Chiu's Sushi (MD - Baltimore)

Not to be down on the Baltimore food scene (again), but I have had a Hell of a time trying to find really good sushi in Baltimore. Kawasaki is not good. Matsuri used to be pretty good, but now is less so. Anyway, when I saw that Chiu's had opened, I decided to pop in - in hopes of sushi salvation.

The first thing that amazed me about Chiu's is their list of maki - it is literally an entire 8.5x11" sheet of paper - in three columns and 10 point font. There appear to be hundreds of combinations and permutations - replete with a legend at the bottom indicating abbreviations for ingredients, cooked rolls, etc.

[Notice to expecting mothers - Chiu's has the largest selection of cooked rolls that I have seen anywhere]

We ordered the special "toro martini" and a vegetable tempura to start, while we continued deciphering the maki encyclopedia.

The "martini" was chunks of toro in sesame oil, served in a martini glass. The fish was silky smooth, firm and fatty - exactly what you want in toro. The tempura was light and crisp, not at all heavy and full of that, "you can't do this with the panko you have at home," aura.

We are usually sashimi people - pure, simple, clean fish - the best measure of a sushi restaurant's quality (as one of my friends often says, "I think Sushi is Japanese for sourcing"), but it felt like maki was the thing to do, so we ordered an Alaska roll, a Gregg roll and a steakhouse roll.

When they arrived, we were struck by how large they were. Each roll was half a dozen disks, each over two inches across and an inch thick.

Once you got past the sheer magnitude of the rolls they were very good, even if they made you look like a chipmunk. Fresh fish and vegetable ingredients combined in creative ways, with the only drawback being the number of ingredients. At times, there were so many different things in each roll that it was easy to lose track.

The steakhouse roll was fairly unique. Grilled sirloin topped with a spicy pepper sauce and tucked into the center of a nori wrapper and white rice. I don't really think of this as sushi, but it was interesting to try.

I need to go back to Chiu's and sample more of their sashimi and a few more maki before I can render a final verdict, but the early returns look promising - especially if you are a pregnant woman.