This new sushi restaurant is on a roll – and definitely on-trend

Mark Twain never actually said that line about things happening in Cincinnati 20 years after everyplace else. At least no one ever proved he did. And even if he said it, he never wrote it down. Still, I thought of the falsely attributed quotation when a plate of corn ribs arrived at my table at Baru – a very on-trend sushi restaurant that opened inside the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp.’s 84.51° building – earlier this year.

Instead of two decades, it only took two years for corn ribs to happen in Cincinnati. While a version of the dish was served at David Chang's Momofuku restaurant in New York as far back as 2017, they didn’t enter the national consciousness until they went viral on TikTok in 2021. After that, the dish slowly made its way onto restaurant menus nationwide before popping up, not a moment too soon, in the Queen City.

The “ribs” are thin strips of corn husk with the corn still intact, making it feel as if you're nibbling salty spice kernels off an actual bone. The version at Baru, which costs $9, is sprinkled with togarashi salt (a seven-spice salt made with a blend of peppers, sesame seeds, ginger, citrus peel and nori) and brushed with sweet chili sauce. Like any good rib, they make you want to nibble every single bit of “meat” off the bone.

Introducing 'darkroom-core'

Those corn ribs aren’t the only reason Baru is among the more on-trend restaurants in Cincinnati right now. Take a look at the menu and you’ll see how it plays off the tempura rock shrimp ($16) made famous by the chef Nobu Matsuhisa at his Nobu restaurants – how the bar menu nods to America’s current obsessions with espresso martinis and Japanese whisky highballs. A recent New York Times article even credited Baru as being at the forefront of something called “darkroom-core,” an emerging restaurant trend of “dim interiors lit primarily in red.” According to Jennifer Guerin, a color consultant the Times interviewed for the piece, red evokes associations of “sexiness and dangers.”

Since I haven’t visited after sunset, I’ve yet to experience Baru in full sexy-danger mode. But I have witnessed the liquid-filled, teardrop-shaped lights bounce up and down over the bar and the Tokyo nightclub vibe that walks the line between cool and casual.

Executive chef Robert Grace said Baru shouldn’t intimidate unsexy people like myself. While it might appeal to the younger customer looking to live it up with friends after work or embark on a first internet date, it can also feel like a welcomed escape for older, schlubbier folks like me. (Sitting at the bar, I sort of felt like Bill Murray in “Lost in Translation.”)

And late-night revelers should definitely take advantage of Baru’s hours. The kitchen closes at 11 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends.

Fun with food

On a recent visit, my wife, Amy, and our friends Adam and Carrie decided to try Baru's ishiyaki-style dishes wherein customers cook their choice of proteins over a heated clay surface. We splurged for the Sakura Farms American wagyu ($40), though you can opt for Scottish farm-raised salmon ($26) or yellowfin tuna ($36). Yes, the wagyu beef was as mouthwateringly good as we thought it would be, but it was the experience of cooking it on our own that made it special.

Along with the ishiyaki, the food here is mostly quite good. That tempura-fried rock shrimp I mentioned above – tossed in spicy mayo and drizzled with eel sauce – was so good that I almost ordered seconds. The firm, buttery hamachi topped with ponzu, serrano, jalapeno and cilantro ($16) we ordered had a spicy punch that didn’t distract from the freshness of the fish itself.

How's the sushi?

Now let’s get to what most people come here for – the sushi. First, a disclaimer: When it comes to sushi, I am not the foremost expert in the word or, for that matter, the foremost expert in Hamilton County. Yes, I’ve eaten and rather enjoyed grocery-store sushi while parked in the Kroger parking lot, eating it with my hands. I’ve even scoffed down gas station sushi without regret. That said, I do have some standards when I’m paying more than 7 bucks for it.

For me, good sushi simply means that the rice is flavorful enough to eat on its own, served a bit warm or at room temperature – because I know that the quality of the rice is almost as important as the quality of the fish, which should be firm, fresh-tasting and hopefully treated as almost sacred by the chef who prepared it. Structurally speaking, I know that it’s a red flag if the rolls disintegrate in the grip of my chopsticks.

Grace, who commutes to Cincinnati from Nashville, said he and chef Sammy Kim, who lives here, use mostly wild-caught fish, though some, including the salmon, are farm raised. To get a true taste of what they're doing, Grace suggests customers order the composed nigiri (a bit of rice topped with fresh fish, or in Baru's case, wagyu beef or a quail egg.) "We just brush it with soy and it's ready to go," he said. Grace is also proud that Baru offers fresh wasabi, which is a far cry from the powdered artificially colored stuff with which you might be more familiar.

Among the maki rolls at Baru, the stunner is no doubt the trifecta roll ($28), which arrives wrapped in Kool-Aid-lime-green soy paper filled with tuna, hamachi, escolar, tobiko and soy pearls that resemble deep amber tapioca bubbles. While that roll won on appearances, I think the tart, citrusy yellowtail tuna in yuzu rice ($16) was my favorite.

While many of the dishes might pander to the Instagram and TikTok set, most of what I’ve ordered tasted as good as it looked. While Grace and Kim know the colorful and sometimes curious dishes they create practically beg for influencer attention, Grace draws the line when someone’s quest to get a perfect shot interferes with the customer experience, noting a recent incident when someone brought in an entire lighting system to capture the moment.

Speaking of the customer experience, it is generally good at Baru, especially when it comes to the front-of-house staff, which, each time I’ve visited, has treated me like a long-lost family member who’s finally come home. That said, on my first visit to Baru, where I dined alone at the bar, my server seemed exasperated and icy. I'm usually forgiving of this kind of thing (everyone has bad days), but given the size of the bar, which takes up half the restaurant, it’s important to have people behind it who can set the tone, especially for a place this new.

Thankfully, my second visit provided the complete opposite experience, with the front-of-house staff offering yet another warm welcome (no, they didn't know who I was or why I was there) and our server, Marcus, providing casual but knowledgeable service, with a few good self-effacing jokes, to boot. After all, no matter how on-trend a restaurant might be, no matter how good its food is or how sexy its dining room is – it’s the service that keeps people coming back. You can quote me on that.

Baru, 595 Race St., Downtown, 513-246-0150, barusushi.com.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Baru sushi restaurant in downtown Cincinnati is trendy, on a roll