Sushi in Fort Collins/Loveland (Denver, Aurora: sales, buying, college)

[mommiekate]

I recently moved from Mesa, AZ and I am looking for a decent sushi place in Ft. Collins/Loveland that has a good happy hour so I can get some cheap sushi. Willing to even drive to Greeley. Any suggestions?!

[lauleahere&there]

Good luck with "cheap". Suehiro in old town is the place that's been around the longest. Don't go if you're on a schedule. The service is leisurely, but if you're a regular and sit at the bar they treat you right. I hear that Jeju in old town is not bad (College and Olive), but not cheap (although, I don't know about a happy hour). East Moon on Lemay is average. Cafe Lulu on College in Old Town is pretty good, but again, not cheap. Oh, and Suh on Prospect just west of College. I heard they were good, but I got sick there once.

[sooteal]

Mt Fuji- next to Best Buy has good Sushi .I don't know of any place inexpensive, though.

[soulpatch]

I like to make my own. When I move to the region will I be able to buy sushi grade fish locally or will I have to arrange that through companies here in San Diego.
There must be something locally since there are all these sushi restaurants being mentioned.

[sunsprit]

JeJu on College in Old Town Fort Collins, has $1 specials for lunch and $2.95 for handrolls. Far far far superior service and attitude than Soehiro a few blocks away.

The main commercial supplier of sushi grade fish in the area is in Denver, but I think you have to be a commercial user or restaurant to do biz with them.

The "next best" supply is the several large Asian marketplaces in the Denver/Aurora area, and they have a store also in Broomfield, not far off the Boulder turpike road. I usually go to the Asian market at Alameda and (near) Tejon in Denver. The market is large, and I've come across good deals of fresh fish there, as well as sushi grade tako. They have frozen prepared seaweed salad in the coolers, too. And fresh seaweed of several different varieties in bulk ... you either bring your own container for it or use a couple of the plastic produce bags and just scoop it in to one of those. It's a large market, used to be a major Safeway store, so it's got aisles and aisles of Asian prepared/canned/fresh/frozen foods. The noodle aisle alone is breathtaking compared to the usual small selection in many of the smaller stores in the region, especially when you compare it to the very small store on Mulberry in Ft Collins.

Another source of sushi grade fish, although fairly pricey, is the Whole Foods store in Ft Collins. If you use a lot of Asian foods, you can justify the trip to Denver now and then and still save a lot of money. I make a point of taking a cooler with me (and frozen ice packs) when I go to Denver for business sales calls, and then I have the option of buying what strikes my fancy at the Asian market. Last time I was there, they had fresh (never frozen!) yellowtail heads and salmon heads. I brought back a dozen, and what we didn't prepare that night went into the freezer for another meal ... still thinking about preparing those collars and cheeks.

FWIW, there's also a number of Asian markets as well as some them specialize more in Vietnamese foods on Federal Blvd, at or South of Alameda, in Denver. Several have a lot of fish, although you've got to be prepared for the presentation in their style ... it's a lot of boxes and buckets and icing down compared to a really super presentation like you'll see at Uwajimaya in Seattle, which caters to a more "americanized" shopping experience.

Also, be aware that nobody in the food business today except for Albertson's does USDA inspection of their fresh fish supply. So, if you're buying at Whole Foods, (or Safeway, or King Soopers), they are "self-certifying" the quality/freshness of their fish or relying upon the word of their supplier that it's good. Over the counter, I've found Albertsons to be the best fish monger in the region along the front range, but the consistency is spotty. Sometimes, their fish is spectacular ... and sometimes ... well, it's not as fresh as they may represent it to be. Best to give it the "sniff test" before letting the counter people portion it out for you and wrap it.

All in all, you will be able to find decent quality sushi grade fish in the Front Range ... at a price. Does it compare to just caught tuna/yellowtail/albacore/mackrel or any of the bottom fish off of San Diego? Not quite ... but it's the next best thing when you can't serve fish that you just caught a few hours before chilling it overnight. Take it from a kid who spent many a day in San Diego/BC waters cleaning fish for the sportfisherman as they came off the water ....

[soulpatch]

Thanks sunsprit, good news. There is an outfit here in San Diego that will ship damn near anywhere. I don't know if you are familiar with Bloody Decks but they are accessible through them.
We have a place in baja and it doesn't get any fresher than that....