Sushiko

Alright, here we go again, dining on something that we shouldn't be eating in Rome.  Yes, I realize that sushi, especially one that is all-you-can-eat, is not on anyone's bucket list for the city.  However, as mentioned in the Hua Wei Ju post, sometimes, we just have to take a break from eating the same thing over and over again despite the sacrilegious optics especially being in Rome.  For those trying to hate, remember, these are my food adventures, not yours.  Also, I have kids with me (albeit older ones) and I don't make decisions base solely on my needs.  Without further ado, let's dive into Sushiko and the AYCE meal we had.

First off, the pricing seemed reasonable at around 24 Euros, especially for the extensive menu that was offered.  However, it did seem a bit sketch with all of the Chinese dishes that were available too.  It is run by a Chinese family, so this wasn't surprising.  Anyways, we kicked things off with some starters including Wakame Salad, Edamame, Seafood Salad, Miso Soup and Hot & Sour Soup (yes, there is the Chinese item!).  Nothing really out-of-the-ordinary here where the everything was rather typical except the seafood salad was both good and bad.  Loved the squid as it was tender but the crab stick was hard and lifeless.  The hot & sour soup was actually quite good but needed to be thicker though.

Onto some fried starters, we had the Tempura, Ebi Tempura and Fried Pumpkin Blossoms.  Gotta say all of these were not very good.  The tempura batter was far too dense and laid on too thick.  Hence it was overly crunchy and hard.  Furthermore, they fried the heck out of everything where the veggies were overdone while the ebi was indiscernible because it just melded into the batter.  Really didn't like the blossoms as the batter was also extremely hard and far too fried.

We ordered a selection of Nigiri including Salmon, Tuna, Ebi, Unagi, Tako and Branzino.  It all looked good and in fact, the salmon, tuna and branzino were nicely textured and fresh.  However, the sushi rice underneath was really dry and in dire need of seasoning.  Really too bad because the fish itself was appealing.  The same couldn't be said about the tako as it was also dry and a bit too chewy.  Unagi was typical being soft, but needed a bit more sauce.

For our specialty roll, we chose the Black Dragon Roll featuring a tempura shrimp and avocado on the inside wrapped in black rice and topped with seared salmon, tobiko, mayo and teriyaki sauce.  Again, with the hard and overfried ebi tempura, the roll ate heavy and overly crunchy.  The torched salmon on top was buttery soft while the sauces didn't add too much moisture to the roll.  We thought the black rice was actually quite good and we should asked for it in our nigiri if we had known.

The kids just love the raw fish, so we got some Sashimi (Salmon & Tuna) and Carpaccio (Salmon, Tuna and Branzino) as well.  The main difference between the two was partially the cut as well as the carpaccio having a ponzu sauce in the middle of the plate.  As mentioned, the fish quality was decent and the textures were soft without being mushy.  In terms of flavour, the fish was on the bland side, but it tasted fresh and had a nice sheen.  I preferred the carpaccio as I love the tang of the ponzu.

Our last round of dishes included the Gunkan Salmon and Tuna Rolls, Shiromi Yaki, Stir-Fried Veggies, Beef Yaki and Salmon Maki.  Other than the crappy sushi rice, the gunkan salmon and tuna rolls were good due to the amount of fish.  That overshadowed the rice and that was a good thing.  Super surprising, the shriomi yaki was excellent.  The fish was cooked perfectly and was buttery soft with plenty of seasoning.  Beef yaki was okay but the meat was a touch tough.  We only got the veggies because we needed veggies, it was not overdone.  Overall, the fish quality at Sushiko was surprisingly good.  On the other hand, the sushi rice and tempura batter were shockingly horrible.  I guess if you order the right things and avoid the regular sushi rice, the meal could be fairly good.  But for us, it was only okay.

The Good:

- Reasonably-priced

- Nice people

- Good fish quality

The Bad:

- Sushi rice was not good

- Tempura batter was worse