Sushi in Sarasota

[Yukenbo]

I have a place in Sarasota, but I live in Tokyo most of the time and my wife is Japanese. Honestly, American sushi is fun and creative but you know it is a different animal from Japanese sushi. So personally, I generally don't see a huge difference in what you get. I mean, of course stay away from anyplace you hear is not fresh or just incompetent but otherwise...

I've been to Ichiban. That place is decent. There used to be a place across from the Total Wine place near the Mall that was run by an old Japanese lady. That was good but I think they have closed down (she was really old).

[1rainman]

Cincinnati is full of sushi places. Wasn't like that years ago. But everyone obsessed with it. That and Indian food. I come to Florida and virtually zero sushi places. I don't like sushi but I did notice that. Some parts of the country are loaded with sushi others are not. Might relate to the number of Asians in the area since most of those places are owned by Chinese people.

[Yukenbo]

Originally Posted by 1rainman

Cincinnati is full of sushi places. Wasn't like that years ago. But everyone obsessed with it. That and Indian food. I come to Florida and virtually zero sushi places. I don't like sushi but I did notice that. Some parts of the country are loaded with sushi others are not. Might relate to the number of Asians in the area since most of those places are owned by Chinese people.

You might be right. Most places are run by Chinese people. There are occasional Japanese owners and others.

The thing is, in most of the places the main sushi ingredients are rice, avocado, sesame seeds, cooked shrimp, and typically either tuna or salmon. The latter are very common, don't really require a special supplier, and very easy to eat epecially when covered with whatever sauce. Hence, I don't really see that much of a difference in terms of sushi places.

Is your avocado fresh? Yay.
Do they have some interesting roll combos that they don't have at the other place? Bonus!
Is the service competent and decent? Yay.

To me, that's about it.

It's a different story when you are talking about nigiri sushi where you are tasting the fish and rice specifically.

[motordavid]

I am with Yukenbo on local sushi, et al...
~ 25 biz trips to Nihon, where I have had some of the best sushi, nigiri, sashimi on the planet, but the local Sarasota/Venice area fare ranges from not so good to OK to 'gee, we lucked out' at a dozen places.

Even the Sunday morning stuff at a couple of close by Publix, made to order, (not stuff in the tray cases), is 'decent' for a light Sunday eve dinner, along with some good Junmai or Nigori cold/cool sake.

One's taste buds/expectations may differ...we don't eat out often, but sushi is a decent alt to the usual fare restaurant or eat at home foods, imo.
GL, mD

[1rainman]

I worked at a Japanese restaurant sushi place in Cincinnati. Chinese people owned it and worked there but most people would assume they are Japanese. Chinese people tend to buy restaurants. Japanese own factories. There's several Japanese owned factories in Kentucky. Japanese are similar to Germans in many ways not sure why. Germans are heavily involved in factories and manufacturing as well.

Thus most Japanese restaurants are owned and operated by Chinese. Many Chinese ethnic groups especially in the south they like to cook similar to Italians or something. There are many types of Chinese. China is like Europe with many related but distinct ethnic groups with their own dialect or language. We just call them all han Chinese. A difference between north and south too. Similarly they all have slightly different food but it's mostly nasty. American Chinese food is americanized. They eat that kind of stuff occasionally but pig ears is the most popular Chinese food. Frog legs, duck feet, pig feet, cow tail soup etc. And in the south rice with every meal usually not fried. The food just goes on top of rice and almost always soup with it in the south. Usually vegetable or cow tail soup which has vegetables too. They fed the employees real Chinese food every day. Oh and the whole fish, bones head and all. Occasionally they cook up some Mongolian beef or something you'd recognize in a Chinese restaurant but those are less common dishes that are popular in America. Chicken fried rice or shrimp fried rice also sometimes.