Modai

smells musty. expensive for stl. confused service. awkward atmosphere. traditional vietnamese immigrants who have the grandpa sitting at the back of the restaurant. i dont have a problem with this as it is normal in many places in asia. but, this does not jive with the hipster atmosphere they are going for. i normally dont care about the environment or service, but in this case, it really detracts from the food, which is not good to start with.
sushi is sub-​par in taste and freshness.

I like Modai. I’ve been there many times. The Modai Edamame is absolutely delicious. Rather than just put salt on the edamame, they put crushed red pepper and some other stuff so it’s got a little spice to it. It’s so good, and I don’t know why other sushi joints haven’t thought to do a similar thing. You can’t get such good, unique edamame anywhere else!
I think the sushi is good also. Sometimes they seemed to change around the recipes for certain rolls. So we’d really like the spicy tuna roll sometimes but other times it wasn’t as good. But overall I think the sushi was better than other places around that area. I don’t know if they still have it on their menu, but the fried ghost roll was really good.
The drinks are also really unique and yummy. There’s one with crushed kiwi in it that’s very tasty. It’d be a great place to go for drinks with friends because you’d never have to fight for a drink at the bar, and the drinks are great and never watered down.
From my experience Modai is usually pretty empty, but that’s probably because they are sort of on the outskirts of the Loop area, so the foot traffic isn’t as heavy as other parts of the Loop. And while it can be a little more pricey than some other STL sushi places, I think it’s much better than the other sushi restaurants in the Loop. I went to the other sushi restaurant in the Loop and it was awful. I don’t know why people go there — probably because it’s just got a better location. But Modai is definitely good and unique, and I’d definitely recommend that people give it a try.

I visited Modai on a Friday night around 6:00 PM and we were the only diners in the place. It looked like a hipster hangout, but with an overflow of plants from Grandma’s house and lots of dust. The menu was pricier than other sushi restaurants in St. Louis, but we were given free miso soup with our order (ME LIKES miso soup).
We ordered several rolls, including California (seemed to be pre-​made a day ahead) and Philadelphia (the salmon wasn’t fresh).
The eel roll was the only roll that seemed okay, but with eel, if it doesn’t smell it’s hard to tell. The shrimp tempura was greasy, but we’ve been experiencing greasy tempura at many of the local sushi joints lately. So, we may rule tempura out altogether. This wasn’t a thriller.

We sat by the window on very cool couches. The vibe is hip, but when we went it was totally dead. It worked for me, as I wanted to relax, but I wonder if this speaks to the lack of business they always get? Not sure.
The sushi was fine, but like Christy I. said, not all that memorable. We got the standard California rolls and Shrimp Tempura. Fine, but the ambiance and seating was the real draw for me.

My parents came to visit, and being fairly new to STL we decided to try out Modai based on a recommendation from my husband’s co-​worker. It’s a cute little place with a full bar… looks like a nice place to hang out with friends for drinks. However, I would definitely NOT be going back for dinner. Sushi rolls were ok (can’t remember the names, but we tried one with eel and advocado, one with spicy tuna, and the one with soft shelled crab), but non-​sushi menu items were a definite NO-​GO. For some odd reason, we were craving shrimp so we ordered the shrimp cocktail as an appetizer (yes, I know, not a typical Japanese dish). The shrimp was sauteed with green peppers, mushrooms, and onions. (This should have been a warning since generally shrimp cocktail is just boiled shrimp served cold with cocktail sauce — although this one did come with cocktail sauce.) My husband ordered the chicken teriyaki, which didn’t resemble any teriyaki dish we’ve seen in California. This order had dried up pieces of chicken (looked like it was cooked twice or something), was sauteed the same way as the «shrimp cocktail», and seasoned with the same type of sauce, which isn’t the usual slightly sweet teriyaki sauce we’ve grown accustomed to. My dad ordered the seafood teriyaki, which was also cooked up the same way as the «shrimp cocktail» and chicken dish! I also ordered the tempura entrée, but my order of tempura was never brought out, so I can’t comment on it. (Luckily, mom didn’t order anything off the dinner menu.) We decided to just get the check and finish dinner somewhere else.
To be fair, some other table ordered sashimi and sushi (nigiri style, not rolls), which looked good when the server brought it out. Guess we should have stuck to the sushi/​sashimi menu.

One of the «I’m trying very hard to be hip» modern Japanese sushi bars. Large dining hall downstairs. Sushi in cities such as stl is a little rough.