Caviar wishes and California roll dreams at J-Home Sushi Experience near Vicenza

How I ended up at J-Home Sushi Experience has to do with a missed bus stop and the nagging sense of responsibility to scout out sushi spots for my wife before she joins me in Italy later this year.

Also, while some longtime residents of the Vicenza area kindly directed me to look for housing in one of the little villages along the Berici Hills, the walkable dining options near the home we settled on about 25 minutes south of Caserma Ederle are somewhat limited.

I mean mainly pizza and pasta from what I can tell, and I imagine that readers who’ve been here a bit longer than I have may be either bored of such fare or already set on their favorite purveyors of those national culinary treasures.

So I ended up stepping off the bus at the wrong stop in Ponte di Nanto the other day and happened upon J-Home Sushi Experience on my walk home, stopping briefly to admire its glass-enclosed patios jutting out on either side of the entrance.

Ah, yes, sushi, a cuisine that I, a corn-fed Midwesterner, have been preparing my whole life to review. No doubt readers who’ve been stationed in Japan will trust my taste in this matter. After all, I’ve gone to Tokyo on temporary duty sometime in this century.

I returned the next day to check it out, a bit early for dinner when I entered the restaurant. The dark-walled dining room was empty. Two men were busy at work preparing sushi behind a counter, while a hurried waitress boxed up a takeout order.

It was a bit too warm and muggy inside, but a family was dining on the patio, where I noted a pleasant breeze and settled in at a table for two that the English-speaking server guided me to.

Not long after that, she returned with the tiny dishes of ginger and wasabi, a small porcelain cruet of soy sauce and, as a complimentary aperitif, a glass of chilled prosecco beaded with condensation.

Perusing the extensive menu of more than 220 numbered items, I went for the all-you-can-eat option, available for lunch or dinner. That does not include drinks, dessert or off-menu requests.

The potentially belly-busting deal costs about 16 euros at lunchtime and about 27 euros for the evening meal, with a reduced price of about 17 euros for kids under age 4 and no taller than 3-foot-11.

I didn’t want to fill up on the appetizers, salads, pastas, rice, sashimi, ceviche or various Asian-style dishes on offer. I went straight for the nigiri and maki. Well, right after a longish wait for the server to return.

Overall, the service was fine, but I did feel ever so slightly underattended as one of only two parties on the patio at the time, though I was not terribly bothered by the relaxed pace.

And, silver lining: When I did place each of several rounds of sushi orders, even after the patio grew busy with more patrons, I had little time to wait before the server would set before me a long, narrow dish arrayed with cuts of fish.

First came the chef’s choice, omakase. It consisted of two pieces of tuna nigiri, one of salmon, one of sea bass, one of red prawn and three specialty pieces featuring seared salmon, garnishes and teriyaki- or mayonnaise-based sauces.

Maybe it was not my night, or maybe we can chalk it up to the fish’s extreme freshness, but I struggled to taste the salmon or tuna, ordinarily my favorites.

The specialty pieces gave more gusto, though perhaps more because of the tangy and creamy sauces than the rice or fish.

I also ordered a California roll, mainly because I thought it could serve as a good barometer for those Americans who, unlike me, have not had the broadening experience of a sushi dinner during a weeklong trip to Japan more than two decades ago.

Not going to lie, I liked the California roll best that night — the slightly sweet flavor of the rice, the creamy avocado, the saltiness of the nori seaweed.

I briefly considered ordering a few roe-filled gunkan sushi for a rich, briny experience I had not had in years, probably since my 2001 trip to Yokota Air Base. But I really wanted to give the nigiri another chance and ordered two more salmon pieces instead.

Slowly and ever so mindfully, I bit into the silky, bright pink-orange fish, noting a faint buttery flavor. How much is a sushi chef responsible for a flavorless cut of fish? I don’t know, but nevertheless, I was a bit underwhelmed.

After that letdown, I chose to shock my palate by going in a different direction, ordering an in-season specialty of crispy pieces of salmon hosomaki, the smallest type of sushi roll, topped with dollops of cream cheese and strawberry chunks.

I imagined it might be like a strawberry vinaigrette on a salty salmon bite, which intrigued me. Sadly, it did not deliver.

Nothing tied together the flavors, which the rich cream cheese dominated. It could have used some acidity or tanginess to cut through the fat and bring out the berries’ sweetness.

On my last sips of a tall Sapporo, I ordered a roll featuring crispy zucchini blossom tempura and salmon, which may have been nearly as good of an end to the night as a second California roll.

In the end, I wasn’t too full to stop for a gelato up the road and not so let down by the sushi experience that I won’t return with my wife for alfresco dining and to hunt for more flavorful gems among the hundreds of menu items not named for U.S. states.

J-Home Sushi Experience

Address: Via A. Bembo 34, Nato, Italy

Hours: Daily, noon-2:30 p.m. and 7-11:30 p.m., except closed Mondays for lunch.

Price: 4 to 11 euros for appetizers, 1.50 to 3 euros per piece for sushi, 4 to 15 euros for various other dishes. Takeout orders get a 20% discount.

Information: +39 0444 183 9929, www.jhome.it