So Much Sushi -- After 18 Years, Nikko Still Does It Best

Best Seattle sushi: Nikko Restaurant, 1306 S. King St., Seattle. 322-4641.

Best Eastside sushi: Kikuya, 8105 161st Ave. N.E., Redmond. 881-8771.

Best sushi rolls: I Love Sushi, 11818 N.E. Eighth St., Bellevue. 454-5706.

What makes great sushi?

Absolute freshness is critical. Perhaps that's why most Japanese restaurants aren't open Sundays, when fish markets are closed.

The quality must be consistent, day in and day out. Swift, minimal handling is important.

The sushi chef must really know fish. It's best if he served an apprenticeship in Japan. To excel, he must find and use good local fish and vegetables.

There are about 150 Japanese restaurants in the greater Seattle area, and nearly 40 of them have sushi bars. So far, none has emerged with the artistry of Los Angeles' famed Matsuhisa, where the innovations include such specialties as baby squid in sea urchin sauce, and shiitake mushrooms stuffed with sea urchin wrapped in spinach.

There's a whole lot of solemn sushi going on in this city; too many sushi chefs who are swift and deft, but silent and unadventurous. All of them are, necessarily, finicky about the freshness and quality of the fish they serve, so you're not likely to get bad sushi.

Here are our picks:

Best Seattle sushi: Nikko. Shiro Kashiba was Seattle's first sushi chef, and he's still the best, as much for his puckish banter as for his dedication to excellence. Shiro apprenticed for 6 1/2 years in Tokyo, spending part of every day learning how to choose fish. Now, 18 years after opening Nikko, he still spends at least two hours a day making the rounds of fish markets, often tasting a fish on the spot before he buys it.

Put yourself into Shiro's hands, and listen to his recommendations. They won't always be for sushi. Our most recent visit coincided with the first day prized matsutake mushrooms were found in the market. Nothing else is served quite the same way: fat slices swimming in a clear mushroom broth, in a teapot whose second lid doubles as a tiny cup for the broth.

Without Shiro's guidance, I might never have tried geoduck sushi. Now that I know its fresh, briny taste, with its slight chewi

ness, I will never again want cooked, seized-up geoduck. Also worth trying is the Nikko roll, a house specialty, made with mackerel and slivered fresh ginger, with a touch of wasabi mustard.

Shiro is as deft socially as he is with his hands. It's fascinating to watch him shrug off invitations to grouse (``Didn't your property tax go up a lot this year?'' ``I don't know, that's not my department''). And on with the banter. Here, you also get expert advice on sake. And don't miss his trophy behind the cash register for golfing a hole-in-one.

Best Eastside sushi: Kikuya,

Redmond. Kikuya gets four stars for quality, one star for ambiance. The seven-seat sushi bar doubles as a pickup bar for orders, so there's a lot of coming and going, and no banter. The sushi chef, Sho Suyama, does his swift-handed work eyes down, in silence. Given a free hand with deciding what we should eat, he presented us with a procession of seven kinds of sushi: yellow-fin tuna, smoked salmon, king crab, sweet (i.e. raw) shrimp with pink roe, eel, geoduck, and blue-fin tuna. Every one was not merely good, but superb. No matter what prejudice you may have about eel, try this version and prepare to be converted. Owner Hiroaki Ito formerly was personal chef to Japan's ambassador to the United Nations, and the dedication to quality shows.

Best sushi rolls: I Love Sushi, Bellevue. Innovation counts in today's sushi world, and I Love Sushi offers several sushi rolls that are standouts. A serpentine 17-seat sushi bar is the main focus of action, but the whole restaurant could be considered one extended sushi bar. Four sushi chefs work at the counter, and more are busy in the kitchen. It shouldn't surprise you to learn that they serve more sushi than any other restaurant in the Northwest.

English is not wildly proficient here, but the handiwork is. Try the I Love Roll, with eel, shrimp and avocado, surrounded by a wrap of cucumber; the Alaska Roll, made of toasted salmon skin and radish sprouts; the Seattle Roll, with avocado, salmon, cucumber and crab roe. All of them are served with a sprinkling of tiny flying fish roe that snap and crunch pleasantly as you chew. Oddest of all is the Spicy Tuna Roll, made of tuna, chili sauce and mayo. Yep, it works just fine.

Best carry-out sushi: Larry's Market. Carry-out sushi is tricky. The crisp nori seaweed used to wrap maki sushi quickly becomes soft and soggy. Best bet: Larry's Special Roll, with smoked salmon, cream cheese, celery, horseradish, and seaweed (nori) wrapped in an outer coat of rice. It compares favorably with what you get at sushi bars, and the price is about the same: $3.99 for a roll, complete with takeout chopsticks and a packet of soy sauce (which you won't need).

Sushi prices are pretty consistent all over town. Count on paying $1.25 to $1.50 for each finger of fish-topped rice, depending on the topping and the season, and $2.50 to $3 for a sushi roll. The price can go higher for specialty rolls. The highest we encountered was $4.50 for the I Love Roll at I Love Sushi.

While we're at it, it's worth noting that Seattle consumers are more eager than they are sophisticated about sushi etiquette. Here are Shiro's tips:

A knowledgeable consumer asks the chef three questions: what's local, what's in season, and what's the house specialty. Otherwise, you can order the same monotonous tuna and California roll all year round, and never try what's special to the Northwest: things such as razor clam, geoduck, smoked salmon, herring roe and salmon roe. Each fish has a different color, texture and flavor. ``Seasonal differences are important,'' Shiro says, throwing his arms wide. ``It's like the differences in fresh fruits.''

Don't ask for wasabi (the green mustard) on the side unless you intend it as a slight to the chef. Wasabi is already inside the sushi. If you like more of it than he has used, ask him to use a bit more in your next order. ``I tell customers just one time that in Japan we give ginger beside the order, but not wasabi,'' Shiro says. ``New customers often ask for it; it makes me feel there's something wrong with the way I'm doing their sushi. I feel guilty.''

Eat sushi with big bites. If you can manage the whole thing in one bite, do it; at most, make two bites of it. Sushi is a mixed taste, and if you take nibbles you're likely to miss the wasabi, which is in the middle. Leaving nibbled half bites on the counter is not only mildly unhygienic, it's bad manners.

Dip the fish part lightly into soy sauce, not the rice. The rice is prone to absorb too much soy sauce, making it so salty it overpowers the delicate taste of the fish. Sushi rice already has salt and sugar in it, in any case.

If the sushi bar smells like fish, head out, or order chicken or beef instead. Really fresh raw fish has no smell.

Also worth knowing: One type of sushi you can find in Japan but not here may surprise you: raw salmon. That's because parasites sometimes are found in Northwest salmon. Flash freezing to minus-40 degrees kills parasites and their eggs. In Japan, they have facilities to do just that, and Japanese sushi bars serve raw salmon with confidence. In the Northwest, buyers of frozen fish have no way of knowing with certainty what temperatures the fish has survived, so they use smoked salmon instead - a tasty substitution.

Parasites also are the reason sushi bars serve only saltwater fish. Most freshwater fish are unsafe to eat raw.

DELORIS TARZAN AMENT IS A REPORTER AND CRITIC IN THE SEATTLE TIMES' NEWSFEATURES DEPARTMENT.