Aoba

Team Delicatessen checked out Aoba which recently opened on Blake Street between 15th and 16th downtown in the former Organixx spot. We both tried the lunch special (2 rolls for $9 or 3 for $12, includes choice of miso soup or salad.) Reviewer #1 thought a couple of items tasted fishy. Reviewer #2 thought the rolls tasted like the average roll at average, more affordable sushi joints around town. Basically, if you want better fish, there are better-tasting places that are more worth your money, and if you want to spend less, there are places that taste roughly the same for less.

Service is attentive, the room is lovely, the lunch price is reasonable. Just not a whole lot stood out for us to be dying to go back right away.

The Aoba space is revised from Organixx, with dark wood floors and a mix of tall-backed upholstered booths and four-top tables. There's a sushi bar in back leading to the kitchen, and flat-screen TVs have been installed so you can keep an eye on the game.

Here's our thoughts on what we had:

_ Miso soup: Yummy, with Japanese mushroom
_ Salad: Reviewer #1 finished the whole thing, but when R#1 was done eating, there was a soup of dressing at the bottom of the bowl. Too much dressing.
_ Reviewer#2 didn't get too crazy: tuna+avocado roll, salmon+avocado roll, eel+avocado. The eel was the favorite. The tuna was fine, and the salmon didn't have much taste whatsoever, kind of tasted like water
_ Reviewer#1 had spicy tuna and jalapeno+yellowtail. Both were quite mild, even the jalapeno roll, with the tiniest bit of bite. Other choices for the lunch option included mango+salmon! We should've tried it

Have you tried Aoba yet? What do you think?