At 73 Main Street in Dobbs Ferry, lit up by a string of fairy lights reflecting on the black awning, lanterns hanging from the front, beckoning you in for dinner, is Sushi Niji.
The restaurant is a primarily Japanese restaurant with a calming environment, a completely affordable menu, and most importantly, delicious cuisine. When you first walk into the restaurant, you’re immediately greeted by quick service and a clean table. Looking around, it’s neither a large, nor cramped restaurant; a perfect, cozy ambiance for a night out. The lighting isn’t too bright or too dark, and the background noise produced by the fish aquarium in the corner puts you in the mood for a calm and relaxing dining experience.
Greeted by friendly staff, we settled into a back-corner table and began with an order of vegetable and pork gyoza. Each order came in a bunch of 6, the perfect amount for sharing with friends, or eating by yourself. Packed into the vegetable dumplings were multiple types of vegetables, including carrots, ginger, chives, and more. The pork was cut into small bits and combined with cabbage, onions, and other spices. Once put onto our plate, even the excellent presentation fell far short of the actual substance, which was flavorful, salty, and perfectly balanced by the side of soy sauce.
Post-appetizers, we ordered the Chicken Teriyaki Bento Box, which included California rolls, sushi rice, chicken teriyaki, seaweed salad, and shrimp shumai. For a price that was on the cheaper side, there was so much food that we did not finish it. It was well worth its value. Served in perfectly shareable portions, the dish provided everything that a bento box should; a balance between savory and sweet, and smash-hit sauces to complement the proteins.
The chicken teriyaki was soaked in teriyaki sauce, cooked to perfection, and each bite left you wanting more. The chicken, which was cooked not too soft and not too hard, was easy to eat and because of the small portions, we felt like we could eat the whole thing without getting full. The teriyaki sauce was tangy, sweet, and incredibly flavorful, masked the already amazing seasoning of the chicken, which you could now only find once taking a steaming bite from the center.
The bento boxes’ California rolls, which consisted of imitation crab, avocado and cucumber, while the outside is wrapped in seaweed and rice, was at the same high level as the rest of the meal. Although we’ve had this dish a hundred times, the perfect balance of crunchy cucumber and soft avocado left our tongues tingling from the contrasting flavors of the two, and the taste of crab fresh in my mouth, made us feel like we’d never had this roll before.
Lastly, the shrimp shumai, which we did not notice on our plate until the near end, was not at all a disappointment to the rest of the box. Their shumai was packed with ginger, mushroo
m, and of course, shrimp. The dough it was wrapped in was cooked to a golden white, and the texture was, in my opinion, perfect. The seaweed salad and sushi rice on the side, although classic dishes, were amazing bites in between the heavier tastes of chicken, the roll, and the shumai.
Finally, we opted for the Sushi Niji Special, a signature dish by the Dobbs Ferry locale. Visually, the dish seems to burst with flavor. Topped with crunchy seaweed and tobiko (a bright orange sushi topper), as well as tuna and salad, there was no shortage of Japanese relishes to choose from as perfect complements to rolls of semi-spicy crab meat salad.
The roll was, in short, the best sushi we’ve ever had. No singular aspect of the dish overpowered any other, as a conjunction of different textures and tastes worked together to create Sushi Niji’s signature dish.
Ultimately, we topped the meal off with an order of green tea mochi ice cream and an order of green tea tempura ice cream. To substantiate another mouth-watering presentation, the tempura’s crunchy exterior shell gave way to soft, delicious ice cream coated in chocolate drizzle upon a first bite. Neither did the mochi disappoint, as the iconic chewy exterior perfectly accompanied the sweet green tea flavor beneath it.
The restaurant overall, for the price, service, and food, was well over its worth for the meal we were served. It would be a perfect place to go with a friend, a date, or family. We will definitely be going back.
