Awesome Sushi

There are a lot of ways to name a sushi restaurant. Going with a Japanese word tends to be pretty common in America, even if it’s basic and descriptive. Naming it after the chef is generally quite safe. “Eat’s Sushi” is one of the weirder ones we’ve heard. Awesome Sushi, well, that raises expectations pretty high.

We visited this Long Beach location, curious to see if it would live up to its “awesome” name. As one might guess from that decidedly non-Japanese adjective, the menu is heavily Americanized, with a long list of Special Rolls that include ingredients such as bacon, “awesome spicy sauce,” lots of fried things, avocados, and imitation crab. All of this is to say that most of the menu wouldn’t have been recognizable as sushi in Japan years ago.

But that doesn’t mean they’re not sushi, and though what we tried wasn’t awesome, it was actually pretty good! Rice bowls lean heavily on proteins, so thankfully the salmon sashimi in ours was fresh, thick, and tasty. Carpaccios, individual sushi pieces, and special rolls were all exactly as expected, and a full live shrimp was nicely plated, too.

The actual dining room is a little underwhelming in size and ambience, but the large menu, quality dishes, and reasonable prices make up for those omissions. Our advice: Don’t go in expecting awesome, and you’ll be very pleased by a thoroughly good experience.