The stretch of Mass. Ave. in Cambridge near the Arlington line is hardly the first place anyone might think to look for a serene dining experience, but that's exactly what is on offer at Hana Sushi. The restaurant has occupied the space for years, but new owners took it over in July, then closed for three months for extensive renovations. Now the spot looks completely different, though the name stayed the same.
"Everything was so old," says Jason Jeon, who is co-owner with his brother Sean, the sushi chef. "We had to tear it all out."
The new look suits Hana; cream colored walls, dark-wood tables, a window seat covered with pillows upholstered in an apple-blossom design, stone floors and a stone counter for the sushi bar all give Hana's long, narrow space a sleek, stylish, calm appearance. A large square of rice paper decorated in a leaf pattern covers some overhead light fixtures, suffusing the illumination and giving the room a pleasant glow.
The food, happily, is as pretty as the place. Jason Jeon, who was born in South Korea and raised in nearby Arlington, managed a Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles for several years before moving back. "We want to bring more of a California feeling to the food," he says.
That might explain why cucumber and avocado maki ($4.25 for six pieces) is a huge serving, bursting with chunks of avocado. All of the standards you'd expect to find at a Japanese restaurant are here, along with a few Korean dishes. (Jeon's father owns the Korean market Han Areum on the same block as the restaurant.)
Shrimp and vegetable tempura appetizer ($5.50) is a generous helping of two large shrimp, rounds of butternut squash, broccoli florets, and carrots, in a batter that is light, delicately crunchy, and not at all greasy. The scallion pancake ($5.95) has a tang from buckwheat batter and is bursting with scallions, onions, and carrots. It's another big portion - enough to be a satisfying lunch. Tuna tataki ($9.95), thin slices of seared fish, comes on a bed of shredded daikon with ponzu sauce. It's a very appealing pairing of flavors and textures. Only the shumai ($4.95 for six) are disappointing; the dumplings have too much dough, too little filling.
Our eyes keep straying to the sushi menu, but before we jump in, we try the salmon teriyaki entree ($12.95). Bathed in a teriyaki glaze, the fish is moist and flavorful, accompanied by miso soup, rice, and a generous portion of vegetables - broccoli, asparagus, and chunks of butternut squash.
Hana's generosity spills over into the sushi. An order of nigiri sushi gets you two large pieces of fish blanketing pillows of rice - you actually can't see the rice because the fish is completely draped over it. The yellowtail ($4.95), salmon ($4.75), and tuna ($4.95) are glistening and fresh.
The special rolls, though, are really something special. The caterpillar ($7.95 for six pieces) is gorgeous to look at; it's eel and cucumber topped by bright-green avocado slices, presented in one long line on the plate. The rainbow roll ($7.95) is lovely too: a crabmeat center wrapped in nori and rice, with strips of tuna, salmon, and whitefish wound around the outside. It's less a rainbow than a sunrise, but why quibble when it's so ridiculously good?
For dessert, there's ice cream - green tea, ginger, red bean, green tea mochi, and strawberry mochi ($3). The pretty light-pink strawberry mochi - strawberry ice cream balls covered in chewy rice paste - is a sweet, refreshing end to the meal.
The staff is very friendly (in a good way) and unfailingly polite, and if this all isn't enough, Jeon says as the weather warms up, they'll be enlarging the sushi menu with more LA-influenced specialty rolls. I'm California dreamin' on a winter's day.
