3-stars for the soft opening of Sushi Island. I saw some buzz for Sushi Island here on Yelp, so I drove over to check it out. It's in the center on the corner of Camden & Branham, behind El Pollo Loco. The restaurant had six 4-tops, three 2-tops, one 6-top, and some stools around around the sushi bar. There was only one server, and she seemed a bit out of her element with only a handful of customers. There was a good influx of pick-ups and to-go orders, and at least on a Saturday afternoon, over half the people I saw were families that seemed to be coming after tae kwon do a few doors down.
I was looking forward to getting a lunch bento box with short ribs and tempura, but they removed the short ribs from their menu, and you can only order from the lunch menu Monday-Friday. That means if you come on the weekend, don't look at the Lunch Plates, Lunch 2-Item Bentos, or Lunch Sushi Combos. You can order the dinner versions of these items, but the prices are higher.
With the menu restrictions, I ended up ordering some standard items that I use to compare different Japanese restaurants, comparing apples to apples. I ordered sake nigiri (fresh salmon), karaage chicken, and agedashi tofu. When I placed my order, I told the waitress I'd like to look at the menu longer so I could order something else while she got those started. They utilized a tablet for taking orders, btw. Oh-one thing I noticed on the menu that I wanted to highlight was the fact that they had fresh wasabi, as you don't always see that. Granted, you had to pay $3.50 to have fresh wasabi, but at least it was an option.
I noticed that the waitress didn't clear the tables as customers left. She also never asked me if I wanted to order anything else. I had to ask her if I could add something else to my tab. I had to ask her for a box, and I heard other customers asking her for delayed items and utensils. I also had to ask her for a copy of my receipt after I paid my bill. Someone from the kitchen finally came out to clear three tables, but with such a small restaurant, it would be wise to increase the speed at which they clean the tables so they can turnover the tables faster.
Okay, so even if I couldn't get shortribs, I was still looking forward to the sushi, as people were raving about the quality of the fish. The sushi chef mentioned to people they had Blue Fin Tuna on special today. My sake nigiri was ginormous! I also tried their Golden Dragon Roll, which was supposed to come with fried shrimp, crab, cucumber, tempura flakes, tobiko, and special sauce. After taking a bite, I double-checked my notes and confirmed that it was missing the tobiko. The sushi chef apologized and added a spoonful, no biggie. It was a strange combination though, because the tobiko didn't have rice to stick to, so it just kind of fell off the dry flakes and was lost in a pile of tempura batter. I wouldn't order that again.
The salmon nigiri was definitely the best thing I ate. The food wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything outstanding that I want to rave about. The sushi chef seemed friendly, but the rest of the service was less than desirable. Granted, they are still in their soft opening stage, so it will likely get better with some time. I'd go to Sushi Island again, maybe just wait awhile so they can get into a good groove, especially when it comes to service. read more