Taste Test: Under-the-radar sushi near Dupont Circle

A new sushi spot is flying under the radar near Dupont Circle — but given the generous lunch specials and dramatic flair (cue flaming nigiri) it won't be overlooked for long.

Why it matters: Umai Nori is a rare temaki (hand roll) restaurant that hits a creative sweet spot between the city's pricey omakase counters and standard sushi dens.

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Dig in: Chef and co-owner Sonny Lee knows his way around a whole fish — we caught him butchering behind the bar — thanks to a lifelong career as a sushi chef.

• Lee moved to the United States to open Yuraku restaurant in NYC with his dad in the '80s and ran a spinoff in Germantown, Maryland, for two decades.

The vibe: A sleek hidden gem, tucked off 20th and M streets. There are 40-odd seats between the white marble sushi counter backlit in neon violet (the best perch to catch the action) and tables across two levels.

• We visited during lunch and even then, the place felt lively thanks to Lee serving heaping hand rolls across the counter and searing fish with a hand torch while customers dug in.

Lunchtime sashimi set. Photo: Anna Spiegel/Axios

Best bites: Lunch specials that could easily serve two (a good plan if you want to try more à la carte dishes). We indulged in the sashimi teishoku meal set.

• At $29 it's pricier than the bentos and roll combos. But it felt like a bargain feast given the quality of the sashimi — prime cuts of tuna, toro, yellowtail, and salmon — and bounty of accompaniments like dumpling soup, rice, pickles, a crispy hand roll, and crackling basket of shrimp-and-vegetable tempura.

What to try: Creative temaki.

• The taco-size hand rolls are a bit unwieldy — maybe skip if you're on a first date — but they're packed with fun flavors and textures like torched salmon with guacamole and coconut flakes or hamachi crudo with shiso, scallion, and beet chips.

Sashimi in the lunch set (left) and hand roll. Photo: Anna Spiegel/Axios

The intrigue: The menu is big — seven pages of apps, samplers, robata, and rolls.

• Admittedly, we just grazed the surface. I want to try the sushi or sashimi samplers that have D.C. TikTokers raving.

Go: Umai Nori , 1147 20th St NW. Open for lunch and dinner, closed Sunday (Note: On summer break until Aug. 19).