Sushi World: Definitely Tastier than SeaWorld
By Michael Anderson and Anthony Lowenberg,
The Often-Imitated but Never-Duplicated Law Reviewers
Ah, the dog days of summer are here and, as Norm Peterson would say, we’re all wearing milk-bone underwear. But, fear not, gentle denizens of oven-baked downtown Dallas! If you live or work anywhere near the corner of Ross Ave. and Griffin Blvd., then you finally have a nearby dining option where you can coolly enjoy a meal in the air-conditioned confines of a new sushi restaurant. You just have to walk a couple of blocks through the scorching heat to get there. Or drive there if you prefer, you Earth-hating, gas-guzzlers! Anyway, Sushi World is the newest establishment from the owner of K-Tokyo on Lower Greenville, and it serves some decently-priced sushi and other assorted Asian dishes in a location that has sorely needed a food establishment for a while now.
The interior is painted entirely black with some standard Japanese paper lanterns and umbrellas spaced throughout. We figure the interior trim is meant to evoke some type of shogun palace, but it looks to us more like the exterior of a Medieval Times. There is basically one extended dining room area with tables spread throughout and the sushi bar off to the side. Overlooking the dining room is a huge picture of the restaurant’s owner posing Benihana-style with a welcoming expression. At the far end of the sushi bar is a tv screen that at first looked like it was broadcasting the sushi chefs at work until we realized it wasn’t the same guys who were behind the bar – maybe they keep a training video on a constant loop to stay sharp?
As for the service, the staff couldn’t have been friendlier. The owner likes to hand out cards with Japanese characters scribbled on them that either give you a free meal on your next visit or a free ticket to a Japanese game show (or maybe both). The staff is also big on banging a gong to celebrate people's birthdays and just cuz it's fun. However, there’s a definite language barrier that sometimes resulted in someone getting the wrong dish or an extra item added to the check. And it didn’t help that there was Soap Opera-level tension between the members of the staff on multiple visits. Either the owner or one server would severely scold another server for bringing the wrong dish or something else gone wrong, and we’d just stare straight forward like we were ignoring parents fighting during a holiday meal. These could be the growing pains of a new restaurant, but frankly, these folks seem like they know each other, and we predict a frosty Thanksgiving dinner at the Sushi World household.
The sushi wasn’t spectacular on our visits, but we mostly got a decent amount of bang for the buck and the restaurant does add some nice touches that place it a step above the average sushi establishment. For instance, the pickled ginger was crisp, fresh and bright pink instead of the limp, pallid stuff you see at a lot of other sushi places (If your ginger stays crisp for more than four hours, consult a physician). They also throw in some Korean dishes to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, no website/take out menu + bad note-takers = we can only give estimated prices as we remember them so here goes: the bento boxes at lunch cost around $9-11 and there’s a sushi “buffet” lunch item for $9.99.
We tried the short rib bento box on our earlier visit, and with it came salad, plenty of fried rice, a California roll and two thin fish cakes. The fish cakes were tasty, warm and very lightly battered while the fried rice was nicely peppery and the salad was crisp. The California roll came covered in a tangy mayo sauce and spicy red chile sauce along with panko crumbs. We like our sushi better when it’s not all gussied up to hide its flavor, and beyond all the toppings it didn’t really stand out. The short rib was a little chewy in places but other bites were quite tender and the meat wasn’t overly seasoned. On the next visit, we tried the sashimi bento box, which had all the same side items except it appeared the fried rice and salad portions had been cut in half (not a good sign). There were five different types of fish sashimi – the usual salmon, tuna and mackerel and a couple we weren’t sure about – and they all tasted very fresh. The smaller portions of the other sides, however, definitely made the meal less filling. The sushi “buffet” was probably the best deal of the bunch: a California roll, a spicy tuna roll and six sushi nigiri (the non-seaweed paper-wrapped sushi). For that price, you could get one roll at most decent places. The sushi was fresh but not exceptional if you know what we mean (we don't).
If Sushi World can smooth out those serving issues and continue to give good value for the money, then it will keep people like us marching through the Texas heat to eat there for years to come. On our Asian-stereotype-music gavel scale, where five gavels is Styx’s “Mr. Roboto” and one gavel is The Vapors’ “Turning Japanese,” we give Sushi World three gavels or Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting” – there, now you have three songs to sing in the shower while you’re trying to beat the heat!
|
