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Mr. Sushi
(513) 827-9345
580 Walnut St
Cincinnati, OH 45202

By the time we met up with our friend after work and got downtown it was going on eight o’clock. I don’t know if that’s early or late by weeknight downtown standards but we found Mr. Sushi at light capacity, with only a few tables of hipsters at the front making a ruckus. We’d heard that the service was slow but were surprised that both our appetizer of vegetable tempura and our combo plate of sushi came out quickly. Maybe it was the right time of day or that our sushi didn’t require any special handling like an exotic dead-fish roll.

The tempura veggies were a little pricey at $5 and there wasn’t as much as I would’ve expected but what we got was a tasty mix of deep fried peppers, onion, carrot and zucchini. Pretty typical stuff but good. The Vegetable Roll Combination on their web menu is a little different than what we had. Ours was an AAC (Avocado, Asparagus, Cucumber) roll, a Vegetable (Carrot, Avocado, Cucumber) roll and Inari for $13. Both are pretty typical rolls but Mr. Sushi’s had a sweeter flavor that I think of fondly as I type this and the Inari, of course, were scrumptious; a little small but well packed with tasty rice, nice and cold.

The only downside, really, is that Mr. Sushi is downtown but for the crowd who live, work, and play down there on a daily basis it’s well worth stopping in. They’re maybe a little pricier than some of the nearby alternatives but not by much!

Fusion Wok Sushi Bar Front

Fusion Wok Sushi Bar
(513) 898-1633
3645 Stone Creek Blvd, Suite H
Cincinnati, OH 45251

Katy: We went to check out the new sushi place in the Stone Creek shopping center on Colerain south of I-275 for dinner Sunday night. We were excited that there would be an alternative to Kabuto in the area.

Fusion Wok Sushi Bar decor

Shawn: Kabuto is a pretty miserable stop for sushi so, like Katy said, we were thrilled to see a new place opening up. Located in the fancy-pants area of Northgate, Fusion Wok is a small restaurant, not much bigger than University Heights’ Maki Express, with similarly spartan decoration. The furnishings are nice and new with lacquered dark wood and the sushi bar is as colorful and lively as any but overall it’s a typical sushi joint.

So that leaves us with the food. A complimentary dish of sugared peanuts surprised us both but I passed on account of them being nuts and all. After a few questions with one of the chefs to confirm what was vegan we had ordered veggie roll ($3.25), sweet potato roll ($4.25),  avocado roll ($2.95), cucumber roll ($2.50) and some inari ($3.50).

Fusion Wok Sushi Bar sushi

Katy: The presentation of the sushi was very nice and we were thrilled to see the sweet potato roll is tempura sweet potato like we’ve had at Tokyo. The inari had a very small amount of rice and the tofu wrapper was folded up into itself making these the smallest we’ve had at this price.  The veggie roll had a miso sauce on top that was a little sweet & spicy (very slight) and very tasty.  Nothing thrilling to say about the avocado or cucumber rolls, they were tasty, not bad and not amazing – average priced.  In total, I think all the rolls were reasonably priced for size & quality except the inari being skimpy.

We are looking forward to going again within the next week to try non-sushi foods.  Shawn uploaded their menu to Urban Spoon, but as of this moment it hasn’t shown up yet.

Here are the rest of the photos we took

complimentary treat	veggie & avocado rolls
cucumber & sweet potato	complimentary treat
soy sauce

Thai Namtip
5461 North Bend Road
Cincinnati, OH 45247-7620
(513) 481-3360

We came up with the idea to review all the veggie sushi options in the tri-state area, but we are off to a slow start.  (Anyone want to do guest posts?)  We don’t always want to eat sushi, so this will be an ongoing thing…yeah…oh and Shawn came up with “Cincy Sushi Survey”.  We should probably buy that url. It’s pretty awesome

Ok first sushi survey is Thai Namtip in the White Oak area!  They have at least six vegetarian meals to choose from (that may actually be vegan, ask first) and 4 veg sushi.
Asparagus Roll Asparagus, rice, sesame wrapped in seaweed.   $4.95
Avocado Roll Avocado, rice, sesame wrapped in seaweed.   $4.95
Cucumber Roll Cucumber, rice, sesame wrapped in seaweed.   $4.95
AACC Roll Asparagus, avocado, cucumber, carrot, rice wrapped in seaweed.   $5.95

Shawn: Whenever we go to Thai Namtip I prefer to stick with my all-time favorite dish — Tofu Ramrong — but for the sake of this exhaustive study I put my own selfish yearnings aside and ate some sushi.  Thai Namtip’s sushi is a nice, plump one-bit mouthful and they don’t skimp on the number of rolls per order. I always appreciate an AACC roll but any place that offers a simple asparagus roll on its own gets a nod in my book. The prices are right around average for most places in town and with a huge menu of other dishes to fall back on, Thai Namtip has an early lead in our little survey.

I love sushi since becoming vegetarian. I just like vegetable sushi so much more than fishy stuff (even when I ate meat). I do wish someone would make spicy veggie rolls though! Like a similar taste to spicy tuna, but use avocado or something.

Last Friday Shawn, Amelia & I had sushi at Maki Express. We ordered Bonsai Tree roll, tempura asparagus roll, tempura sweet potato roll, Inari & “No more meat” roll. Their rolls are a little small for the price, but they’re delicious. We shared them all except I didn’t have inari, I’m not crazy about it.

Now I want more sushi! I want to go on a sushi tour and compare all the local restaurants veggie sushis for size, price, choices, taste. I think it’d be a fun tour!

1018 Delta Ave. Mt. Lookout, 45208 * 513 533 9318 website

Shawn & I stopped in there last Saturday, early in the evening to avoid any possible crowd.  At first we sat in a corner near the front, but ended up moving due to a very loud speaker.

We were happy to see they had Korean items on the menu, dol sot bibimbap & bulgogi as well as kimchi soup.  I didn’t choose that route because we would go to Kim’s Korean for Korean food.  Dancing Wasabi has 3 vegetarian sushi rolls 1. vegetable roll 2. cucumber roll 3. avocado & cucumber roll.  We ordered the vegetable roll and two appetizers, agedashi tofu & veggie tempura.  The agedashi tofu does not come with bonito (fish) flakes, but I double checked just in case.

It was the most interesting version of this we have had yet!  The tofu was in triangles laid out, point up, on a bed of shredded cabbage and carrot.  Ponzo sauce was drizzled around over the tofu and veggie bed.  To one side there was a small pile of the shredded veggies with some sort of seasoning like a salad.  There were also tiny tomatos (smaller than cherry or grape tomatoes that I’ve seen in groceries) cut in half and laid on and around the salad pile.  The tofu crust was thin, crispy and tasty, possibly seasoned.  It was delicious and very attractive.

The veggie tempura was asparagus spears, carrot sticks, sweet potato sticks and one onion ring.  The sticks were all placed in a teepee form and the onion ring around the top to stand it up.  The sauce that came with it was fairly bland so we ended up dipping in our wasabi soy sauce.  The tempura had thin rice puff noodles all around it, that I am unsure if you are meant to eat, but we ate it anyway.  I like the crispy snap when you eat those!  The vegetable sushi roll was 8 pieces, pretty normal size.  There was oshinko, cucmber and avocado in side with the rice on the outside.  The bill was $18.64 before tip, which seemed about average.

I didn’t remember to take any photos until we’d eaten everything.  If we’re over that way and want food, I could eat there again.  It’s a bit of a distance to make a special trip, but that agedashi tofu was good!