It's a good honest specimen of a dying breed around these parts: an American-Chinese restaurant where you can go with a paperback on a damp, chilly day, sit down, and get a cup of hot and sour soup for lunch (they actually do this very well), a spring roll, and a plate of something spicy and reasonably tasty with rice for six or seven dollars.

Entering FuGaKyu (“house of exquisite elegance”) is like walking into the Japanese pavilion at the World's Fair; it doesn't exactly feel authentic, but it's cool nonetheless. The first floor of the impeccably decorated two-story space is composed of a slick black and red bar, a large sushi bar, complete with conveyor-belt-delivered condiments, and a number of private, bamboo-screened booths (you should call ahead to reserve one); the airy upper floor offers a more conventional, cozy table layout. The enormous menu is long on just about everything, including pages and pages of sushi options that may easily confuse the uninitiated (individual pieces $1.50-$3.75, mixed platters $17-$21), beyond sushi there are noodle dishes ($13) and specialties of the house ($15-$20). Sample the house special chocolate wrap -- a banana wrapped with a chocolate omelette and batter fried. Note the remarkably long hours; this is surely your best bet for sushi in Brookline at one o'clock in the morning.