Nikko - Ballantyne

Went to Nikko Sushi Bar in Ballantyne, which is a step-down on the 'hip' scale from the South Blvd location. I have dined here before - but I am going in with an open mind. We were seated promptly where the waitress came and took our drink orders. This place has some good martinis and I always order my favorite (an off menu item) - a plum martini. This is half plum wine and half sake... a nice balance of sweet and tart. This was shared by an appetizer of edamame.

For dinner, I decided to order sushi - the restaurant's namesake. From reviewing the menu, I wish there were some more options of sushi but it appeared to be primarily salmon and crab based items. I ended up ordering the dragonfly roll (a spicy, fried tuna roll with crab), the Philly roll, the scallop roll and the spicy crab/shrimp roll (the best sushi I have had is a place called Seito Sushi which is not in Charlotte - best roll - Sunset Roll that has salmon, a lemon wedge and crab).

Once I ordered, the edamame came out hot! It was as good as edamame gets. Good service so far but that soon changed. While sitting in the restaurant, I noticed that other diners were complaining about the lack of service. The dining room was not too full but it seemed like there were only 2 waitresses, which could have been the cause of the lack of service. Viewing the sushi bar, it had 3 'sushi artists' which did more talking then making sushi and this seemed to cause a break-down in the food serving. From the time I ordered, it took about 45 minutes to get the four rolls of sushi I ordered. During that time, the waitress did not come by the table to ask if I wanted another drink or refill the glass of water. Like I said -good service went down quick!

Finally - the food came. I can't complain about the sushi. The dragonfly roll is a larger roll with tuna that resembles more like chopped tuna (instead of the sushi grade tuna I am used to) but was still good and has a piece of crab. I believe it is the hot sauce they add to it that gives it the great flavor. The Philly and scallop rolls are the 'regular' rolls that you can get anywhere - but the fish tasted fresh and they were wrapped nice and tight. Finally, the spicy crab/shrimp roll was a 'salad' like roll with the same hot sauce used on the dragonfly roll. It too was good but I believe that the hot sauce gave it its flavor.

At the end of the meal, the waitress finally came and refilled the water. Too bad she did not do this while I was eating the spicy rolls!

Overall, the meal with two drinks, appetizer, four rolls and tip was ~$65.

Food = 4 ghosts, service = 3 ghosts for an average of 3.5 ghosts.

http://www.nikkosushibar.net/index.html