8 pieces snow crab, avocado roll topped with tuna, salmon, ebi, hamachi, tai and avocado. $11.95
Kama Sushi, San Francisco
The rainbow roll is perfect for the indecisive person like me because you essentially get an assortment of sashimi on top of a California roll. Yay! The fish quality at Kama was great and the services was very friendly and attentive. Went there for happy hour and will definitely return!
Complimentary edamame.
6 pieces yellowtail and cucumber roll with toasted sesame. $4.50 happy hour
Kama Sushi, San Francisco
Wow, I loved these delicious bites! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a spicy hamachi roll on a sushi menu, and while these weren’t at all spicy, they were very tasty. And you can’t beat the happy hour price! I enjoyed that the hamachi wasn’t chopped to a pulp – they still had a great solid texture. Noms!
Rainbow roll and spicy hamachi roll.
Happy Sushi Ro Ba Ta, Palm Springs
FAIL!!! This has possibly been my worst dining experience to date, no joke! We arrived a little after 5 on a Saturday and there were 3 tables taken outside and a few people at the sushi bar. Regardless, after getting our drinks and the extremely sad Dynamite Bites, it still took 45 minutes to finally get our sushi! Way too long!
Some food highlights:
The Dynamite Bites ($5) are billed as crabmeat baked with dynamite sauce. Sounds delicious, right? Wrong! In actuality, this abomination is a pile of imitation crabmeat on a scrap of aluminum foil with an indistinguishable sauce on top. They do provide some lemon wedges with it, no doubt to kill any lingering bacteria on this laughable heap!
The spicy tuna roll ($6 happy hour) is huge! Awesome, right? Wrong! No one wants to eat more of a crappy roll. There was enough rice on this thing to feed a small Japanese prefecture! And the tuna wasn’t spicy at all, but it was mutilated to the consistency of Whiskas cat food.
And how about some avian bird flu with your sushi?!!! The outside tables are conveniently situated under an eave where a menagerie of feathery locals hang out to take their dumps. Once we heard the rain of bird poop showering the hibiscus plant beside our table, and saw well-aimed poo bombs land on our table and splatter onto our food and my arm, we called it quits!
And no, our food was NOT comped! I wanna barf just recalling that catastrophic experience.
Note: Although they overtly display a happy hour checklist menu at the front, they sneakily hand you a normal checklist when you’re seated. So be sure to request a happy hour list.
Or save yourself some time and bird flu vaccination costs and don’t go there at all!
Other forgettable dishes:
Samurai Rock sake cocktail. $5
Albacore nigiri. Surprise, it comes seared! No doubt to kill anything on the outside of this not-so-fresh cut of fishy fish. $3.95 happy hour
Mackerel nigiri. I’ll admit that this wasn’t bad. $3.75 happy hour
Eel and avocado roll. Tasted ok until it was splattered with bird poo! $8 happy hour
Edamame. $3
Asahi beer. $4.50
Spicy tuna and cucumber roll topped with more chili sauce, sesame and green onions. $6.50
Katana-Ya, San Francisco
Why are “spicy” rolls never really that spicy at Japanese restaurants? This roll was more sweet than spicy to me. I think it had some good flavors but lacked the spice. C’mon guys, gimme some heat!
Spicy tuna, albacore, asparagus, scallion, and garlic ponzu. $12.95
Tokyo Go-Go, San Francisco
I wasn’t blown away by this roll. The spicy tuna wasn’t spicy enough for my taste. Compared to the Azteca roll, this barely had any heat. Everything just blended together so the flavors got muddled. I couldn’t taste the garlic ponzu at all. I’m not saying that this roll tasted bad, but the ingredients list was so appetizing that I expected more.
Spanish white mackerel slices over sushi rice, with pickled ginger and wasabi. $6.50
Tokyo Go-Go, San Francisco
This was on their nightly special list so we decided to try it. The waitress told us it was Spanish white mackerel. I’m not sure if that’s correct because Googling “shima aji” comes up with many different results, none of which are for Spanish white mackerel. This just adds to my frustration with the use of common names in communicative nomenclature, but that’s for another blog – lol! Whatever we ate, I really liked it! The shima aji wasn’t fishy tasting at all. It had quite a firm texture and a mellow flavor. I loved the peach color that gradated to a bright pinkish red.
Spicy crab, cucumber, avocado, gobo, lightly seared suzuki, sliced chiles, chili aioli, tobiko, and scallions. $14.25
Tokyo Go-Go, San Francisco
Wow, this roll was frickin’ amazing! I loved the heat from all the spicy components, and it looked pretty cool too. I thought I would experience Montezuma’s revenge afterward, but I didn’t – hehe! The lightly seared sea bass tasted great and had a great texture. The chili aioli was so flavorful and I loved the pale yellow color of it. The sliced chiles added extra heat and flavor. Not sure I could really distinguished the gobo (burdock root), but I actually didn’t know what it was when I ordered the roll. I will definitely order this delicious roll again!
Slice of sea bass on a mound of rice with a dab of wasabi and garnished with sliced scallions. $3.99 for two pieces
Slice of tuna. $3.99 for two pieces
Crazy Sushi, San Francisco
Both these nigiri have such a beautiful pink color. I loved the maguro, and I recommend maguro nigiri to all the novice sushi eaters out there since I think it’s one of the least fishy tasting. Maguro is readily available at sushi places and is more forgiving on a squeamish palette. I’m definitely no sushi expert, but I try to eat out of my comfort zone. That’s why I tried the suzuki, and I’ll say that I’m not a fan. Perhaps Crazy Sushi’s cut wasn’t fresh, but it had an odd flavor that did not agree with me. I had to dunk that piece mulitple times into the soy sauce to get it down.
I love the free side salad at Japanese restaurants with the familiar sesame, ginger dressing. Yum!
And what’s a sushi dinner without some Japanese beer? Sapporo is my prefered choice, hehe!
Sushi roll with bbq eel, avocado, and topped with tobiko and unagi sauce.
Crazy Sushi, San Francisco
Like most people, when I first started eating sushi I tended to stick with the rolls containing cooked items like rock ‘n rolls and California rolls because they were easier to stomach than the crazy, raw nigiri or sashimi (it doesn’t even have rice!). And I continue to say, “There’s nothing wrong with that.” I still enjoy ordering rock ‘n rolls because I simply love unagi! I also order unagi nigiri because bbq eel is delicious and the unagi sauce is an added bonus. I’ve since become more adventurous in sushi land – ordering more and more raw items, but I still take comfort and enjoy my inauthentic rolls. A word of advice: Nobody likes a sushi snob!
8 piece roll with spicy tuna, avocado, and topped with a seaweed salad.
Crazy Sushi, San Francisco
When a sushi joint names a roll after San Francisco, I expect it to be amazing. This one didn’t blow my mind, but I did enjoy it. What can I say, I’m a sucker for spicy tuna, and the seaweed salad on top freshened it up and had a nice texture. I’ve been to Crazy Sushi before and I wasn’t impressed, but this time around they surprised me. All the sushi we had was fresh and distinct. And you can’t beat the price! Will definitely return if the quality remains high.
Here’s the assorted sushi we ordered. It not only tasted good, but I think that it looks good too.
Vittle Monster 