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The text came in around noon on a Tuesday in late July: “Sushi-Wa tomorrow at 8?”
The message was sent by a friend who’d been stalking Resy.com for weeks. He finally found fortune via the reservation platform’s “Notify” feature, which acts as a digital waitlist.
Less than 36 hours later, we slid into the bar at Sushi-Wa in downtown Charleston for one of its 10 weekly seatings. The restaurant offers a traditional omakase, a Japanese format that features a multi-course meal mostly made up of nigiri, or raw fish sliced and set over rice.
With so few elements, each component must be masterfully composed for sushi spots like this one to achieve excellence.
The mound of rice should be firm and pliable at once, so that you can feel the slightly sweet and tangy taste of each individual grain without it falling apart in your fingers. The atmosphere should be relaxed but well appointed, and the fish must be well sourced and cut so that only the best pieces are part of the omakase.
Restaurants that harness these skills have the formula for success. Ones that blend this perfection of the small details with just the right amount of intrigue set themselves apart from the rest.
So, how does Sushi-Wa stack up to other omakase destinations like it?
Hokkaido scallop nigiri is served during a July dinner at Sushi-Wa in Charleston. Parker Milner/Staff
The backstory
Sushi-Wa opened in 2018, originally as part of the Workshop exploratory food hall that closed in 2021. It was around this time that the restaurant became the place customers know today.
Sushi-Wa, which stuck around in an adjacent box-shaped building next to the former food hall, shifted to an omakase-only service amid the pandemic. The decision instantly set the restaurant apart from most other sushi spots in the area.
Sushi-Wa doesn’t have menus. You simply walk in, sit down and wait for your sushi. Don’t expect to find chopsticks or saucers for soy, either.
Diners are asked to pick up each piece of nigiri with their hands to avoid smashing the rice. Subtle sauces and garnishes are placed within or atop the fish-and-rice cushions by the two men leading each service.
Chefs Kazu Murakami and Chris Schoedler cut and prepare sushi in front of patrons, providing a firsthand look at the nuance behind this style of service. The owners explain the pieces in between easy-going conversations that give the whole restaurant a dinner party vibe.
While the uncertainty of how many bites will come, and what they will be, might drive some diners crazy, others may enjoy the element of surprise. For me, few dining experiences are more thrilling — and Sushi-Wa’s take on the Japanese offering might just be the very best in the Charleston area.
Find Sushi-Wa at 1503 King St. Extension in the Pacific Box & Crate development next door to Edmund’s Oast Brewing Co. and Rancho Lewis, which occupies the former Workshop space. Just like the mixed-use compound they call home, which recently underwent a noticeable upfit under new owners, Sushi-Wa’s dining room has changed since the last time I visited four years ago.
Inside the doorway, a pair of shoji screens have been installed, shielding views of the 14 diners who occupy the sushi bar during each service. As outlined above, this is one of the hottest tickets in town, joining other local favorites — Merci, Vern’s, FIG — with reservations booked out weeks in advance.
That could have something to do with the fact that it’s one of just two omakase-only restaurants in Charleston. The other, Sushi | Bar Charleston, opened last year at 158 Church St.
There, chef Anthony Martin sources most of his fish from Japan, and it shows through the wonderful selection. The prime cuts headline an innovative journey that features plenty of distinct sauces and garnishes.
My dinner one night included Ora King salmon, sustainably raised in New Zealand and finished with bourbon barrel-smoked salt, and golden eye snapper, lit with a blow torch and adorned with a Japanese kabocha squash purée and crispy fried ginger. Snow crab was poached lightly in dashi butter and finished with togarashi spice and salty seaweed strips known as shio kombu.
Sushi-Wa, for its part, is more traditional and minimalist in its treatment of the fish. Sake is a focus, too, given Schoedler’s standing as one of the only certified sake sommeliers in the area.
Peruse the menu of Japanese rice wines — whose flavor profiles range from clean and crisp to fruity and aged — while settling in with a dressed sashimi salad. It’s composed of daily-changing pieces of fish that didn’t make the cut for the omakase.
The rest of the dinner is mainly made up of a shifting slate of nigiri, each piece prepared by Murakami and Schoedler. They do so while keeping the mood lively but casual in a way that feels genuine, not rehearsed.
Chef Chris Schoedler plates bluefin tuna with pickled wasabi at Sushi-Wa on April 28, 2022, in Charleston. Grace Beahm Alford/Staff
Vibes and value
Most meals start with madai, or red seabream, garnished with nothing more than a touch of lime zest. The citrus draws out a subtle sweetness that resides within the clean and crisp semi-firm fish.
Minutes later, taste yellowtail fired up by yuzu koshō or snappy cuttlefish with a touch of lemon and a sprinkle of Maldon salt. The hits keep coming with lean Mexican bluefin tuna marinated in soy and capped in shiso, and salmon from the Faroe Islands torched to soften an already-buttery pink slice of fish. Creations like these are followed by a burst of regional flavors from barely-boiled Tarvin Seafood shrimp nigiri and a North Carolina crab roll with American Hackleback caviar.
With just one piece delivered at a time, you might find yourself letting the bite linger for an extra second or two. Eating this way enables you to truly taste with purpose and retain the qualities you liked or didn’t like about a certain piece of fish.
The meal builds up to a crescendo, with many of the bolder bites saved for last. There’s a tender sliced scallop sourced from Hokkaido, Japan, and a roll of Snow crab seasoned with miso butter. Fatty bluefin tuna resembles the bellows on an accordion, the muscle alternating with silky fat like a good slice of otoro should.
Dinner culminates with wagyu beef, which gains a pop of salty freshness from shio kombu. The $15 add-on to the $120-per-person set menu, which features a small starter and 15 pieces of fish, ends the evening on a luxuriously memorable note.
Strong sushi selections can be found across Charleston at places like 167 Sushi Bar, Sushi | Bar, Shiki and Kanpai Japanese Restaurant. But Sushi-Wa is hands down the best of the bunch, with an omakase that stands up to top destinations in larger U.S. cities.
Only there, the meal costs at least twice as much.
Dining and Cooking