Wilmington, North Carolina
I’ve had sushi in New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Tokyo. Genki is still the best.
I say that without qualification. This is a family-owned restaurant in Wilmington, North Carolina, run by a Chinese chef who was trained in Japan, and it is my favorite sushi restaurant on the planet. Not my favorite in Wilmington. My favorite. Period.
The Family
Chef Danny makes every single piece of sushi that comes out of that kitchen himself. His son assists as sous chef. His wife greets you at the door. His daughter serves tables. You will not find a hired-for-a-paycheck sushi team here — you’ll find a family that cares, and you can see the difference.
Watch Danny from the bar. He throws away pieces he doesn’t think are ready. He discards fish that doesn’t meet his standard. That level of care doesn’t exist at scale, which is why Genki will never have a second location and why the quality will never slip. You can’t franchise that.
When you walk in, the wife meets you at the door — friendly, competent, welcoming. The restaurant is clean in the way you’d expect from a Japanese establishment. I’ve never checked the health score, but if it doesn’t have a hundred, I don’t know what would.
The Bar or the Tables
I prefer the bar. From there you can watch Danny work, which is entertainment enough while you wait. I always start with a bowl of their miso soup — they make their own miso paste, from scratch, and it shows. Miso is a common soup at sushi restaurants. This is not a common miso. I could drink it by the gallon. I always get a green tea alongside it: light, needs no sweetener, warms you up. Occasionally I add a seaweed salad, but lately I just save room for the sushi.
Converting a Skeptic
My son didn’t start eating sushi until he was about sixteen. His first few experiences were at the kind of places high school kids go — affordable, accessible, fine for what they are. He was never impressed. One day he said to me: Dad, I know your food taste is rarely wrong, but I can’t figure out what you like about sushi.
I told him immediately: you’re going to the wrong place.
There’s a key difference between sushi and, say, a hamburger. An average hamburger is still satisfying. Average sushi is not. When it comes to sushi, it’s either really good or really bad, and the gap between those two things is enormous. I told him he needed to come to Genki and find out what sushi is supposed to taste like.
So we went. He ordered a hot fried dish as insurance, just in case. Then he started eating the sushi. His eyes got bigger and bigger. I watched it happen in real time — the moment sushi went from something he tolerated to something he understood. He even tried the eel, which required some courage. After one bite: oh yeah. You’re right.
That night I did not get my fill of sushi. He ate two thirds of it.
Genki converted my son into a believer that sushi, when done right, is a serious cuisine. It’s done that for a lot of people. It’ll do it for you too.
The Rolls
Let me be specific, because this deserves specifics.
Rainbow Naruto Maki — tuna, salmon, yellowtail, crab, and avocado, wrapped in cucumber instead of rice. The cucumber wrapper makes it harder to eat; chopstick precision is required. It is absolutely worth the effort.
Red Dragon — tuna and avocado topped with sliced tuna and spicy sauce. Double tuna. No notes.
Eel Roll — I always order an eel roll at Genki because they have the freshest eel I’ve encountered anywhere. Eel is a reliable indicator of a sushi restaurant’s quality. If they get it right, the rest will be good. If they don’t, move on. Genki gets it right.
Spicy Tuna Roll — a staple. Always good, always fresh.
A note on what I don’t order: I skip the crunchy rolls because the texture interferes with the flavor, and I skip anything with cream cheese. Cream cheese in sushi is an American invention, and it overpowers the fish. Great sushi doesn’t need it.
My usual order comes to roughly forty pieces. That’s my limit — unless someone at the table has leftovers, in which case the limit becomes theoretical.
The Dessert
I often skip dessert because forty pieces of sushi and a bowl of miso soup tends to settle the issue. Occasionally I’ll order their mochi — four flavors: vanilla bean, chocolate, green tea, and one other. They’re excellent, and true to Japanese style, they’re light enough that you don’t feel like you’ve ended the evening with a calorie catastrophe.
My favorite dessert at Genki, however, is one you have to get lucky to find: the wife’s coconut cake. She makes it herself, and it appears when it appears. American coconut cakes are heavy — delicious for three bites, then overwhelming. Her version is light, moist, lightly sweet, and perfectly balanced in a way that makes you want a second slice instead of a nap. It is so good that I once called ahead, ordered an entire cake for a birthday party, and it was the hit of the evening.
The Verdict
Chef Danny and his family run one of the finest restaurants I’ve ever visited — not one of the finest sushi restaurants, one of the finest restaurants. If it were up to me, Genki would have a Michelin star. The fact that it’s tucked into a strip mall in Wilmington, North Carolina is either the city’s best-kept secret or its greatest underappreciation.
You will never go wrong at Genki. Go. Sit at the bar. Watch Danny work. Order the eel.
The Menu
Genki — 4724 New Centre Dr Ste 5, Wilmington, NC Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi Chef: Danny Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
