Hikari: Toyosu Fish and Wagyu on Harding Avenue

The toro arrives smoked, and the smoke is the first thing you notice, drifting up off bluefin that has been laid over caramelized onion soy and finished with fermented Fresno peppers. It is a dish that would be at home in a Tokyo basement or a Los Angeles sushi counter, and it is being served on a low rise commercial street in a Florida town barely a square mile across. Outside the window, Harding Avenue is doing what it does on a weeknight: families walking to dinner, the lights of Kosh across the road, the Atlantic two blocks east. Inside, the music is turned up and the room is dark and green. Hikari opens at five and does not stop.

The kitchen runs two programs at once and refuses to rank them. The raw side is the reason most people book. Sashimi and nigiri fish comes from the Toyosu market in Tokyo, the wholesale house that replaced Tsukiji, and the menu says so plainly rather than leaving it as an implication. Truffle tuna tataki is seared bluefin under truffle ponzu with crispy sweet potato underneath for texture. Hamachi jalapeno sets yellowtail against a jalapeno vinaigrette and candied garlic chips, sweet and sharp at once. Spicy seared albacore comes with spicy ponzu and sambal. The smoked toro sits above all of them and is priced accordingly.