SUSHI ZUSHI

I’ll never turn down trying a new sushi spot in town. So, when I heard about Sushi Zushi, new on the South Hill, I made it there as fast as I could. The interior is very clean with seating along the sushi bar and a large menu with plenty of options for non sushi lovers too. The first thing I noticed were the reasonable prices. It seems like often times when we leave a sushi restaurant, the bill is crazy high and you don’t get to eat that much. Sushi Zushi prices their rolls very reasonable and they are big and filling. You get a great bang for your buck when eating here. Overall, the rolls had wonderful flavors with the perfect amount of spice. (Except the Liberty Lake roll, only order this if you like spicy!)

Bonus? Every Sunday they offer 20% off Sushi rolls. You can order to go or dine in. They have plenty of seating, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find a seat on a week night. If you want to try Sushi Zushi for lunch, they have a special where you can enjoy the Hibachi and Bento Box for only $9.99. They also offer Happy Hour from 3:00-6:00 every day.

The first thing I look for in a good sushi restaurant is how tightly the rolls are wrapped. There is nothing worse than dipping your roll in soy sauce only to have it all fall apart on you. Sushi Zushi gets an A+ on their roll wrapping. They were wrapped so well that you could almost take a bite out of one without losing half of the roll on your plate. Though, I would never recommend biting sushi. I don’t like a lot of cream cheese in my rolls and it seems like a lot of the sushi spots downtown have way too much cream cheese in their rolls. The rolls at Sushi Zushi let the fish and other flavors do the talking. There was a little bit of cream cheese in some of our rolls but it was so carefully placed so that it was a nice addition instead of the first, last, and only thing you could taste in the roll. Instead, the emphasis was on the fish flavors with nice additions from their dressings. Which brings me to my next point, at Sushi Zushi they don’t drown their rolls in sauces. The second sushi fail I look for is how they serve their sushi. If the rolls are drenched in heavy sauces, I subtract points from my scale. Again, I want the fish and natural flavors to do the talking. It is ok to have a little sauce for added flavor, but it should be just that. Added flavor. I don’t want the sauce to be the star of the dish when eating a sushi roll.

Most of the rolls we tried had imitation crab but there were a couple that really WOWed. We started our meal with a bang when they brought out the “Heart Attack” Appetizer. This is a real show-stealer! It’s a fried jalapeno stuffed with cream cheese and spicy tuna or crabmeat. We went with the spicy tuna and I would highly recommend trying these.

$14 If you like spicy, I would highly recommend the Liberty Lake Roll. The Liberty Lake is a deep fried California roll topped with crayfish tempura, scallop tempura, jalapeno, cilantro chili, spicy mayo, eel sauce, green onion, masago and sesame.

$15 The “My Favorite” roll is jumbo. It includes eel, avocado, cream cheese, crunchy breading roll topped with crabstick spicy mayo.

$14 Naked Fish (avocado) Shrimp tempura, asparagus tempura roll topped with crabmeat, tuna, salmon, avocado, spicy may, and eel sauce.

$ 13 Northwest Another deep fried roll, The Northwest comes with shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, cucumber, and avocado, deep fried, with chili, spicy mayo and eel sauce inside. (This one was my favorite)

The Sashimi is fresh and simple. It is $5 for 3 pieces so we tried the Salmon, Yellow Tail, and Smoked Salmon. The regular salmon was our favorite.

If you aren’t a sushi person, don’t worry, they have plenty other options on their menu. We ordered the Kung Pao Chicken $12. This entree is served with peppers, red onions, peanuts in a mild sauce. This portion was really big and a great addition to help balance out the load of sushi we were consuming.

We also tried the salmon Bento box. Each Bento Box is served with a side salad and soup. This is a great bang for your buck with the 6 rolls of sushi, large piece of teriyaki salmon (or chicken), tempura veggies, pot-stickers and rice.

Don’t skimp on the dessert. Their fried green tea ice cream was just what we needed, but didn’t know we needed until the waitress suggested it, to top off this great meal. We ordered two for our table of four and there wasn’t any left over. The sushi, on the other hand, was much more than we could eat and we left with a lot of leftovers.

They were understaffed when we came but the servers did a great job of keeping us updated and trying to get the rolls out as fast as they could. All of the staff were very friendly and helpful in giving us suggestions on what to order. The sushi chef was very busy but kept a smile and friendly attitude as he rolled up order after order.

Let them know we sent you.

XOXO

Sushi Zushi (2718 E 57th Ave Spokane, WA // 509.443.3481)