Faith in Sushi Restored at Nakashima of Japan

Holmgren Way is home to several of Green Bay’s greatest sports bars, but it’s also home to Nakashima of Japan– a sushi bar and hibachi location hiding between tall apartments and a hotel. The building is easily identifiable when you’re driving along in the daylight. My husband and I went after a Packers game once pre-pandemic to wait out the traffic. We enjoyed ourselves, but we hadn’t been back since then.

My mother was in town. She’s also a big sushi person. Living in rural central Illinois limits her sushi options, however, so we brought her to Nakashima originally to experience their hibachi. We didn’t make a reservation. The wait would have been an hour. This is to be expected with hibachi, especially so when the restaurant expresses problems with being short staffed in a small sign at the door when you arrive.

I was too hungry to wait an hour for an open table, so we decided to go to their sushi room for dinner. The restaurant has largely converted to a QR code menu, but paper menus are available for those that aren’t accustomed to QR menus such as my mother. Nakashima has a sister restaurant in Appleton that allows for a Yakiniku experience– that isn’t available at the Green Bay location.

We began by ordering our drinks. My husband and I are both Kirin Ichiban people when it comes to beer at a sushi bar. My mom has a deep love for hot sake, and Nakashima is one of the few places that offered it to her right out of the gate. This made her so happy when she asked for sake. They served it to her in the traditional glass and ceramic bottle.

When it came to food, we decided to order the things that appealed to us each individually and share them across the table. Appetizers of calamari tempura and agedashi tofu were ordered to begin our meal. Squid tempura is a common appetizer at most of Green Bay’s sushi restaurants, and we knew we were in good hands when ours arrived at Nakashima. The tempura crust was light and crispy, and the chili aioli that came with it was delicate enough for my poor spice tolerance.

Agedashi tofu is a less common appetizer in town, but it’s not unusual on sushi menus. The light tempura sauce with it is perhaps the most interesting part. Agedashi tofu is a fried tofu– in this case covered in what I believe is their tempura batter. The tempura sauce is well balanced and dark, tasty with really anything else that arrives later in the meal. The agedashi tofu itself is a dueling texture sort of item, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. It made my mother, traumatized by my grandmother’s dieting tofu craze, a little less critical of the soybean product.

Then came the actual sushi. We ordered an array to suit our individual preferences and share them amongst each other. I test most sushi places by their negi hamachi– or yellowtail– when it appears on the menu. We were spoiled by a Japan born sushi master in the middle of nowhere Illinois that made such delicious negi hamachi that I learned to love sushi nearly ten years ago now. I have generally been disappointed by the yellowtail I’ve tried at sushi places ever since– from the east coast to the midwest.

The negi hamachi at Nakashima tasted fresh, and the nori wrap complimented the fish at the center of the sushi very well. I ate at least half of the roll on my own as I experienced my deep love for this simple maki roll for the first time in a long time. I kept myself to this roll almost entirely after eating a lot of the appetizers.

My mom ordered an Unakyu roll with eel at the center. She expected eel to be laid across the roll, but was happy with what came to her. Eel is her favorite at any sushi place. My husband, meanwhile, went for the rainbow roll as he often does. The rainbow roll at Nakashima comes with a variety of sashimi cut fish draped over the top. It isn’t described individually on the menu, which I believe allows the chef to choose the best cuts for the roll day to day. Salmon and tuna were clearly identifiable on the roll that night.

He also ordered a roll with soft shell crab stuffed into the middle– an attractive option for anybody who may be intimidated by the raw ingredients in the other rolls. I wanted to try it so badly– but my appetite isn’t what it used to be. Given my experience with the negi hamachi, I am positive this was also a delicious choice.

Despite being short staffed, it was clear that the serving staff at Nakashima pushes themselves to provide the best experience they can for their diners under the circumstances. I never felt ignored. The sushi came out beautifully, and our drinks were tended to in a timely manner. A water decanter is delivered at the start of the meal, so if you aren’t going through cocktails quickly, you’ll be just fine.

Nakashima is one of the best sushi experiences in town, and it restored my faith in midwestern sushi after a rough time at Sushi Lover in March. Going back with my mother that week reminded my husband and I exactly what we were missing by often restricting ourselves to the east side of town. Nakashima, we’ll be back. Thank you for a delicious meal.