Sushi Time

**** Sushi Time has closed

A few months back, I was having some sushi, and since eating at the sushi bar is very much a "social" activity, the nice gentleman to my left struck up a conversation. As with many of my conversations, the subject ended up being steered toward food (If anything, I'm consistent), and in particular, sushi. Toward the end of the conversation, he leaned toward me, and in the most conspiratorial tone, started whispering the name of "his" favorite sushi bar. Was it Ota? Maybe Shirahama? Or Sakura? The conversation went something like this:

"Sushi.....in Lemon Grove, huh?"
"Yeah, it's my go-to place in East County for sushi...."
"What's the name of the place?"
"It's called Sushi Time, I know, I know, don't let the name fool you"
"Really? Sushi Time, in Lemon Grove...."

And so, a few months later, here I was on the corner of Federal Boulevard and College Avenue. I guess it was sushi time...

I had seen this place before when visiting a nearby taco shop, but never, ever, thought I'd be eating here. I entered the dark restaurant which was pretty busy, and quickly noticed 2 things; first, I was the only Asian customer in the entire restaurant, and number two, there was the ubiquitous sheets of colored paper with names of various "rolls" taped across the back of the sushi bar......

I found a seat before two of the Itamae working, and started up a conversation with the young man. I was given a check-off sheet for sushi, SOP in most of these type of places, but decided to ask and see what was "good" this evening.

Me: "So what's good today?"
Young Itamae: Looks at me, and after taking a brief pause, "What do you eat?"
Me: "I eat anything...."
Young Itamae: Shrugs his shoulders, and gives me a small grin, "Well, we have most everything on the menu..."
Me: "Toro?"
Young Itamae: "Oh sorry, no toro...."

Somewhat nonplussed and realizing I was going nowhere, I did strategy two, and bought the Itamae some beer. Which made things quite friendly all around. I never did find out what "was good", but I did find out that the two really nice "kids"(Joe from the Valley, and Sho-go from Okinawa) were both students at San Diego State. The older gentleman was the Owner, but during my visits I never had the chance to sit in front of Him, though we had a nice conversation. It seems that he's also from Okinawa, and knew both Jou(former Owner of Sushi Ishikawa) and Kuni (former Owner of Katzra).

So I placed an order "to start" and after watching about two dozen rolls go by, the first part of my order was handed to me. And I was in shock...

It's hard to discern from the photo, but these were the largest nigiri I've ever had, in both the amount of fish, and rice.....

The Hamachi "Toro"($5.95) was quite good, creamy, with nice fat.

A far cry from the amazing Buri Toro I once had, but I was quite pleased. Much better than expected.

The Albacore "Toro"($5.95) was not quite as good, a bit on the stringy-tough side.

I'm not a big fan of Sriracha on nigiri, and made a mental note to ask to have it left off next time.

I'd asked for Hirame (Flounder) but they were out. By this time, the Young Itamae making my sushi suggested something called "white tuna"($4.95) on the menu. Now, I'm in the habit of calling Albacore "Shiro Maguro"(White Tuna), but they already had Albacore on the menu. This is what arrived:

After a bit of questioning, Joe explained that this was Escolar. Now I've had Escolar cooked, but never raw. Also, Escolar is banned in Japan, why, you may ask? Well, you can read about it here. Looks a lot like Chilean Sea Bass, but it didn't have much flavor, and I could tell that this was "saku" (cut and refrozen) fish. It had that mushy-watery texture of "saku" fish. If you're wondering, I had no side effects, even though Sam later told me, "Kirk-san do not eat that fish, people die from eating it!"(I think a bit over dramatic on his part) It seems that after consuming Escolar a percentage of  people suffer from Keriorrhoea, nuff said, you can read about it yourself, after all this is a food blog, so let's get back to the food.

By this time, I was pretty full from the jumbo nigiri, but still had one more item coming. The Amaebi:

 

This was fine, not overly sweet, but okay. The Atama(deep fried shrimp heads) were a bit too hard and chewy.

By his time, I had hit the wall, I was totally stuffed. I was still a bit surprised at the size of the Nigiri. Thinking that perhaps I got preferential treatment because of the "beer", I asked him if the size of the nigiri (I was the only person who I saw eating Nigiri that whole evening) was the norm. He replied that this was the "normal" sized nigiri sushi. The sushi was fine for neighborhood sushi. As you can tell, the cutting of the fish was not done with an immense amount of skill, but the rice was uniform in size.

When I returned home and downloaded my photos, realized that it was hard to determine the size of the nigiri. That when I decided to make another visit to Sushi Time...more research, you could say! This time it was on a Friday night, and the place was fairly busy, I could see various rolls practically flying out to hungry patrons sitting in the dining area. I managed to grab a seat in the exact same spot as my previous visit.

So this time, I ordered with some caution. And started with some Chu-Toro, the piece of fatty tuna toward the end of the belly. It's not quite as fatty or rich as O-Toro, but usually good nonetheless.

This was not bad, I've had better, and I've had worse. It pretty low in the fat department, but I was satisfied. I also got the last of it. I can see how that happened, thought these were not as large as the nigiri on my last visit, it was still quite large, and you can't get too many nigiri from one piece.

I tried to figure out a way to communicate the size...I think a comparison to my index finger came out the best:

Or maybe my cellphone(this was the smaller of the two pieces)

This time they had Hirame($4.50), but I forgot to tell them to not put on the Sriracha:

The fish was fresh, firm without being too tough and chewy.

Albacore($4.50):

Just so-so.

As before the Hamachi "Toro" was the best item of the night.

When you think about it, Sushi Time does a pretty good job for a place that does everything from Donburi to Teriyaki to Sushi. The clientle is as diverse as the menu. The service I received was very nice, even though the poor Itamae were slammed...I've never seen so many sushi rolls in my life. Personally, I'm not a big fan of super-sized sushi, preferring the perfect bite, and quality over quantity, but Sushi Time does a pretty good job, and the fish varied from decent to good. Plus, Sho-go and Joe were both really nice guys.

Sushi Time
6950 Federal Blvd
Lemon Grove, California 91945

Comments

[mizducky]

Oh my god, those things are huge!!! And I followed the link about the escolar--euw. You're a brave man, Kirk! :-D

[dave]

wait wait wait. so the 'white tuna' i really enjoyed a couple months ago (on the east coast) could have been the dreaded escolar? yikes! i don't remember any, umm, effects, though...

[Fred]

I like the awning. "Lunch Time...Dinner Time...Sushi Time"

[nhbilly]

Geeesh it has been so long since I had sushi, maybe this weekend if it doesn't get to crowed. The first I had fatty torro - it was 5 pieces for $25.oo. And boy was it so so so fatty after the second piece I was intoxicated I could barely finish the rest ;-)

[Kirk]

Hi Mizducky - Apparently Escolar is very popular on the East coast, so it's nothing very exotic.....

Hi Dave - Unfortunately, what you think is probably true. Not to gross you out, but here are a few more links. I didn't want to over do the "orange oil" thing in my post. So just in case you're wondering:

http://ehealthforum.com/health/topic10871.html

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/301882

Don't read this before lunch, okay?

Hi Billy - Have fun, we still have to grab some sushi, right?

[Kirk]

Hi Fred - All they were missing was "Breakfast Time"..he-he-he, Sushi, it's not just for breakfast anymore!

[clayfu]

i had obviously frozen sushi the other day, when its still wet and nasty. YUCK.

[Kirk]

Hi Clayfu - Yes, like biting into a pouch of mush and water......

[chizzed]

Wow, I made a huge mistake in coming here to catch up on the blog posts when I hadn't eaten lunch yet. That hamachi and toro look so tasty right now that my stomach is eating itself up and I'm getting weird looks from the people around me in the library!

[Shan]

Love your blog! Thanks for the write-up on Restaurant Yakata, defintely one of the best sushi bars in San Diego. You need to check out Nami in Hillcrest I was there this weekend and the food was better then my previous visit, still more on the trendy side. Nami had excellent quality and nice sized pieces of sashimi. We did have a white tuna roll at Nami and the Japanese restaurant where my mom worked in Ventura County also had a white tuna when the Itamae could get it (he would also get live abalone, loved it), not sure if either was escolar. Never had any ill effects from it and I have liked it everytime I have eaten it. Keep up the great work!

[Lizs]

I am drooling. Think we will have Japanese for dinner tonight. :)

[Dee]

Hey Kirk, you were in my neighborhood! We live just up the road, in Rolando. I used to eat there whenever I craved sushi but didn't want to drive far, but I just couldn't take the sticky carpet anymore! =P

[Kirk]

Hi Chizzed - LOL! Yes, a rumbling stomach in a quite library.....

Hi Shan - The Missus loves Yakata, it's quiet, there's always something that stands out sushi-wise. I work in the Hillcrest area, and have been severely underwhelmed by Nami in the past, but it's been a few years, so I'll check it out! Thanks for the "rec". As for Escolar, it seems that there are two things that cause the dreaded "orange oil", some are more sensitive to it, and portion size.....

Hi Lizs - Thanks for visiting and commenting! I hope you did enjoy some nice Japanese food for dinner!

Hi Dee - he-he-he It's so dark in there, but to think about it the carpets did seem to have a bit more "traction".

[Catherine (Koko)]

Love your blog.
I've recently discovered Sushi Time. What a treat to find such a nice place in the Lemon Grove area.
I have posted about it on my blog also.
I'm new to sushi so I'm taking your comments to help me with my order next time we go there. Hopefully it will be soon.
Good Job.

[Andy 美國土子]

with red green and white on the sign, I would have thought they served Mexican or Italian style sushi!

[Kirk]

Hi Koko - Sushi Time is a pretty good neighborhood joint. Those Nigiri were certainly quite large. I'd stay with the Hamachi Belly, Toro, and Albacore Belly. The Maguro looked so-so.

Hi Andy - You know what? Until you mentioned that, I didn't even notice! Very perceptive......