Review: Tiga in Port Washington
With its Brooklyn style and rock and roll vibe — all signature rolls are named after bands, musicians, or songs — you can expect great things to land on your table with frequency at Tiga. The bustling five-year-old spot puts chefs Roy Kurniawan and Dhani Diastika center stage — or center sushi bar — for nightly performances accomplished with skill, humor and frequently, propane torches.
Rolls are playful and creative, with specials pairing unexpected ingredients like salmon, Brussels sprouts, sweet potato crisps, and Parmigiano-Reggiano in rice paper with a truffle yuzu aioli, a recent highlight. Popular mainstays include the Sweet Jane (after the Cowboy Junkies song) featuring kani salad on the inside topped with seared salmon and spicy barbecue sauce.
The Grandwazoo (album, Frank Zappa) has spicy scallop, avocado, masago and crunch all rolled up in a layer of squid that Kurniawan blasts with a blowtorch until it is deeply browned.
The Phish Sandwich is a spicy tuna roll with avocado, tobiko, bonito, and sweet soy, cut on the diagonal, mimicking an actual tuna sandwich. The Big Mac (cue the McDonalds jingle) adds kani salad to the Phish Sandwich mix, and is cut into squares like mini-sushi-lasagnas. Sure, there are classic rolls and sashimi combos, but with so much excellent experimentation, why bother?
The loud, cozy dining room is always a tough reservation to score. Don’t miss hot apps like the spicy dumpling soup loaded with meaty pork purses and mushrooms in a fiery broth, the fall-off-the-bone baby back ribs with a tangy pineapple-plum sauce and Japanese slaw, and the beef and white truffle dumplings with chili, ponzu and sesame. Pair with sake or cocktails, sit back, and enjoy the entire experience, easily one of the best sushi rides on the Island.
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