Happenin' Japanese: At the Table

Walking into Sushi Groove in Walnut Creek is like being transported to an up-to-the-minute club in San Francisco’s Mission District. The sounds of lounge music greet your ears, and the space is full of theatrical curtains and spotlights.

Designer Gus Santos’s interior is mid-century modern by way of Tokyo, and the result is a surprisingly successful blend of funky and traditional elements. The host’s podium, encircled by a fluttery curtain of shells, is luminous beneath its own light, and the sushi bar curves sinuously behind it. Etched translucent resin panels share space with dark wood tables and chairs that evoke the clean lines of Japanese furniture and the sexy design of a New York loft. The crowd is sexy, too: a mix of young tattooed types, athletic guys in ball caps, and couples out on dinner dates.

Co-owner Jim Tang says the contemporary atmosphere was intentional. “It has a more up-to-date feel than other sushi restaurants,” he says of his five-month-old business. “It’s a different style; we took sushi a step further.”

Sushi Groove is as much about the groove as it is about the sushi. The house DJ spins Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, and happy hour means drinks and food items are $3 apiece Tuesdays through Fridays, as well as Sundays, starting at 5 p.m. The vibe is enhanced by the young, attractive staff, who are eager to explain everything from the cocktails and sushi to the playlist.

Sushi Groove got its start in San Francisco, where there are two popular locations. Jim and his brother Will head up the Walnut Creek Sushi Groove, and they have a special connection to the site: It has been in the family ever since their parents owned Tang’s Chinese Restaurant there. Jim also ran Slates, the jazz club that came before Sushi Groove and he still owns Dan’s Bar next door.

Sushi Groove’s menu offers a wide selection of sushi but also borrows dishes from other parts of Asia. Starters include the now-ubiquitous edamame (fresh, green soy beans steamed in their pods); rich, mild barbecued beef lettuce cups topped with crisp cellophane noodles; and cucumber salad in a sweet vinaigrette that’s a refreshing start to the protein-rich meal to come.

The restaurant has a full bar, but my husband opts for the Asahi Sumo—the appropriately named large bottle of the Japanese beer—and I order a Tokyo Manhattan, one of Sushi Groove’s sake cocktails. The drink is a smooth mix of premium sake and cranberry and lemon juices. You could accidentally drink a lot of these. We relax and dive into the rest of the menu.

An order of prawn tempura from the Sushi Groove Plates section of the menu is luscious. The plump, tender prawns are snug in their crisp tempura coating, and the spicy mango chutney sauce that accompanies them adds just the right zing. Other plates include beef teriyaki, miso-marinated sea bass, and a scrumptious version of Chinese honey shrimp, called warm prawns, which arrives sprinkled with candied orange zest. Thanks to this selection of plates, non-sushi lovers won’t leave hungry, but the sushi itself, which arrives on long, elliptical, white china plates, is resplendent.

The aptly named spider roll is styled to look like an edible arachnid: Its long, tempura-fried soft-shell crab claws reach from the confines of the rice. Another sushi creation, the crunchy roll, combines crab and shrimp with a generous topping of “tempura flakes” and a dose of sweet-salty unagi sauce. And the dynamite roll, which pairs tuna and avocado with a flavorful burst of chili sauce, is delicious.

“It’s fusion,” says Sushi Groove chef Takeshi Famarato. “A lot of places do these rolls now, but everyone does them differently. We plate things in a more European style.” Rolls like these have about as much in common with traditional Japanese sushi—pristine raw fish on perfectly seasoned rice—as a caramel-hazelnut-mocha Frappuccino does with a single espresso, but they’re tasty and lots of fun to eat. The only exceptions were the tuna caliente, a spicy nigiri sushi that reeked of too much sesame oil, and the jungle roll, whose mango slices were woefully under-ripe. And if there is a sushi purist in your crowd, don’t worry: The classic Japanese sushi preparations such as tuna, yellowtail, and eel are perfectly serviceable.

The dessert menu includes an intriguing item called green tea tiramisu. It’s actually a fairly standard, tasty square of the Italian dessert with a sprinkling of green tea powder on top. The powder, which makes the surface of the tiramisu look like a patch of moss, does impart a light green tea flavor to the espresso-and-chocolate dessert, and while it isn’t unpleasant, it comes off as more of a contrivance than a revelation. The caramelized banana or the mochi ice cream is a safer bet. As my husband and I depart, the DJ is just getting warmed up, and patrons are starting to crowd the bar. We’ve enjoyed our postmodern sushi experience, and the East Bay’s most stylish sushi lovers have found a new place to groove.

Sushi Groove, 1523 Giammona Dr., Walnut Creek, (925) 945-1400. Lunch (to begin this month) Tues.–Fri., dinner Tues.–Sun., $$$.