[offTopic]

All you can eat/buffet-style vs. a la carte

I don't dig AYCE. The best experience I've had with one of these places was at Todai in San Diego because it was packed, and everything was pretty fresh. A la carte costs more on a per-piece basis, but IMO the quality is worth it.

Nigiri vs. cut rolls

We generally don't order rolls at our regular haunts, but my family makes futomaki every new year's and my wife and I have made both California Roll (with king crab from Costco) and spicy tuna handroll (with negitoro from Mitsuwa marketplace, mayonnaise, and togarashi) at home. We also recently did up spicy hamachi handroll with fresh hamachi...I cut up most of it into sashimi, and then went at some of it with a cleaver to make the spicy handroll filling. It was good. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

At a place with good fish, I much prefer nigiri, and will, once in a great while, get chirashi.

Imitation crab rules

Really, really, really disagree. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Wasabi & soy sauce

No wasabi, unless eating sashimi. The chef is supposed to put the proper amount of wasabi on the nigiri, and at one of the regular places, we trust him to do so. I don't think it's being pretentious to recommend dipping fish side down and then eating it fish side down...it makes a big difference in tasting the fish.

Drinks

I prefer either beer or hot tea. My brother-in-law is a sake snob. Too much beer affects my fish consumption, though.

I would also add:

Favorite fish

I am a big kanpachi fan, and the Masked Man is right: When you get some fresh shiro maguro (albacore) it's right up there with most types of toro!

Damn. Hungry for fish, again...