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Photo by Deborah Cannon

The sushi at Uchi.

Uchi
801 S. Lamar Blvd.
(512) 916-4808
Hours: Monday to Thursday; 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Credit Cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express
Wine: 11 by the glass ($5-$9), 20 by the bottle ($20-$80)
Rating:

Thursday, Oct. 23 Reviews:
• Uchi
• Maudie's Hacienda

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Uchi

Where flavorful, imaginative sushi is on a roll

By Dale Rice
American-Statesman Restaurant Critic
Thursday, October 23, 2003

For Tyson Cole, it's all about karma.

"I feel like I've been given a privilege to learn what I've learned from the Japanese," he says. "I've got to give it back to the people."

He'll probably be giving for quite a while; the chef-owner of Uchi, the new, upscale sushi restaurant on South Lamar Boulevard, learned literally everything he knows about sushi from the Japanese.

Cole's first association with Japanese food was at the unappetizing end: He was a dishwasher at the downtown Kyoto nearly a dozen years ago.

Then, despite having no formal culinary training, he left the dirty plates behind and moved to the sushi bar under the tutelage of Ted Kasuga, who taught him the old-school techniques of pairing fish and rice.

Then he relocated to the somewhat fancier Musashino, off MoPac Boulevard, where he learned the new-school methods from Smokey Fuse and moved up the ranks to become second-in-command at that top-of-the-line sushi bar.

During that time he learned the Japanese language and traveled to Japan with Fuse, furthering his sushi education.

Although he encountered challenges as an Anglo in an almost exclusively Asian profession, Cole says his teachers more than compensated for that with their willingness to share.

He has absorbed their knowledge well. The sushi produced by Cole and his staff at Uchi, which he launched with co-owner Daryl Kunik, is superb.

From yellowtail ($3 per piece), fresh water eel ($2.50), flounder ($2.50) and anago ($3) to spicy scallop ($2.50), sea urchin ($3.50), shrimp ($2.50) and chu toro ($3), both the raw and cooked seafood atop molded fingers of rice were fresh-tasting and flavorful.

The rolls, including the sola ($8), kappa ($4), negitoro ($6) and casa ($8), were equally proficient; the last especially demonstrated Cole's desire to expose more Americans to Japanese cuisine.

Photo by Deborah Cannon/AA-S

Uchi chef-owner Tyson Cole.

In the casa roll he developed, Cole encloses chicken salad (made from thigh meat) in the seaweed-wrapped roll -- a substantial leap from the traditional raw fish.

"One of my most favorite things when it's done well is chicken salad," he says. "So I make as good a chicken salad as I can and put it in a sushi roll."

It's a perfect option for people who aren't ready for raw seafood but are interested in the idea of sushi.

"I want to give people the baby steps to lead them into other things," Cole says. "I want to take the stigma off sushi for most of the populace."

Moving beyond sushi and rolls, the rest of Uchi's offerings produced a mixed bag on two visits.

The yakitori, a variety of grilled skewers that included chicken and scallion ($5), asparagus and bacon ($4.50), and shrimp ($6), were nicely done, but offered tiny bites for the money when compared with similar fare at several other local restaurants.

The tempura, covering green tomato ($2.50) and Japanese pumpkin ($2.50) with a thick, doughy, leaden coating, was the main disappointment.

On a subsequent visit, the tempura Twinkie ($5), a novel way to present the decades-old lunchbox treat, was better, but still a bit under-fried.

The entrees produced in the kitchen each had a flaw. The grilled pork chop ($15) was not tender, and the pan seared sea scallops seemed minimal (three) for the price ($18).

Still, even those items were on the right track in flavor and presentation. This young restaurant simply needs to pull them up to the level of the sushi.

Uchi already has the ambience and service to match the sushi.

Service on both visits was attentive, friendly and exceptionally knowledgeable, with servers able to discuss the parts of fish from which different sushi comes and the attributes of each.

The restaurant has a modern Asian atmosphere, with brightly colored wallpaper in a tree motif to counter the dark-wood booths and tables. There is a sushi bar at the front, where customers can dine and watch Cole up-close.

It's a performance worth viewing. To enhance it even further, try dining "omakase" style, in which a diner allows the chef to make all the decisions and send whatever he wants to the table.

That's an opportunity for Cole to do his utmost to please his patrons.

"Now I have this gift -- a restaurant of my own," he says. "It's time to bring it round full circle. I want to make the people who've taught me proud, and I want to make good food. If I can push the envelope, so be it."

You may contact Dale Rice at drice@statesman.com or 445-3859.

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