To say that SEI restaurant in Washington, DC is a sushi restaurant doesn’t do it justice. Yes, it has some pretty terrific and beautifully prepared sushi. But what makes this Penn Quarter gem glitter beyond its white and amber decor is the inventiveness of the small plates on the menu.

Building a meal around these eclectic dishes is not easy, only because there are so many intriguing choices. And since there were just two of us at the table, we didn’t come close to sampling all that we wanted to try. But we savored each dish that we did order.

The sashimi pizza has a thin crust and is topped with salmon, tuna, yellowtail, shrimp, salmon roe and wasabi aioli. It was hard to distinguish the flavors, but it was gorgeous and fun to eat.

The lamb chop with red curry was as tasty as it was pretty. It was accompanied by Indian Idli, which tastes like polenta and was the perfect foil for the smooth sauce.

Though they were out of the pork buns, we consoled ourselves with Korean tacos. Short rib meat was paired with kimchee in corn tortillas, and though they didn’t wipe out my longing for a Momofuku style pork treat, the tacos were tasty.

The duck edamame hash was presented in a mold and topped with a perfectly cooked fried egg.  We were loath to break it, but once we did, we devoured it.

We also enjoyed the Triple Tuna sushi roll, just to be sure that SEI does sushi well. They do.

Other offerings we wanted to try but didn’t have room for in our stomach? Seven pepper tots (tator tots served with sriracha honey ketchup), tuna poke with wonton chips, wasabi guacamole, and fried rice cakes with kimchee.

I had the opportunity to meet sommelier Andrew Stover at the DrinkLocal Wine conference in St. Louis last month, as he sipped his way through the weekend looking for Missouri wines to bring to DC. He has a passion and commitment to regional wines, which is evident from the inclusion of wines from Michigan, New York, Virginia and New Mexico on the restaurant’s wine list.

Service was unusual. There seemed to be a tag team system, which in theory is a good idea because diners are never ignored. But we found it to be a bit annoying. Each of the two servers on our team kept coming to our table, asking the same questions (would you like a drink, ready to order?), as though the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing.

The food ruled the evening though, and I am anxious to try SEI’s older sibling, OYA on my next visit to DC.