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Lime-green lettering provides the sole spot of color on Kiku’s industrial-gray exterior, and it reflects a quiet but self-assured flair that extends to the tables inside.  Creative items such as the Angel Roll forgo rice and wrap spicy yellowtail, salmon, papaya, and avocado in a rice pancake instead; precisely arranged eel-and-avocado rolls, boasting more fish than rice, arrive on textured black platters. Likewise, the dark, sparse room — small black tables, stainless chairs, exposed-brick walls — radiates cool effortlessly. There’s no sushi bar per se, just a spotlighted counter where intensely focused chefs manipulate impeccably fresh fish into generous rolls and thick slabs. — Michael Kaminer

This Kiku (which, by the way, means “chrysanthemum” in Japanese) is unrelated to the other Brooklyn sushi restaurants that share its name.

Spring-mix salad with cinnamon–ponzu–olive oil sauce, $3.50; valentine roll, $10; spicy-tuna sashimi cucumber roll, $10