Cloud Sushi

Downtown Truckee · Sushi · $$ · 10130 West River St · www.cloudsushitruckee.com · Wed–Sat 12pm–7:15pm

There's a small yellow building with green trim parked right next to the train tracks in downtown Truckee, and inside it, chef Josh Brown is making some of the best nigiri you'll find anywhere in Tahoe — or, frankly, San Francisco. I finally made it to Cloud Sushi after years of it being something of a white whale for me, a spot that for its first three years was only open on Wednesdays. It's now open four days a week, and I'm kicking myself for waiting this long.

The fish is the story here: buttery, soft, perfectly cut, and dressed the way nigiri should be — the rice matters as much as what's on top of it. The Cloud Nine Roll ($18.25) — tempura green onion and avocado topped with hamachi, sesame, crispy nori, and yuzu tobiko, sweet ponzu on the side — is a standout. So is the seaweed salad, flecked with kombu and topped with slices of watermelon radish. And the wasabi is fresh-ground from the root, which should be table stakes for sushi spots that aspire and almost never is.

Nothing about the menu overreaches. Wednesdays bring $5 hand rolls, and the picnic tables out front fill with locals who clearly like keeping this one to themselves.

I don't blame them.