It once was hard to fathom a day when we'd look at sushi as commonplace,routine, even boring, but that day probably came when it took up a spot inaisle 9 at Publix. Looking to restore a bit of the wonder is the successfulchef-owner team of Michael Schwartz and Myles Chefetz, whose Nemo is one ofSouth Beach's best, and whose casual Big Pink across the street nabs a bigpiece of the post-beach crowd.

Their new venture is Shoji Sushi, adjacent to Nemo but a hemisphere away inconcept. Nemo is American nouvelle; Shoji is being marketed as``Neo-Japanese,'' which apparently is intended to mean sushi, teriyaki,tempura and other Japanese favorites done in new and exciting ways.

The place is every bit as stylish as Nemo. Interesting things are done withcolor and light, and the two dining rooms pack in maximum seating with only alittle crowding. The center stage is a wall-to-wall sushi bar, where four orfive chefs busy themselves with fish but still find the time to loudly shoutirashai, Japanese for ``welcome,'' when a new customer walks in.

And plenty are walking in. Even early on a steamy Saturday evening, theplace was packed with patrons including the dashing Anthony Hopkins, dining ina secluded spot near the impeccably decorated restroom.

Shoji has a vast menu devoted almost entirely to seafood, but there aresome creative things done with chicken, and especially, beef. An appetizer ofgrilled skirt steak ($8) features bits of tender beef lovingly marinated withsoy and lime, tossed with tiny enoki mushrooms and scallions and served overgreens. The skirt steak appears again in an entr?e ($14), again most tender,simply grilled and served with a huge basket of steamed vegetables or aplatter of stir-fried ones, white rice and an over-sweet but good teriyakisauce.

Miso soup ($4) is not a giveaway here like in many Japanese places, butit's worth a try, a large bowl with scattered chunks of tofu, spinach andshiitake mushrooms. Add poached oysters and it's $6.50, but you might bebetter off oyster-wise with the simple fresh oyster on the half-shell, $2.50each, the little jewel frosted with masago, flecked with scallion and thencoated with a Japanese mignonette, a tomato sauce with ponzu, a citrus, soy,rice wine and vinegar mix.

You probably haven't seen an appetizer of shoshito, fried Japanese pepperswith sea salt ($5.50), but you must get it. These small green peppers are bothspicy and sweet, and they're cooked to a delightful texture. The coarse saltis just right. Another don't-miss starter: the delicate and delicious steamedAlaskan black cod ($11), a bowl of sesame-soy broth with a respectable-sizepiece of snow-white fish and many enoki mushrooms; turn it into a soup if youlike, the broth is that good. Fried calamari ($8) is a generous serving andstandard, except the dip is a wasabi mayo rather than the marinara you usuallysee.

Traditionalists will be delighted with shrimp and vegetable tempura($14.50), light of batter and deep of flavor, especially the tender pieces ofbroccoli. Four jumbo shrimp might seem too few for the price, but you'repaying for style, right? And prices here are quite fair, overall.

A Maine lobster entr?e ($21), brought grilled at the server's suggestionrather than steamed, didn't work: The meat should be tender and sweet, but itwas chewy, dry and rather flavorless, despite a palette of five colorful andexcellent dipping sauces served on the side - kimchi, miso, sweet soy,teriyaki and ponzu.

We're not avoiding sushi; we're saving it for last. You can assemble yourplate a la carte, with 21 sushi-sashimi selections; opt for a combo; even getit in a ceviche, the fish marinated with citrus and other acids. The mostcreative way, though, seems to be a list of nearly 20 special sushi rolls.Pick four or five, set the platter in the center of the table, and you've gotdinner for three for about $50.

We tried five. An odd note: The rolls tended to fall apart easily andresponded better to finger handling than chopsticks. But flavors wereexcellent. Best was a surprise: a vegetarian one of cooked eggplant with misoand garlic ($8), warm and homey with a wonderfully soft texture. Alsooutstanding was hamachi jalape?o ($9), yellowtail with daikon sprouts,asparagus and avocado, wrapped with cilantro, and the plate dotted with pulpygreen jalape?o sauce for dipping. Another winner was the California blue, thestandard California roll but with chunks of Maryland blue crab ($10.75)instead of the pallid surimi you usually find.

Spicy tuna roll ($8) gets an interesting twist from burdock root, alongwith avocado, sprouts and chili mayo, as well as tiny rods of salty carrot.And the Shoji special roll ($11) matches the blue crab with hearts of palm andscallion, tying all together with miso.

Desserts are overseen by Nemo's award-winning pastry chef, Hedy Goldsmith,and are therefore not particularly Japanese, save green-tea flavoredcheesecake. But you can still finish light with creative homemade sorbets($5); pink grapefruit was tart punctuation on a new statement by a crackerjackteam.