts for the Chinese dishes in July 2007, but a couple of readers were quick to sing praise for the sushi.

“I keep going back for the sushi,” Penguin reader Jimmy wrote. “Among the freshest I have ever had, which is strange for a restaurant that doesn’t exclusively serve Japanese food.”

“The sushi is quite good, and I know my sushi — much better than Sushi Jin” on Fenton Street, wrote Silver Spring Resident.

But Asian Bistro’s sushi bar had its detractors. Penguin reader Thayer Ave, Too was less than impressed with the freshness and construction. “Sushi shouldn’t smell fishy, and the rolls shouldn’t fall apart before you can get them to your mouth,” the comment read.

Then, in February 2008, the quality of Asian Bistro’s Chinese options went downhill, according to some Penguin readers. “I used to go there all the time, but I went about a month ago and it was not good,” Penguin reader Courtney reported.

“The sauce on my veggie chicken and broccoli was congealed and looked like it had been sitting out for a long time before I got it. My friend’s orange chicken looked old, too,” she added. “Maybe they were just having a bad day, but I haven’t been back since.”

It’s unclear whether the sushi selection has suffered the same fate. Asian Bistro is officially on notice for another review.

Pomegranate Cafe
1215 East-West Hwy, (301) 562-9400

Here’s another place that started out with a bang, quickly changed management, and is now waiting to emerge from the dust cloud. In December 2008, Penguin taste testers had decent things to say about the sushi lunch special, which kicked it with three pieces of nigiri and eight bite-sized California rolls.

The raw tuna and salmon nigiri tasted, well, like raw fish. But the California rolls’ imitation crab meat had a fresh, taut texture and worked well against the softer (but not squishy) avocado. The smoky seaweed balanced out the sweetness, and tiny orange pearls of fish roe added pop to every bite.

The spicy tuna roll also got mad props for its finely chopped but not mealy tuna, spicy (though not spicy ass) sauce, and cool mayo for balance.

Three months after opening, the South Silver Spring restaurant found itself under new management. Penguin taste testers have not been back since the change, but one reader gave the new Pomegranate Cafe a clear thumbs down. Bill the Guy wrote:

They don’t serve nigiri sushi any longer, much to my disappointment. The sushi bento is large but unrewarding, the sushi being poorly made California rolls. 

I ordered a sushi bento after my friend. The new guy rang it up as $8,466.6666. I had never seen a cash register do that. He had no idea how to fix it, turned the register off and pressed a lot of buttons until it went away. He rang it up again as $8,450.00. 

After he finally got that correct, I waited patiently for my lunch. As my friends were half-finished, I asked about my bento box. Apparently no one ever told the cooks to make me one, one of said cooks being the woman I watched tell the other cook, the alleged sushi chef, to make me one.

They presented the bento box well after my friends had finished, so I asked to have to prepared to go. I ate lunch at my desk.

Oh, and they forgot the wasabi.

The Pomegranate Cafe breaks the Penguin newsroom’s record for being placed on notice so soon after a positive review.

Sushi Jin
8555-A Fenton St, (301) 608-0990 

Oofah, you know things can’t be good when a review starts like this:

Downtown’s Sushi Jin has a choice to make. It can dim the lights, crank up the techno and become Silver Spring’s next scene. Or it can stay on its current path to mediocrity. For now, expect unremarkable sushi, boring teriyaki, unappetizing prices and muzak so painfully bad, it would trigger spontaneous hara-kiri.

That was back in March 2007, and Penguin readers were quick to concur at the time. Things might have changed since, but Sushi Jin’s bland fish, overly sweet rice and steep prices haven’t given Penguin taste testers the impetus to try this joint again.

Spring Garden
8613 16th St, (301) 588-9337 

Yet another restaurant that does decent (or at least edible) Chinese food with a sushi bar on the side. In an May 2007 open letter to county council member and trans-fat hater Duchy Trachtenberg, I asked rhetorically: “With such good food from the fryer, how can trans fats be so bad?”

The 16th Street joint really does a mean deep fry — whether that’s the General Tso’s chicken, prawns with walnuts, or crispy beef strips. But Penguin taste testers haven’t given the sushi bar a shot, nor have Penguin readers submitted comments on the matter. It’s an open case.

Blue Pearl Buffet and Grill
8661 Colesville Rd, Silver Spring, (301) 565-4334 

One must question the wisdom of culling every form of bad mall food — greasy Chinese, cheap Mexican, and dull sushi — then splaying it on a buffet table. It’s a bad idea. A really bad one. Just don’t.