Hands down my favorite restaurant on Earth
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| I started coming to Ai when I was an undergraduate at Caltech sometime back in the early 90s. I had a sushi addiction and my friends and I tried out a lot of sushi joints in Pasadena. Ai was always a favorite of mine and I started taking Jeremy here when we first began dating. We have been loyal patrons of Ai for over 12 years. Even when we were graduate students in New York, we would vacation in California and make a special trip to Ai. Now that we are moving to Colorado (and have been unable to convince Hiro and Fumito to move the business out there too), it was high time to document the culinary beauty and delight that is Ai. | |
The pushers |
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 Fumito is the bossman. |
 Hiro is a true artist. |
| It isn't often that your sushi chef is a guest at your wedding banquet. We consider Fumito a good friend and a fine sushi chef. Service can be slow because the floor is under staffed. We usually sit at the bar, which can have a long waiting line if you don't get there right as they open, or at the right time. Service at the bar is good, entertaining, and always a surprise. Hiro consistently makes the most beautiful sushi. He is an artist and his hands turn food into edible art. Fumito will drop little samples on your plate or disappear into the back kitchen to whip up some extraordinary concoction of seafood, tofu, vegetables... He is a master of food and wine. He dabbles in half a dozen languages, flirts with the ladies, is charming and hilarious. Now on to the food. | |
The food |
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 A Hawaiian style dish of poke and seaweed.
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 Toro (fatty tuna) melts in your mouth.
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 Hamachi (yellowtail) sashimi: like buttah.
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 Softshell crab handroll - it's like a party.
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 Not-So-Special roll: spicy tuna, spicy scallop, avocado.
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 The mastah deals in pink gold - toro.
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 Masago (flying fish roe) with quail egg, and rock cod nigiri.
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 Spicy tuna-stuffed squid tempura.
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 Sashimi salad.
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 Hamachi (yellowtail) and blue fin tuna nigiri.
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 Agedashi tofu (tender fried tofu).
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 Cucumber and albacore tuna roll.
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 Ama ebi (sweet shrimp).
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 Caterpillar roll (avocado and eel).
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| Go now - run, don't walk! | |
