Bamboo Sushi holds the distinction of being the first certified sustainable sushi bar in the world. You won’t find anything from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s red list here. For fans of buttery toro, beefy bluefin, and unagi, it’s time to weigh values against one another. Here, you know that what you order will have been fished responsibly, which also includes treatment of human workers. The freshwater eel industry in Korea, for instance, is riddled with Upton-Sinclairesque worker strife.

But even good intentions can become antagonistic if restaurant owners aren’t careful. Bamboo is classy and elemental, all glass and wood and low lighting, and platings are artful—but the service can be spotty. Also, it seems essential to wade through much table-tented dogma and guilt before ever putting that first piece of fish into your mouth. The high-mindedness can get a bit tiresome.

Owing in part to this hyperconsciousness, the sushi here does tend to be some of the freshest in town. Uni is properly served in smaller portions and not super cold; it’s buttermilky and briny, like a spray of Pacific surf. Safer tunas like yellowfin, skipjack, and albacore are less full of flavor than blood-rich bluefin, but worth retraining the palate for. Ama ebi (sweet shrimp) is always a rare, glutinous treat, and saba is wonderfully oily.

Wild salmon nigiri has been too lean and underwhelming, and wild hamachi, when in season, has periodically suffered from inelegant cuts; sometimes, it’s on the grain and sometimes, as is preferred, against.

Unfortunately, Bamboo Sushi seems to miss its own point by stuffing the majority of the menu with Westernized, muddy-tasting rolls that utterly mask the fish flavors. That Americans pay such a high premium for lower-quality cuts of fish mashed up with spices and mayonnaise must be baffling to economists.

Hot dishes are pretty successful, like soul-warming age dofu made with local Ota bean curd, and decent udon. The sake selection is terrific and diverse, but pricey, too, without a single bottle under $35. At least you get education for your money; the menu has a helpful guide to the levels of rice polishing and quality, as well as region. Apparently, fish aren’t the only species being looked out for at this well-meaning and accessible sushi restaurant.