Jing Sushi in Richmond

It's hard for me to honestly rate this place. I ordered gyoza, tonkastu-don, and some nigiri. The gyoza was superb, it was exactly as good as I would expect it to be. The sushi I ordered (tamago, eel, and salmon) the tamago was good, not great, the texture of the egg was a little rough but tasted good, the salmon however tasted like it might have been old. The eel! The eel was amazing, honestly the high light of the entire meal. Sadly I only ordered 2 pieces of it. Now to the truly disappointing part. Donburi is a personal favorite of mine. I've probably eaten over a hundred don bowls, and this was easily the worst bowl I've ever had. The pork was so bland I could hardly tell it WAS pork. The rice had this taste to it that reminded me of plastic. And sadly the egg and onion did nothing to add any flavor to the dish. As I said at the top, it's hard to rate this,  because some of the dishes were great.  Just not all of them.

I love Jing and have been coming here for three years now. Their sushi is pretty good quality for the price and it's in a great location. However, tonight I went and ordered my usual two rolls and asked for my order to be ready "ASAP" (usually this means 10-15 minutes). It took over an hour and a half to get the rolls and when I asked for any clarification on when the order would be ready, I was given nothing. I was also not the only person out there. From any given time, there were 5-10 of us waiting for our orders. When looking inside, there was only one Sushi chef preparing orders and another person taking orders on the phone. I understand that it is COVID and there needs to be a certain level of social distancing, but that was borderline ridiculous. I might go back to Jing after the pandemic is over, but for now, they have lost my business.

Jing Sushi is the best and most authentic Japanese food I've had in RVA (which is funny, because I think the owners of Jing Sushi are Chinese). The sushi is excellent--I always get the salmon which is buttery and melts in your mouth. But their homestyle dishes stand out too. Katsudon is moist and tender and super filling, tastes just like okaasan (mom) would make it. Also don't miss the tempura udon, by some magic each fried shrimp is like 8 inches long and it always makes grin like a crazy person. The small location sometimes gets stormed by muggles on Friday evenings, but on weekdays it is an island of sanity.