Sushi Taro

If you're interested in the kaiseki (which you should be!), come verrrrry hungry! I hadn't really eaten all day and I could barely finish everything.

My thoughts on each course:

Appetizers
Flounder - Delicate, and served with a delicious miso sauce. Excellent jelly inside (tasted bonito-ish?).
Shrimp - The sauce was excellent, but the shrimp was nothing special.
Lobster croquette - a little but on the heavy side. But there was a lot of lobster chunks, which I really enjoyed. The lobster sauce was a great touch.

Sashimi
Fatty tuna (minced) with salty jelly, chimichurri, and fried onions. The onions provided a perfect crunch to accompany the flavorful tuna and jelly.

Nigiri
Japanese snapper, arctic char, sweet shrimp with fried shrimp head - all very good, loved the beautiful tempura on the shrimp head (which I've actually never eaten before and was very hesitant about but really enjoyed it).
The soy marinated tuna was a major standout!
For my 3 choice nigiri course, I was able to get anything except wagyu (and only one order of uni allowed). I made the obvious choice and went with 3 pieces of o-toro, which was, predictably, excellent. I've had fattier elsewhere, but this was still fantastic.

Sukiyaki
Excellent! Go with the wagyu. The broth was incredible, both sweet and savory.

Dessert
I chose the "roll cake" with, strawberry, cream, and vanilla ice cream. It was nothing special, but luckily I was too full to eat much of it anyways.

Overall, an excellent meal with fantastic service. It was quite pricey, but we'll worth it as a splurge.

I had not been to Sushi Taro in several years. The food, as always, did not disappoint: superb in every way. Every dish was delicious and well-presented. The service, on the other hand, was mediocre. As one example:

At some point, our table was a bit messy with bits of food, soy sauce, etc. I expected the waitress to clean it up. She did not. I cleaned it up with two of our napkins, and then placed the dirty napkins at the edge of the table. The waitress came, removed a couple of empty dishes, and left the napkins. The waitress brought more food, but still didn't take the napkins. I had to ask her to remove the dirty napkins and bring two clean ones.

Another example: the waitress never asked us if we wanted anything from the drink menu. Again, I had to ask her, after she'd delivered the food, if we could order drinks.

This is not five-star service. More like three-star. And not the service you expect when you're going to be paying $300+ on dinner.

If you want to know five-star service, book a meal at Le Diplomate, where the waiter will clean the table if it gets messy, and will always be watching to see if anything is needed. But even most diners, in my experience, have better-trained waiters.

We walked into sushi taro not knowing what to expect and had one of the best meals we have had in DC and 100% the best sushi. The first here is so fresh and everything is quality ingredients, even the wasabi which was really important.

We loved everything but some of the highlights were the habanero scallop roll, it is spicy but you can take off some of the pepper on top if you don't like very spicy. The fish quality just melts in your mouth. I loved the miso soup, it was fresh and not too salty .

The Jo Chirasi we felt was a really good deal and very filling. The sashimis selected from the chef were on a bed of sushi rice and every piece of fish was amazing, the favorite pieces were the scallop, otoro and salmon.

The soba was also great, shrimp tempura in the meal were large and delicious. The only thing I would skip would be the wagyu croquettes, they were good but nothing amazing.

Service was fast, well paced and they were so sweet. We are looking forwarding to coming back and trying their Kaiseki tasting which changes every month

Fyi this was an older review from when they still had their star...it sat in my draft so a bit late review but wanted to share my experience

Not sure why this place has a michelin star. Just the initial engagement with the host alone left me feeling a bit uncomfortable and unsure about Taro. Overall though, Taros was good. The restaurant vibe and decor was nice and modern. The food overall was above average but unfortunately...nothing amazing. The chefs nigiri work was the highlight of the night. Not too big, not too small but just right where the fish to rice ratio was balanced and the whole nigiri piece fits in your mouth nicely. The shari was another key factor that made their nigiri a highlight. A balance of sweet vinegar seasoning along with well cooked and prepared rice. My favorite dish of the night though was their ankimo. It was fresh and very tasty. It looked to be made in house so props to the chef who made it. Other items I had was otoro, sake, zuke tuna, kanpachi, aka ebi (no head was served), hotate, uni, negitoro, negihama...also had a order of their chicken kaarage (which was actually really good). Light crispy batter, juicy dark meat served with a citris like sauce and topped with their house made egg salad.

What surprises me and I believe it's a common feedback here is their service. The host is pretty off putting and rude. I am not sure if he knows that but he seems like a guy that doesn't care either. The service was quick but the server had zero personality was not engaging. For a michelin star'd restaurant, the initial host engagement alone might have had me leaving and with the overall less than experience...I have lost a bit of care for the label. Seems that the Michelin bar is set a bit lower nowadays.

Overall, Taros is a nice and good japanese restaurant. Minus the host and you have yourself an overall good experience.

Sushi Taro is a small, intimate restaurant in Dupont that has a variety of unique sushi rolls. My friend and I popped in for Happy Hour and were excited to dive in!

The dim lighting and close proximity to the street is beautiful - especially if you like people watching in the city

The sushi was tasty - very soft rice and vibrant seafood to match each flavorful bite. Not too salty or overbearing!

My personal favorite roll was the Crab Old Bay Roll and the Yellowtail.

The service was speedy and very accommodating - specifically when we were not satisfied with our cocktails.

Great rolls and a fun experience to share with friends!

The easiest 5 stars I've ever given. If you love sushi, Sushi Taro is a must. Truly some of the freshest, high quality, authentic sushi I've had in the district (and probably my life).

I went for restaurant week with a group of friends and got to try several of their sushi and non-sushi offerings and loved every single thing. The sukiyaki was incredibly flavorful and the spicy tuna roll was chefs kiss. The sake pairing was so fun and overall I felt like we got a great deal. The service was excellent and attentive

Sushi Taro is not cheap and definitely a pricier sushi spot, but cannot recommend it enough for a special occasion. Bonus points for using real wasabi!

Came for their Valentine's Day menu and WOW! They had such a unique and thoughtful menu. Started with a complementary drink. The total course number was seven.

Started with a delicious scallop tartare followed by a delicious lobster croquette. The star dish was definitely the personal hot pot with waygu beef. It was cool to get to cook the food at our table.

There was also a round of sushi and round of nigiri which featured fresh delicious picks from the chef!

To end there was a banana chocolate crepe which was perfectly sweet and had a decadent chocolate dipping sauce.

This was a great meal. Definitely pricey but is worth it! Come here for your next big occasion for a treat!

Happy hour visit. A Must-Add to your sushi list.

Friendly service. I'm on a mocktail kick and the bartender kindly offered to make me a drink based on my really inadequate description of what I wanted. Phenomenal drink. Likely a one off for the drink, but the hospitality surely is ever going!

Delicious sushi and great ambiance. I love the seasonal menus for sushi. The Happy Hour specials are really a great deal for high quality sushi in the city.

Come check it out next time you're in DuPont Circle!

Lovely meal with wonderful, attentive service! My family was celebrating an anniversary so we decided to splurge with a visit to Sushi Taro. We of course ordered the Kaiseki Tasting menu and worked our way through what would be a pretty giant and special meal.

The food was delicious! Especially loved the takoyaki with brussels sprouts, the mushroom soup (the lotus root dumpling in the soup was a great surprise too), the sukiyaki (half of us upgraded to wagyu. Both meats were fantastic, but the consensus of course was that the wagyu was more delicious), and the choose your own sushi (I'm personally quite partial to eel and fatty tuna so I was glad there was a chance to order it since it wasn't part of the other nigiri courses). The dessert was also lovely! We shared a bunch, with the signature hoji cha pudding coming up on top as the universal favorite.

The staff was super lovely and helpful throughout. They explained each of the dishes, kept our water and tea refilled, answered our questions, and even brought up some champagne so we could celebrate. Was a night to remember, thank you Sushi Taro for making it so special!

tldr: One of the few Japanese restaurants with a comprehensive Kaiseki (set menu including sushi and hot dishes). Sushi is top notch but perhaps not as great as the best omakase shops. However their large menu offers dishes like Sukiyaki, Udon, and Soba that are all high quality. Expansive restaurant with private booths, two person tables at windows, and a large room for large parties.

We joined Sushi Taro for NYE dinner and reserved the Kaiseki, which is a set menu that includes chef's choice sushi as well as hot dishes such as sukiyaki. The sushi was very very good, however, I would not recommend this place for having the best sushi. I would recommend this place for their expansive menu, because it's rare to find a place like this that has great sushi but also great hot dishes like sukiyaki. As part of the Kaiseki, the sukiyaki came in a mini pot with a burner. The cuts of meat were high quality, and the broth was very flavorful. They also have udon and soba which all use handmade noodles made fresh every day.

The Kaiseki was closed out with lovely desserts: grape ice cream and a Japanese hojicha ice cream sandwich. Despite being very full from the meal, we very much enjoyed eating these desserts which weren't too sweet but had great Japanese flavors.

We would definitely return to Sushi Taro and order the Kaiseki, or even try more of their udon or soba options.

A really awesome spot for great fresh sushi and other dishes! We came a little after happy hour on a Friday and found space at the bar.

The bartender was so friendly and helpful and explained the whole menu to us plus their favorites. She also made us yuzu martinis which were BOOZY and a nice little treat to start the night.

My favorite dish was definitely the scallop sushi roll. It was fresh, decadent, and flavorful. I also really loved the tempura sweet potatoe, fried octopus with Brussel sprouts, and shrimp croquettes. Everything we ate was fabulous. The plates are on the small side and lean more expensive so if you can come for happy hour that's a great option otherwise it's totally worth it to ball out and enjoy it all.

The vibe is pretty lowkey and casual and the aestetic is welcoming and unassuming. Really friendly and chill atmosphere. Excellent place for friends and family.

Can't wait to come back.