Would you believe me if I told you the Holy Grail was in Statesboro?

Nikko Japanese Steak & Seafood

Cuisine: Japanese

Price: $2-20

Separate bar: No

Takeout: Yes

Coke or Pepsi Products: Coke

Address: 701 Piedmont Loop, Statesboro, GA‎

Phone: 912.489.4003‎

He says: A little loud at times, but hands down the best sushi I've had so far

OK, close your eyes and think about where you would think you would find the best sushi. Morimoto's restaurant? Maybe somewhere on the west coast or Hawaii? Well, you're wrong (at least as far as I'm concerned). The best sushi is in Hickville...I mean Rednecktown...I mean, Statesboro, Georgia.

Seriously. I've eaten sushi at this place for almost 3 years now and I've yet to leave thinking "Ya know, they didn't seem to be on their A-game tonight." They give you monster pieces and they are always rolled to perfection. If you've never had sushi before or want a place to take a sushi virgin this is the place to do it. If you don't like the sushi here then you'll never like it. Their tea was excellent, their wait staff is always on the spot and the food is out quick even on the busy nights.

That being said, there are a couple of small things that bothered me on this trip. They've recently moved to this new location and while it looks nice, the open floor plan will sometimes lead to it getting a little louder than I would prefer. The other place was a little more intimate. The main thing that bothers me about their new place is a lack of booths. Granted, they didn't even have booths at their other location so this is a step in the right direction, but I don't know anyone who wouldn't prefer a booth over a table. If you're going during the weekend try and beat the dinner rush by getting there a little early so you can claim a big comfy booth. The only other thing that bothered us was that the door didn't close all the way for some reason tonight. There was a 5 or 6 inch gap and cold air was blowing on us most of the night, but this has never happened before so I'm gonna chalk that up to a one time fluke.

We ordered our usual - the sushi dinner, consisting of an order of crunch rolls, eel, white fish, and crab, along with a separate order of teriyaki chicken. Right off the bat our waitress told us that they were a little overwhelmed at the sushi counter so it may be a few minutes longer than normal before we got out order. This scored big time brownie points with me. There's nothing I hate more than sitting in a restaurant tapping my foot and looking at my watch wondering where the heck my food is. If it's going to take a few minutes normal than longer, just tell me. Then I know y'all are just busy instead of being slow. There's a big difference.

Even after telling us it would take longer than normal, I swear our food came out as fast as it normally does. It was fantastic as usual, except for the crab. I don't know how the crab was. It could have tasted like dish soap, road kill or dog poop, but I'll never know. Why you ask? Because Licia ate my piece. I'm just going to assume that when she ate her piece, it tasted so bad that she didn't want me to go through the suffering so she took one for the team and ate the other piece for me. That's the only reason I can think of as to why she would deny me the pleasure of sampling that night's piece. This woman has told me she loves me before. I'll just leave it at that. /bitter

Taste: Five noms

Plating/Appearance of Food: Five noms

Service: Five noms

Cleanliness: Five nom

Atmosphere: Four noms

Overall Noms: 4.8 noms

She Says: "It's cool, the sushi chefs are used to us by now."

If it's a Friday and Will and I are in Statesboro, you will find us at Nikkos. Just ask the wait staff. If you've been reading the blog from the beginning, then you already know Nikko's is the reason Will and I started reviewing restaurants in Savannah (and you also get a gold star). Nikko's is the place we both first tried sushi and for that reason alone, I don't think it will ever be beat.

This particular Friday, we were accompanied by Will's parents (Celeste and Bunk), his brother (Cree) and his brother's fiance (Gina). If you know anything about Bunk and Celeste, you know that Will inherited the perfect food critiquing gene from them. He gets his price questioning skills from Bunk, a man who may or may not have "who can buy the cheapest lunch" competitions, and gets his restaurant judgement skills from Celeste, who judges a place based on two things: how good the sweet tea is, and whether her glass has a good ice to drink ratio. Their methods may sound like madness, but trust me . . . they work like a charm.

With company in tow, we sat down and ordered drinks. Our waitress was fast and the ice ratio was perfect, so we went ahead and ordered. Will and I got our usual sushi dinner (which is the sushi dinner special with our own substitutions): eight pieces of nigiri (three eel, three white fish, and two crab) and a crunch roll (fried shrimp wrapped in a roll with cucumber and a spicy sauce). Our waitress (as usual) told us there would be extra cost for making changes to the sushi dinner on the menu. This may seem like a small thing to people, but it goes a long way in my book. Not once have we ever made substitutions without our waitress or waiter telling us there would be an extra charge. Most nights, they will even go back to the chefs, get the exact dollar amount, and report back to us before even placing the order.

After waiting a while (which didn't really seem like a long time, because our waitress let us know before we ordered that the sushi chefs were a bit behind), our sushi came. I got excited . . . a little too excited. The good conversation mixed with the fabulous sushi in front of me made me forget which sushi pieces were mine. Before I knew it, I committed the ultimate sushi no-no: I ate a piece of Will's crab nigiri. But don't worry ladies and gentlemen, he made me pay for it . . . by reminding me every minute for the rest of the night that he had a hankering for crab. But the crab was so good, that I really didn't care. I made up for it by giving him a piece of my crab the following week. At least I didn't forget to toast the last piece of crunch roll like somebody I know . . .

All in all, Nikkos has it all: good service, great sushi, and glasses that stay perfectly iced.

Taste: Five noms

Plating/Appearance of Food: Five noms

Service: Five noms

Cleanliness: Five noms

Atmosphere: Four noms

Overall Noms: 4.8 noms