tABI SUSHI

No... The weird lowercase uppercase name ain't a typo. It's how they have it on their website... Someone musta fat finga'd that gash big time. And speaking of website, they have declared themselves to have "Decatur's freshest sushi." That is a big claim with Brush being so close by. I know for a fact that Brush has some of the best sushi in Atlanta, let alone just in Decatur. And now, it sounds like they have a big time competitor in their mist with that bold claim.
So, this is a concept change by the same owners of Smoke+Duck Sauce... I was never a big fan of the place, it was just too weird, they were trying to push fusion to a whole new level but it fell flat for me. After awhile, I guess they realized it wasn't working in this location so they went back to a normal sushi/ramen/fusion concept. It may look normal and familiar at first but once you start flipping through the pages of the menu you will notice they are trying to please everybody. You start with the sushi, makimonos and house specialty rolls then the ramen and some izakaya items like ankimo and karaage, then there's teriyaki, Japanese kare rice, traditional fried rice, Indonesian fried rice, island noodles... And if that's not enough, "We can do spicy as your likin'". Spicy level from 1 to 10 is available for anything on the menu. Jesus, can they create a concept that is more confusing than the first? 
Since, I was in the area, I stopped in to see what the fuss was about and to sample a few things. They were also "offering customers half off all dine-in sushi through next Friday, June 8."... Shit, why the fuck not, ese. Let's go take a gander... The place looked basically the same as before except that they put in a counter top sooshee cooler. The more I looked around the more depressed I got... And the smell, it was like dining in a janitor's closet. Sat down and examined the menu more closely... There is no tonkotsu ramen. WTF. They don't even have chashu or anything pork related on the menu. Fuck me, don't tell me they're Jewish and don't dig on swine... This religious freedom bullshit has gone too far. You can't have ramen without pork bones and chashu, motherfuckers! 
Why do shit like this always happen to me... How the fuck do I get into these predicaments... Wait, why would you open a Japanese joint with no pork, that's like opening a burger joint serving only the impossible burger. Shit, since I'm here already I might as well subject this fat body to another dose of IBS-D for my one reader... I'm doing this for the childrens.
C'mon, it can't be that bad, right? ...Famous last words.

Ginger Salad, Miso Soup. Look at these two retards... A match made in special orympics. I can already tell that instant miso soup is so fucking watered down. The ginger dressing looked like my dog's vomit after eating a rotten pumpkin. Ok, the ginger dressing wasn't that bad since it was factory made. The greens were fine, didn't notice any slimy brown spots. The miso soup was... Well, let's just say they wouldn't even serve that swill at a soup kitchen, even they have some standards.

*Sushi 2, 7 pieces nigiri and tuna roll. When this arrived at the table, I had an instant craving for Publix sooshee all of the sudden... This exhibit looked like they pulled this from the window display case. Is it real or plastic? Look at that dismal display... Can they use a smaller plate to jam all the pieces together. It's like the cook was trying to create a sushi Voltron... This presentation almost made me Vomit. The nigiri was warm and it brought back repressed memories of the hives I got from eating warm sushi from some sushi dump in midtown years ago. I was already preparing myself to slam down 6 Benadryls when I got home. The rice on the tuna roll which were pressed against each other like mahjong pieces were all stuck together... When you try to pull them apart, it unraveled like a fruit roll up. Speaking of which the tuna inside kinda tasted like a gummy fruit roll. The fish on the nigiri wasn't putrid but it was like eating your mate's sloppy seconds on the same night... I wouldn't have mind it if I was drunk but I was still fucking sober... This is one of those times when you wished you were beer goggling. Instead of doing the walk of shame the next morning, I did it like 20 minzies later. The sooshee here is not good, don't even waste your time when Publix is down the street.
Let's do a quick picture comparison of "Decatur's freshest sushi" with Brush Sushi 5 minutes away...

Can anyone tell the difference between the Brush sampler vs. tABI sampler? I know it's a tough call between the two but I'm gonna have to give it to Brush's nigiri sampler. Let's see what other goodies we have in store for Decatur's newest and freshest sushi...

Spider Roll, soft shell crab, cucumber, eel sauce. This may be the only roll that I will eat and pay for but what's wrong with this picture? Where the fuck are the crab legs? Dissected a piece and it turned out to be a shrimp tempura roll. Took a bite and the shrimp was so dried out and rubbery like it was deep fried during prep and kept in a warm box for hours... Boy, I wished I had some eel sauce to soften it and mask the non-existent flavor with a heavy drizzle of over cloyingly sweet brown sauce. The server was nice enough to go find out what kinda creasture it was and she comes back with an incredible answer... She said the chef told her it was, ready for this... Lobster. Motherfuckers... Not only do you do a bait and switch, but you also have the balls to insult my intelligence. Ok, I'm not a smart man but I know what lobster is. They try to make it look like they did me a favor with a higher cost item. I took the ebi from the nigiri sampler and put it next to the "lobster" I pulled out and they looked exactly the same and they were still adamant that it was lobster. We just hit rock bottom, nowhere else to go except up... Right? Let's try the ramen...

Shoyu Ramen with Brisket. So, I asked the server why they don't have tonkotsu or chashu up in this piece... She says the owner doesn't like pork. So, what's the ramen broth base then... Chicken? She replies, fish. I'm like what other broth base do you have? She says that's it, it's just fish broth. You use fish broth even if you got the brisket or oxtail ramen? Yep. This is incredible... I have never witnessed this ever in my life. Come to think of it, there was no pork to be found anywhere on the menus. I get it now... The Indonesian fried rice gave it away. Thank god we have religious freedom here or else people would be demanding them to make a pork broth. Ok, let's get to the ramen... The brisket actually looked pretty decent. Took a bite and it was pretty good, I couldn't believe it, this was the first edible thing all night. Could it get better? I like how they give you a full egg cut in half, ok, it wasn't as runny as I would have liked it but it worked. The menma was very average, flavorless and textureless, it added nothing to this sparse bowl of noodles. The ramen noodles itself was toothy and had a decent bite... It's no Sun Noodle but it was acceptable and edible at least. The shoyu fish broth was weak as fuck. It did nothing except to keep the ingredients moist and they had the balls to charge $14 for this sad ass bowl. I can doctor up a good instant ramen for like $2 and it would totally destroy this overpriced lackluster bowl of wet noods. Don't even waste your time with the ramen here because it ain't ramen.

I would rather they kept the Smoke+Duck Sauce theme than to spend time and money to change the concept to try to appease the demographics with really pedestrian and middling Japanese food... Shit, this is not even close. Golden Corral is more Japanese than this joint, at least they have pork. Desperate times call for desperate means... And this ain't it. Leave the sushi and ramen to the professionals. What a shame and what a waste of resto space that coulda been so much more for this area. They didn't even honor the 1/2 off sooshee... Maybe that's because it wasn't sushi. It's a win win for them! Bless their heart.

2641 N Decatur Rd
Decatur, GA 30033
https://www.tabisushi.com/