Category Archives: Sushi Bars

Jade Sushi & New Asian

Posted on by

KFC

Lan-sanity

Stormtrooper

Hamachi truffle

Interior

**** (4 stars)

This is an attractive restaurant with a nice, open, modern decor. They offer a lot of creative sushi and sashimi preparations, plus a variety of hot dishes including Korean, Chinese and others. So it’s not really fusion, but it does offer a nice variety.

Service can get backed up, but our waitress was friendly, and the sushi was good. My favorite was the hamachi truffle, which was barely seared, and had some delicious crispy bits of garlic on it.

Jade Sushi & New Asian
2425 Edgewater Dr
Orlando, FL 32804
(407) 422-7968
https://www.yelp.com/biz/jade-sushi-and-new-asian-orlando

Kome Japanese Chinese and Sushi Bar

Posted on by

Soup and salad

Salmon teriyaki box

Interior

Exterior

*** (3 stars)

This area of Metrowest needs a Chinese restaurant, so I was surprised when the one that previously occupied this space went out of business. This one has potential, but so far is not as good.

We tried it for lunch, and the service was friendly, and the kitchen was very fast. The lunch boxes are a good deal because most include soup, salad and a bento box with sushi, rice, three large wonton triangles stuffed with cream cheese and deep fried, and your entree.

The salad with ginger dressing was the best item. Salmon teriyaki was a bit fishy, as was the California roll. Overall the meal had that heavy oily sense you sometimes get from Chinese food.

There are five tables, but most of the business is probably “to go” or perhaps delivery. The price was reasonable for the large amount of food.

Kome Japanese Chinese and Sushi Bar
2407 S Hiawassee Rd
Orlando, FL 32835
(407) 299-8687
https://www.yelp.com/biz/kome-japanese-chinese-and-sushi-bar-orlando

Beijing & Tokyo

Posted on by

Polly roll and spicy salmon roll

Pad Thai

Yellowtail jalapeno (seared)

Exterior

Interior

Menu

Lunch menu

**** (4 stars)

This small mall-based restaurant offers sushi, Chinese, Thai and other Asian cuisines. Although it describes itself as Fusion cuisine, there aren’t actually any blendings of cuisines, just a variety.

The quality of the sushi we had was very good, and the Pad Thai was also nicely done, although it could have used lime instead of the small slice of lemon.

The place is very clean, and the service was friendly.

Beijing & Tokyo
16112 Marsh Rd
Ste 413
Winter Garden, FL 34787
(407) 654-3800
https://www.yelp.com/biz/beijing-and-tokyo-winter-garden

Kona Grill

Posted on by

Wasabi salmon

Exterior

Interior

***** (5 stars)

I really loved everything about this place.

The interior decor is wonderful, with separate areas for sushi bar, regular dining, hightops, a long bar facing the street through large plate glass windows, and considerable sidewalk dining. It should be noted that at lunch only about 20% of the place was filled and it wasn’t quiet, so I can imagine it could be very noisy on a popular night.

The menu is extensive and eclectic, ranging from sandwich and salads to Italian, and an entire side devoted to sushi. We tried a spicy yellow tail roll and a sunrise roll, and they were both pretty good, but the wasabi salmon sashimi we started with was a home run. Really excellent flavors and consistency.

I also really like my Oriental salad (isn’t that no longer politically correct?) which was mostly a huge volcano of shredded cabbage with a delicious vinaigrette and some crunchy noodle bits.

Service seemed a bit tentative, but was friendly and effective. The kitchen and sushi bar are not speedy, so don’t go on a tight lunch hour.

Kona Grill
110 S Orlando Ave
Ste 12
Winter Park, FL 32789
(407) 900-0100
https://www.yelp.com/biz/kona-grill-winter-park

Friends Sushi

Posted on by

**** (4 stars)

This stylish sushi restaurant offers some very inventive rolls and attentive service.

We started with the salmon carpaccio: thin slices of salmon served over greens in a soy dressing. It was very good, although I thought the dressing could have used a touch more rice wine vinegar for sweetness.

Then we shared three rolls. Each was unique, and they went together well.

“Sweet & Spicy” combined eel, cucumber, and salmon, but the piquant kick of the dollop of red sauce was what made it interesting.

In the “Jimmai” the hamachi, cilantro and seabass were really complemented by the smokiness of the grilled asparagus.

Our favorite roll was the very unusual “Ticky Tacky” where the predominant flavors came not from the king crab or tender thin octopus topping, but rather the mint leaf and wasabi mayo. That one packed quite a delicious kick.

There are many additional specialty rolls on the menu that we’ll need to check out next time.

Friends Sushi
710 N Rush St
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 787-8998
http://www.yelp.com/biz/friends-sushi-chicago

Naoki

Posted on by

***** (5 stars)

I’ve had sushi all over the world, and some of it at very high end places. It seems most great cities have some exciting sushi places that focus on high quality sashimi, so I’ve always been surprised that I couldn’t find a similar experience in Chicago, even though I tried all the highly rated suspects. So I was happy to see that Naoki now fills that gap.

Located in the former private dining room of L2O and Intro, and accessible only by literally walking through the kitchen, Naoki is a refined and fairly intimate space with a small sushi bar and about a dozen tables.

Clearly the thing to have here is the Naoki-Style Sashimi. These dishes each consist of five pieces of fish dressed with a subtle drizzle of sauce and topped with one or two morsels to enhance them. The two standouts were Salmon with spicy Ginger Soy and Endive, and the Hamachi with Aja Panca, Scallion and Ponzu. These range from $15 to $24 and are well worth the price.

The Edamame “Guac” was an interesting appetizer; it’s fluorescent green, packs a slight kick, and is served with rice crisps. Tuna Tacos were fine, but the two very small tacos seemed extremely overpriced.

The regular sashimi offerings we had and the rainbow roll were no different than you’d get at many other restaurants, so stick with the Naoki-Style sashimi.

A thoughtful list of cocktails, sake, and some superb Japanese whiskies is supplemented by a short but excellent list of wines by the glass, and more offerings by the bottle. Standout beverages included the Six Corner Sling and the Nikka Taketsuru whiskey.

Service was helpful and attentive. Noise levels are energetic but not unreasonable.

Naoki
2300 N. Lincoln Park West
Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 868-0002
http://www.yelp.com/biz/naoki-chicago

Yoshi Sushi Bar

Posted on by

*** (3 stars)

This is a perfectly fine neighborhood sushi bar. Fish quality is good, and the preparations are professional.

All of the fish selections for the sashimi lunch were fresh tasting and it was a nice assortment. There is a large assortment of rolls available as choices on the sushi lunch.

The Tuna Kobachi was a fairly small serving, and the very thinly sliced avocado was a bit hard to deal with, but the flavors were good.

Service was very friendly and welcoming.

Yoshi Sushi Bar
11127 W. Colonial Dr
Ocoee, FL 34761
(407) 347-0521
http://www.yelp.com/biz/yoshi-sushi-bar-ocoee

Seito Sushi

Posted on by

**** (4 stars)

This is a beautiful restaurant, both inside and out. Like many of the Baldwin Park restaurants it has a great sidewalk dining area that is covered and shaded.

There is an extensive list of interesting sushi rolls, and an even more extensive “roll-odex” you can request.

We started with garlic lime edamame, a very generous serving with an equally generous amount of garlic. We also tried the tuna kobachi, which was less generous, and was missing the usual avocado. It consisted of spicy tuna cubes with a few pickles; oddly, the pickles seemed more American than Japanese.

We tried four rolls, and liked them all. The most interesting was the Smoking’ 808, which was served under a smoke filled lid that imparted an exotic flavor.

There are several excellent sushi restaurants in the area, but unlike some of the others, Seito is open for lunch on Sundays, and it is certainly a pleasant spot to enjoy a relaxed meal outside.

Seito Sushi
4898 New Broad St
Orlando, FL 32814
(407) 898-8801
http://www.yelp.com/biz/seito-sushi-orlando-3

Niu Japanese Fusion Lounge

Posted on by

**** (4 stars)

This is a beautiful, large, expensive looking space, so it’s not surprising that prices are pretty high. I loved the way each item was served a bit more nicely than in the other sushi  places in town: miso soup was in a large, stylish bowl, and was a generous serving. The salad that came with lunch was an elaborate collection of mixed greens plus a couple of slices of peppers served with a much more delicate dressing than the normal ginger glop.

But when the sushi lunch set arrived, it looked pretty stingy: just four pieces of nigiri, and four coins of California roll. Not much for $14.

Fortunately I’d ordered another roll, the Mellow Yellow, and it was huge, with ten large slices for its reasonable $7 price.

I loved the tea service, with Genmai tea (the kind with the puffed rice) in a glass pot, served with a tiny glass cup and saucer.

Service was friendly, although if the place had more than a half dozen customers I’m not sure how the relatively slow sushi prep would have kept up.

Niu Japanese Fusion Lounge
332 E Illinois St
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 527-2888
http://www.yelp.com/biz/niu-japanese-fusion-lounge-chicago