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Best Bargain Restaurants: Tachibana

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Tachibana
Arlington

The show is better at the sushi bar, where Tachibana's skilled sushi chefs deftly slice and roll their beautifully fresh fish, but the attentive and efficient service ensures that any seat in this restaurant is a good one.

At the bar you'll find some of the most communicative sushi chefs in the city--most are happy to give advice or make recommendations about what is fresh or unusual. In addition to the usual nigiri sushi, an oblong ball of rice with wasabi and fish on top, and maki sushi rolls, rolled sushi such as the familiar California roll, try the hand rolls, for which the seaweed is rolled into an ice-cream-cone shape. Spicy tuna is delicious in this form.

If you don't want sushi, there's still plenty to choose from. Gyoza, fried beef dumplings, are very good. Among the specialties here are nabemono, one-dish meals of vegetables, seafood, and tofu, served and often cooked in large clay pots. Sukiyaki, made with beef, is the nabemono most familiar to Americans, but a seafood variety (yosenabe), and a chicken-and-vegetable version (mizutaki) are also available. Teriyaki preparations are very well executed, particularly the salmon teriyaki with its crisp skin and moist flesh. Tempura has, on recent visits, been disappointing.

Tachibana , 4050 Lee Highway, Arlington; 703/528-1122. Open Monday through Thursday 11:30 am to 2 pm and 5 to 10:30 pm, Friday 11:30 am to 2 pm and 5 to 10:30 pm, Saturday 5 to 10:30 pm. AE, D, DC, MC, V. (In mid-May, Tachibana will move to 6715 Lowell Avenue in McLean.) MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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