Hiko-A-mon

The Ocean bento box at Hiko-A-mon features an assortment of sashimi and grilled fish. The spectacular feast served in a split-level tray would easily satisfy three diners if paired with an appetizer and a sushi roll. (Credit: Chris Hall, The Courier-Journal)

As a cuisine, sushi closely adheres to an aesthetic of delicate understatement. No matter how highly Americanized the atmosphere -- or how noisy the soundtrack -- the typical plate in a fine Japanese restaurant nearly always looks like a contemplative study in moderation: razor-thin slices of nigiri sushi carefully draped over hand-formed rice; rolls where every bright bead of fish roe seems to have been placed with surgical precision; translucent dabs of sashimi that seem designed as much for mindful meditation as for eating.

Hiko-A-mon, a new Japanese restaurant in Westport Village on Herr Lane, reflects traditional Japanese understatement while adding a bit of playful showmanship. In its graceful physical space, and the ingredients on the menu, it's decisively rooted in its Japanese identity. But Chef Hiko Nakanishi, a Kyoto native who previously wielded his knives at the Shogun Japanese Steakhouse on Westport Road, approaches those ingredients with a big-hearted, amped-up extravagance that's quintessentially and decadently American.

Pearly white pitchers of soy sauce line the sushi bar, made of deep green marble and bright metal. The dining room, set apart by a bank of glowing aquariums, is warm, intimate, and populated by burnished wooden tables. The front-of-house staff execute their duties with quiet, efficient attention.

The menu is straight from the Japanese canon, with a few dozen sushi roll and nigiri options, plenty of steamed, seared, grilled and fried appetizers, and a nice assortment of land (beef, pork, lamb and chicken), sea and noodle entrées flavored with ginger, sesame, soy and miso.

Hiko-A-mon's sushi rolls are meticulous and attractive -- but they can also be as thick and colorful as banana splits. The Crunch Munch ($10) is an over-the-top assembly of spicy crab, cooked shrimp and a pile of tempura flakes. The Kentucky roll ($10) looked like a yin-yang diagram -- large cucumber-wrapped coins were filled with crescents of salmon and tuna, separated by a central pool of red-flecked spicy crab -- each piece making a dangerously large mouthful, but tightly enough assembled to hold together when lifted on the points of a chopstick.

An appetizer called Pirates of Japanese Sea ($8) had as much swashbuckling whimsy as Davy Jones (the octopus-faced villain in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" flicks). Chunks and tentacles of fried squid and octopus were arrayed on the plate like the portrait of a king -- tentacles rising up to form a crusty (but excessively oily) golden crown. It was such a dramatic presentation that the drab cocktail sauce served alongside -- a standard horseradish-spiked ketchup -- seemed disappointingly pedestrian.

Just as lackluster was a lunch of stir-fried noodles, ($7.95). The portion was huge -- a nice mix of tender noodles, cabbage, carrots and slices of tender beef -- but the sauce, an out-of-the-bottle tonkatsu (a slightly sour Japanese version of Worcestershire sauce) was downright dull.

Not so the Ocean bento box ($35), a spectacular feast served in a split-level tray that would easily satisfy three diners if paired with an appetizer and a sushi roll. The top compartments contained a trio of perfectly grilled fish fillets -- teriyaki salmon, grilled yellowtail and a gorgeously charred piece of silver cod. The cod's luminous, silky flesh is infused with the subtle flavor of a saikyo miso -- a sweet, creamy soybean flavoring characteristic of Kyoto cuisine. (The dish is also available as a stand-alone entrée, $25.)

The bottom level, hidden below like the secret compartment of a treasure chest, yielded a trove of Chef Hiko's oversized sashimi cuts: generous triangles of deep red bluefin tuna, pale slabs of yellowtail and perfectly carved pieces of salmon.

Freelance restaurant critic Marty Rosen's review appears on Saturdays. You can e-mail him at cjdining@gmail.com.

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