In Which We Try a New Sushi Restaurant

Moose noticed during a sushi run the other day that Hot Pot 'n Sushi has a happy hour. $1 per plate from 2-4pm. This was indeed exciting news and today the kids and I decided to try it out.

We arrived just after 2 pm and as I approached the door I read the fine print "With $2.00 drink per person." Snap. We always drink water at Sushi Restaurants. So we ordered 4 sodas (yuck) they arrived and they were huge glasses.

As we stared at the conveyor belt we were disappointed. There was nothing that we liked, no Tuna, nothing with cucumbers or avocados, no seared albacore, no unagi, and much to Commander C's dismay, no watermelon.

We ended up settling for 4 plates of salmon nigiri (I think salmon is better cooked - call me crazy I just think the flavor is better) 2 plates of dumplings, some white fish, some shrimp nigiri and I begged a tuna off of the chef. There was a crunch roll that was met with less than enthusiasm. Then we had cream puffs and one plate of sesame balls for dessert.

There were many things on the menu that were not on the belt and according to the sign the deal was for items on the belt only. There were a plethora of rolls with sauce on them but none were identifiable as our choice sushi ingredients.

The nigiri peices seemed a bit small and didn't look as fresh as they could. There were also MOUNTAINS of plates stacked up ready to put on the line. At Sushi Town the chefs are actually making sushi and then putting it on the belt. If they do have piles of pre-made sushi sitting around they hide it well.

On the plus side. The chefs were nice, talkative and Japanese, call me racist but Japanese sushi chefs make me feel better about quality. The hostesses were again nice and talkative and the ginger was not dyed (I assume dye is why some ginger is pink and other ginger yellow.) The lady sitting next to us had a full on conversation with Nutmeg and the sushi chef and they both kept cooing over how smart she was. She said "Her daddy must work at Intel."

We ended up with 17 plates and 4 sodas making the total $23. I don't know that we saved any money over going to Sushi Town and paying regular price. We probably would have paid the same price and would no have consumed 96 ounces of pop and 5 plates of dessert at Sushi Town. We would not have wasted as much. Our satisfaction would have been higher at Sushi Town and our tummies happier.

We have only been home for an hour and Nutmeg is hungry again, since she only ate one finger of rice 2 dumplings and a cream puff.

Once in the car we decided the only thing we liked better was the cream puffs and I happen to know that I can buy a box of 36 of those at Albertson's or $5 or so.

So Sushi Town has kept us for their business but I can't help wishing for $1 happy hour there.