A popular Japanese restaurant in Rockville Maryland closed this month, with their last day being Mother’s Day. I had never been to the restaurant before, but I love Japanese food and decided to go while I could. I quickly found out why Hinode Japanese Restaurant was such a beloved restaurant. It was top notch.

While I had heard Hinode was closing a couple of weeks before they did, I was not able to get to the restaurant until their very last day. As it was also Mother’s Day, I was worried that I would have a long wait. I did have to wait but it was fairly short, around 10 to 15 minutes. The owner was at the front of the store, greeting people and letting them know that wait times will be more than usual. She seemed to be relieved to be retiring after operating a restaurant for over 30 years.

Appetizers

Hinode was known for their sushi. However, their menu has much more than that. My focus will be on the Japanese items on the menu, but they also had Chinese items as well. Their appetizers section included common Japanese small fare such as yakitori, gyoza (a type of dumpling made with either meat or vegetables), and tempura.

But it also had less common, but classic, Japanese dishes such as Negimaki (onion wrapped in beef seasoned with a teriyaki sauce) and fried tofu called Age Tofu (pronounced ah-gey). Salads included Edamame (soy beans), seaweed, and Oshinko ( Daikon radish and cucumber). I am a big fan of Age Tofu but rarely see it. So I jumped at the chance to have some. Hinode’s version had big, crisp pieces that were soft on the inside and covered in a light, slightly sweet, teriyaki sauce. It was delicious.

Entrees

Besides their sushi, Hinode had a full range of Japanese bento boxes and entrees. Bentos included katsu (fried cuts of meat), teriyaki ( chicken, shrimp, or salmon) Strip Steak. Along with the main item, Bento boxes contained tempura, California Rolls, and miso soup. Entrees choices also included katsu and teriyaki. Sukiyaki is another entree. The menu calls it a soup, but I’ve always thought of it more of a stew. Regardless, it’s in that category of dish. My entree came with miso soup, so I assume all of them did.

But I was there for the sushi and that is what I got. Their “All you can eat” sushi was popular, but I went another route: the Chef’s Selection. This came in two options: regular or deluxe. Regular comes with 6 pieces of nigiri sushi while the deluxe comes with 10. Both include 6 California rolls. I chose the deluxe. It was a very good assortment of sushi containing many of my favorites: tuna (akami and maguro), salmon (sake), shrimp (ebi), and cooked eel (unagi). Another item preset was octopus (tako). It’s not at the top of my favorites but still a sushi I enjoy . Overall, I don’t think I could of picked a better selection if I had tried. The sushi was fresh and expertly made. I’ve been to “all you can eat” sushi places where the sushi sits out for a while. Not so here. This was high quality sushi.

Drinks and Desserts

In addition to beer, soda, juice, and water, Hinode had a small assortment of Japanese beverages. This included both hot and cold sake, Asian beers, and hot green tea. Also in the non-alcoholic department was Ramune Japanese Soda. Green tea is a personal favorite, so I drank that. But not hot. Hinode had iced green tea, which I had not had before. With a strong green tea taste, It was cold and refreshing. I loved it.

The dessert options were ice cream, both regular and mochi, or fried bananas. The ice cream choices were green tea, chocolate, red bean and vanilla. Red bean is an Asian flavor that I do not see often so I chose that. The ice cream was creamy and the red bean taste is subtle (like most Japanese desserts). I liked the result. I great way to end a meal.

Atmosphere

I really liked the decor of Hinode. It quite tasteful and reminded me of restaurants in Japan. As I mentioned above, I had only a short wait before getting seated, although it did get longer later in the evening. The owner was vary gracious and did inform customers that the food would take longer to prepare than usual. I did not experience that. I waited a bit before my order was taken, but once taken the food came out promptly. The couple sitting behind me did not have such good luck, though. They commented that it took an hour for their first sushi order to come out. The management apologized, as apparently the order got misplaced. Many other customers, I assume regulars, did tell the owner and staff that the they will be missed.

Final Thoughts

I can see why Hinode was such a beloved restaurant. The ambience is great, the selection is good, the sushi is high quality, and the staff is friendly and welcoming. If I had known about it before, I would have been a regular.