Battle of the Neighborhood Sushi Joints – Umi

If you are anything like me, chances are most of the time you go “out to eat” for lunch at work, it involves splitting a $5 footlong with someone, grabbing a salad or ordering takeout – and eating at your desk.  But when it is nice and sunny outside on a Friday, I’m going to try to make it out to lunch and dine somewhere outside.

Luckily, Umi Sushi is right near my office, so lunch there can be fairly quick.  One particular Friday, I discovered that the restaurant has a small patio in the back, so you can enjoy some sun while eating reasonably priced sushi.  Any place that I need to wear shades at while I dine makes me very happy.

Now I’m not a fan of miso soup by any means, but what draws a lot of people to Umi, at least in my office, is the fact that you get both miso soup and a salad with every lunch order.  Therefore, you don’t have to make that decision between ginger dressing and tofu, and can get this and two rolls for under $8.  And if you are dining with me, my friends particularly love it that they get both salad, soup and my soup (Jacob Ramos).

While I’ve had some great experiences at Umi, last time it left a really poor taste in my mouth – literally.  I’m not adventurous when it comes to sushi by any means, and I don’t feel like I can be opinionated about which restaurant has the best sushi when I stick to the shrimp tempura roll or Boston roll.  But when something is wrong with sushi and I’m practically clueless, that’s a problem.  We were dining outside on a particularly warm day, and I was so excited for my spicy crunch tuna roll and my shrimp tempura roll.  I was hungry!  The spicy tuna roll came though, and it tasted a bit funny.  At first I thought maybe I didn’t eat sushi in a while and was no longer a fan, but there was something about it where I’d eat it, but try not to chew and instead swallow as fast as possible so I wouldn’t have to taste it.  Foreign Correspondent Milos Sugovic pointed out that it was a bit chewy.

I’ve eaten spicy tuna rolls at other places both before and after this experience and I liked it, so my taste buds aren’t changing.  While the shrimp tempura roll was delicious, I think moving forward I’d stick to simple rolls like Boston, shrimp tempura, California roll at Umi.  The deal and ambiance is great, but you have to ask yourself – would you rather have better tasting sushi or soup and salad?