Sushi Masa

FOOD

Dinner gives Sushi Masa its broadest spread of sashimi, nigiri, specialty rolls, and Japanese kitchen dishes. Tuna and salmon lead into yellowtail, octopus, scallop, and surf clam. Yellowtail jalapeño and tuna tartar sit among the composed appetizers, while the specialty rolls take a decidedly less restrained approach to dressing for dinner.

The Shaggy Dog puts shrimp tempura and avocado beneath kani, spicy mayonnaise, and eel sauce. There is a lot happening in that roll, and restraint plainly was not invited. The 225 brings shrimp tempura together with spicy crawfish and cream cheese, then adds jalapeño, eel sauce, wasabi mayonnaise, and crunch. It is an unabashed collection of seafood, fried filling, and finishing touches.

Lucky Buddha takes the specialty-roll exuberance in a vegetable direction: cream cheese, pickled jalapeño, avocado, and sweet potato tempura, with eel sauce, spicy mayonnaise, and Dragon Fire Sauce among its finishes. Sweet potato in a sushi roll is already an interesting proposition; this one clearly has no intention of stopping there.

Simpler rolls and nigiri keep company with those elaborate creations. Cucumber, avocado, and seaweed salad offer a quieter pause, and the sashimi selection allows a dinner with more attention to the fish itself. The menu has room for that spare presentation and for rolls whose toppings have developed rather substantial ambitions.

The small dishes extend well beyond sushi. Gyoza and shumai bring dumplings to the table; edamame and aged tofu appear alongside them. Dinner adds takoyaki, green mussels, fried calamari, and rocking shrimp. A few sushi orders can quite easily acquire a supporting cast large enough to deserve its own supper.

The kitchen’s fondness for frying continues through vegetable, chicken, and shrimp tempura, plus chicken and fish katsu. Teriyaki ranges from tofu, chicken, and shrimp to dinner’s steak and salmon. Fried rice and lo mein round out the hot dishes. There is plenty here for an evening that begins with sushi and develops a serious interest in the kitchen, especially when the next order can include another small plate rather than an entire conventional entrée.

Lunch retains sushi, kitchen plates, soups, salads, and ice cream, while dinner has the broader raw-fish and appetizer selection. Miso or clear soup can accompany either meal; dinner also lists tom yum. A particular dinner-only dish deserves an evening plan rather than wishful thinking at lunch.

Dessert choices at dinner just get downright inventive in the best possible way. Ice cream supplies the familiar finish, while dinner adds tempura cheesecake, banana tempura, and fried Oreos. The tempura cheesecake and banana tempura carry the kitchen’s fondness for frying into the sweet course. Between sweet potato in Lucky Buddha and banana in dessert, produce gets a fairly extravagant evening here, too. There is nothing particularly solemn about this menu. An Oreo already knows how to be a treat; apparently it has further ambitions. It is an entirely fitting finale to a menu that has never shown much embarrassment about enjoying itself.