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SOMETIMES the most ordinary-looking restaurants turn out to be surprisingly pleasant places in which to dine. Izu Sushi Japanese Restaurant in Long Branch is one of them. Sandwiched between a nail salon and a Chinese takeout place, it has all the hallmarks of strip mall décor: a neon “open” sign in the window and a flat-screen television mostly tuned to sports. So why, then, does Izu attract so many regulars that Paul Liu, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Julie Zhu, has recently renovated the space next door to accommodate them?

The main reason is, of course, the quality of the sushi. The joke about sushi is that it’s good if it doesn’t taste like fish; some people even say it doesn’t taste like anything. Let them try Izu’s salmon. Lush and sweet, it has a gentle ocean flavor. Wrapped, along with avocado, in brown rice sprinkled with sesame seeds, it becomes irresistible. The avocado and the salmon are both rich and light; I felt as if I were eating whipped cream.

Another reason Izu draws crowds is the pleasure of sitting in its large and roomy booths even before the first dish appears. Like people, restaurants have personalities that extend beyond their physical attributes. Izu’s is caring. Shy and barely fluent in English, Mr. Liu seems to recognize his customers’ needs before they do. Within moments of our party’s ordering several complex rolls but no appetizers, he appeared at our table with edamame for us to nibble while we waited.

When the rolls arrived, they were excellent. Purists object to American-style sushi — by which they mean ungainly rolls filled with seemingly random ingredients like peanuts or cream cheese. I’ve heard of steak sushi, Spam sushi, even sushi made with macaroni and cheese. The rolls at Izu are more civilized, and the choice of ingredients more sane.

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My favorite is the AK-47. Like the gun, it’s a marvel of intricate parts that includes lightly seared tuna, spicy yellowtail and creamy avocado. The wonder of this roll is that it allows you to taste the less assertive ingredients, the tuna and yellowtail, in spite of the more aggressive ones, the black pepper that coats the tuna and the chopped jalapeño peppers planted in the rice. Only after you’ve tasted all the other ingredients do the jalapeños deliver their final pow.

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Another popular roll is the Izu, which, like the restaurant, is named after the peninsula west of Tokyo from which Mount Fuji can be seen. The pleasures of this roll are subtle. One of them is fluke, whose delicate flavor is also easily overwhelmed. Here, too, Izu’s chefs prove themselves experts at culinary engineering. They place the fluke outside the roll, where it makes a sweet and memorable first impression.