Midori Sushi: Green, Clean, the Perfect Scene

After a terrible meal at Charlie Brown's last week, and a not-so-stunning meal at Aposto, I was craving something new and preferably not so expensive. As my friend Eve and I walked along Raritan, we spotted Midori Sushi down the block and decided to go there. People all across town and even outside of Highland Park have raved about this restaurant to me. 

Walking inside, I was immediately impressed with the atmosphere. While some restaurants choose to have extremely bright or extremely dark colors, with TVs on, and bright lights, Midori was quite different. The relatively small place was painted different shades of green and white, all very soothing. Everything from the pieces of art to the lights to the real palm tree in the corner was calming, clean, and aesthetically pleasing. The music followed in the same fashion. Instead of a radio or TV, there was simply a CD with a piano playing in the background, adding an extra touch to the rest of the room. 

We were seated in the smaller room with only three tables directly off the main room. While I usually get really claustrophobic in small rooms, the large window to our right and the bright, colorful lights about us helped make the space seem bigger. When we were handed our menus, we decided we wanted to share dishes so as to each be able to try more. 

The menu looked quite delicious. The dishes ranged from soups and appetizers to sushi rolls, larger dishes, and desserts. Along with the book menu was another sheet with the specials, all of which, unfortunately, contained meat. We looked around in the menu to see what vegetarian options there were. We found a number of veggie appetizers, such as dumplings, spring rolls, soups and a salad. Even though most of the main dinner sections were meat or fish oriented, t

here was usually a vegetarian option under each one. 

We decided to order one vegetarian Teriyaki and one order of avocado sushi rolls. With these two selections they brought a bowl of miso soup as well as a small salad (with a great ginger dressing). When they brought our dishes, our mouths began to water. The Teriyaki looked so delicious and flavorful, we couldn't wait to dig in, though I did manage to snap a picture before starting.

It contained mushrooms, zucchini, onions, broccoli, and peppers, accompanied by two slices of orange, carrot, and parsley. We decided a few bites in that the onions and broccoli were definitely our favorite part. Both were perfectly succulent, but the onions in particular were amazing. You know how often when you cook raw onions, they still sting your eyes a little or give your mouth that sour-onion taste? Well these onions didn't. They were perfect. They were crunchy but not too spicy, and they didn't make me feel like I would just smell like onions afterwards. 

The avocado rolls were great, too. They were a simple platter of six pieces of sushi, each with rice and avocado wrapped in nori. They were served with soy sauce and wasabi, both of which complimented the sushi nicely. After finishing two delightful dishes, we decided we couldn't just stop eating. We proceeded to order Midori's fried ice cream, because Eve had never tried it before.

When they brought it, we were just as excited as before we had eaten anything. It looked yummy, cut in half on a plate with a delicate portion of whipped cream between the halves. We pretty much scarfed it down in less than five minutes, unable to pace ourselves with this delight. 

We got the check a few minutes later, and we shocked to find that our three order added up to a total of only $19.20. It was a miracle! Finally some really tasty food that didn't force me to scrape up every penny I had! Eve and I stared at each other in our moment of disbelief before paying and leaving, happy to know another restaurant to return to. 

Rating: out of ★★★★★ (✫=1/2)

Food: ★★★★✫

Service:★★★★✫

Atmosphere: ★★★★★

Vegetarian Variety: ★★

Midori Sushi

237 Raritan Avenue

Highland Park, NJ 08904

(732)246-4511

www.midorisushinj.com