FOOD

The food is where Aji most clearly separates itself from the ordinary AYCE sushi model. The fish does not feel like the category in which the restaurant has traded quality for volume. Tuna sashimi arrives in broad, generous cuts with clean freshness; salmon, yellowtail, scallop, mackerel and squid expand the raw-fish choices, while surf clam, freshwater eel and octopus broaden the sushi-bar side even further. The depth of that selection makes it possible to build the meal around fish rather than rice-heavy rolls.

Just as surprising is how seriously the cooked appetizers are treated. The fried oysters are a standout: large and juicy beneath crisp, carefully seasoned breading, with a quality that would not feel out of place at a dedicated seafood restaurant. Fried calamari is similarly crisp, its batter carrying real seasoning and a tangy, aioli-like dipping sauce. Shrimp shumai and pan-fried gyoza have the kind of texture and filling that make them feel worth ordering on their own rather than as filler between sushi rounds.

The smaller starters give the meal useful pivots. Squid salad brings cool marinated seafood at the beginning of a meal, while Tuna Chips put spicy tuna and scallion on Pringles-style potato chips—a playful combination that works much better than it sounds. Vegetable tempura comes fresh and crisp, and the traditional Spider Roll carries plump fried soft-shell crab with avocado, cucumber, masago and lettuce, finished with eel and spicy mayo.

Aji’s specialty rolls are elaborate without all collapsing into the same sweet-sauced formula. The Sweetheart Roll combines spicy tuna and crunch inside with thin tuna outside and wasabi mayo. The Mexican Roll moves in a brighter direction with tuna, white tuna, avocado, jalapeno, cilantro and jalapeno sauce. Rock N Roll layers shrimp tempura, spicy crab and avocado beneath baked spicy scallop and black tobiko. These are rolls designed for contrast, not merely size.

Then there is King Of The Ocean, one of the menu’s clearest demonstrations of the value built into the fixed price. Lobster tempura, shrimp tempura, spicy snow crab and avocado are wrapped in soy paper and topped with crab stick, boiled shrimp, eel sauce and tempura bits. It is the sort of roll that would read as a premium a-la-carte order elsewhere, yet here it can simply be one direction among many.

The menu also rewards moving away from fish. The Mushroom Avocado Roll gives the vegetarian side more personality than a standard cucumber roll, with a tangy mushroom-centered character against creamy avocado. Yakisoba is another easy detour: chewy stir-fried noodles with vegetables and an intricate savory seasoning, especially satisfying with steak. Neither feels like an obligation for someone who wants a break from sushi; both are reasons to take the break.

By the end, the menu offers matcha green tea, red bean or vanilla ice cream. Whether there is room for it is another question. Aji encourages the familiar AYCE mistake of finding one more thing worth trying, and the quality of the sashimi, fried seafood and specialty rolls makes restraint harder than it should be.