Sushi Damu

For years, Tustin had its own conveyor belt sushi restaurant, Sushi 5, which regrettably closed, briefly became a Korean bar, then transformed into Sushi Damu, an all-you-can-eat sushi place. At its peak, Sushi Damu offered a nearly perfect balance of choices, pricing, and service, enabling guests to pay under $40 to access unlimited nigiri and a large collection of cut rolls, but over time, pricing increases and other policy changes lost our business.

Specialty rolls are the heart of the Damu experience, arriving as a table-filling avalanche, overwhelming you with choices – and food. While decidedly Americanized, each of the rolls is beautifully assembled and (generally) properly flavored: For instance, coconut shrimp rolls are perfectly tropical without any cloying sweetness or overwhelming sauce, and a flaming Dragon Breath roll makes great use of eel, shrimp, and crab while properly omitting cream cheese as requested. That said, the roll options changed over time, with some particularly compelling choices disappearing.

Unsurprisingly, Sushi Damu tried to find efficiencies where it could. To speed up ordering for guests, nigiri pieces are ordered separately from specialty rolls, and are selected by the single piece instead of two at once. This change made fish on each piece plump and generously sliced rather than on the edge, a win for quality with the continued option of quantity. On the other hand, hot “kitchen” appetizers – also unlimited – have long arrived in almost amusingly small portions – 3 calamari rings, 3 french fries, and so on. In some cases, the portions are so silly as to dissuade ordering, and that’s probably intentional.