So it's not a restaurant, shoot me. :)
I love sushi. For me, it's become take-out on par with Chinese food in the little paper containers: comfortable, somehow elegant (I always thought it was grown-up to eat with chopsticks out of a paper container. I was a weird kid.) and quite delicious. When I worked for The American Jewish Archives, and when I was an undergrad at UC, I'd often run over to Keller's IGA for some of their sushi: they were the first grocery store in the area to have really good sushi, and they're still my favorite choice for quick, take-out, decent quality sushi.
Most grocery stores, on the other hand, have awful sushi. Not-so-fresh, tasteless, with gummy rice (Trader Joe's and The Party Source, I'm looking at you). Kroger's (and Keller's), in the search for a more upscale, gourmet experience, hired sushi chefs (instead of having factory-made stuff delivered) at their flagship store, Hyde Park Plaza, and now have pretty decent sushi.
You won't get anything exotic here-- it's no Sake Bomb or Beluga-- but you will get good, standard sushi. I'm a fan of their bagel roll (cucumber, avocado, salmon and cream cheese) and the dynamite roll (same as above, substitute spicy tuna for the salmon and cream cheese). They also have nigiri sushi in a package called the "Nagano Platter", which contains shrimp, unagi (my favorite), salmon and tuna. The unagi is OK (no more than OK), with a limited amount of sauce. Stick to the maki, you'll be very pleased.
Are you a sushi beginner? Check out The Sushi FAQ, which is helpful even to those of us who've been eating sushi for years. Maybe I'll try making sushi at home again someday-- the last time didn't turn out so well, but I think that was in 2002. If anything, I can eat bowls of sushi rice for days. Yum.
8 comments:
Love your food blog -- I have you linked now!
I have also tried Kroger sushi and found it pretty good. There is also a little restaurant in Madeira, OH called Amarin which had good and very affordable sushi.
Hi, Londyn! :D
I love Amarin! I went there all the time when I lived in Mariemont. Their shu mai with the mustard-mayonnaise sauce are amazing steamed. And yummy curries. It's a great, affordable place. I need to try the one in E. Hyde Park near Cumin, it's closer to my boyfriend's apartment.
Amarin is great, always has been.
I've had IGA sushi many times and I second your opinion. If you're tired and just want to go home with sushi, this is the place to get it. Great value.
I also agree about Party Source... really not worth it. No point in eating sushi if it's not great.
Isn't it amazing how ten years ago, sushi was "exotic", and now we get it at the grocery store as a quick meal?
Ha ha ha.. I was in the Hyde Park Kroger the other day and I saw the sushi section, and I though "Kroger sells sushi now?!?"
Whole Foods/Wild Oats has some decent sushi, but stay faaaaar away from Meijer!
I find it's really touch and go with supermarket sushi. As mentioned, Whole Foods can be pretty good, but i more than often find supermarket sushi off-putting and I steer away. We have no Krogers where I live, so I can't speak to their's, but it always great to find decent sushi that is convenient and not overly expensive.
BTW, The Sushi FAQ is my site, and I'm happy that you like it :)
Wow, thanks Warren! Your site is fantastic. Keep up the good work, and thanks for visiting. :)
I actually think the best grocery-store sushi is at Bigg's. Meijer's has scary colors and Wild Oats' is kind of dry (although maybe that will change with the Whole Foods takeover). Kroger's sushi is OK, but I had a bad experience last time; the rolls were nearly frozen. So now I just stick to Bigg's.
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