Sushi, Curry and Cocktails at a Charleston Japanese Table

Start with the wontons. They have become a favorite opening order here, a crisp, shareable way to settle in before the table starts branching into sushi, noodles, curry and hibachi.

This Charleston restaurant has the rare useful quality of giving a mixed group plenty of room to follow its own appetite. One person can spend the evening on sashimi and rolls while another orders chicken hibachi, a ramen bowl, steak with fries or a curry entrée without anybody feeling as if they picked the wrong restaurant.

The room keeps the meal from becoming overly formal. It is modern, clean and polished, but relaxed enough for a casual lunch, a family dinner, a round of drinks at the bar or an anniversary meal.

Sushi and sashimi sit at the center of the menu, with carefully prepared fish and attractive plating giving the meal a little occasion-worthy polish. The spicy tuna roll has been a particularly strong choice, noted for its fresh, flavorful bite.

There is room for more playful sushi, too. Mountain Mama and Mango Madness are among the named rolls, and deep-fried sushi offers a richer route for diners who want something warm and crunchy alongside more traditional preparations.

For a table that wants to make sushi the main event, the Ultimate Specialty Chef platter is built for sharing. It is generously portioned and beautifully assembled, making sense for a family meal or a group that would rather sample broadly than commit to individual rolls.

The selection is deliberately broader than a sushi-bar menu. Hibachi, ramen, curry, salmon, steak and other cooked dishes fill out the choices, so dinner can take several directions at once.

Chicken curry is one of the cooked dishes worth a closer look, and red curry offers another warming option. A meal can easily move from a ginger salad and sushi to curry and ramen without feeling like an accidental combination; that range is simply built into the menu.

The ginger salad has its own following, with a bright, fresh taste that makes it more than a routine side bowl. It is a good palate-clearing start before richer food arrives.

Faroe salmon, chicken hibachi and brisket spring rolls provide further ways to skip the raw fish entirely, or to mix it into the meal rather than make it the whole plan. Careful ingredient pairings and house-made sauce have helped give individual dishes a little extra personality.

Vegetarian dishes are identified on the menu, a helpful detail when a table includes different eaters. Staff have also been attentive to requested adjustments, checking back during the meal to make sure things are going smoothly.

The bar is a worthwhile stop rather than just a waiting area. Cocktails are treated as a creative craft-drink offering, and bartenders can help steer a diner toward a drink that suits the meal.

Bar seating also gives you a view of the drinks being put together. It is an easy place to begin with a cocktail and an appetizer, then decide whether the evening calls for a few rolls, a full cooked entrée or both.

After savory food, fried cheesecake is the dessert to remember. It is a decidedly indulgent finish, and a useful reason not to order quite every interesting thing on the first pass.

Inside, the setting is warm and welcoming without a lot of ceremony. Pleasant music adds to the mood, and the dining room can be easy to talk in, though the sound level may rise to a moderate buzz when the room is busy.

Outdoor patio seating gives the restaurant another option beyond the main dining room and the bar. That choice helps the place work for different kinds of visits, from a quick lunch to a longer meal with cocktails.

The space has also accommodated a painting class, a small sign that the room can take on a community-minded, creative energy beyond a standard dinner service.

A menu this extensive benefits from a staff that can guide people through it, and the service is notably friendly, efficient and informed. Recommendations are useful when the table is weighing sushi against hibachi, or trying to choose among the more elaborate rolls and platters.

Food has often arrived promptly, while the service still keeps an eye on the table through the meal. That combination matters on a menu where one diner may be working through sashimi while another is waiting on a hot curry or hibachi plate.

The result is a restaurant that can accommodate very different dining styles at the same table. Couples can keep things simple with drinks and sushi; families and groups can turn ordering into a wider sampling exercise.

A free parking lot with ample parking takes some of the usual friction out of a Charleston dinner. Reservations have not been necessary for some meals, though the restaurant has also been used for celebrations and group gatherings.

Lunch can be a particularly good time to explore the sushi side of the menu, including a sushi-and-sashimi special. For dinner, the broad format makes it easy to build a meal in stages: wontons or spring rolls first, sushi or sashimi next, then ramen, curry, hibachi or a cooked fish entrée if the table is still hungry.