Desperately Seeking Sushi

Over the summer, my pal, Lisa and I were determined to get ourselves to a legit sushi joint. Somehow, I had never gotten proper sushi since moving to Tampa Bay. I'd only picked up sub-par rolls last minute from Whole Foods, Publix, or Greenwise. Their sushi is decent, but nothing to write home (or blog) about.

I set to the Googles and did an exhausting search of veggie-tastic sushi menus in our neck of Tampa. I finally settled on Samurai Blue in Ybor City. Let's go!

Lisa started out with a cup of miso soup.

And we split a large salad. (This was just my portion!) The ginger salad dressing was fab!

And now the rolls. I ordered avocado, shitake mushroom, and the veggie roll, which contained asparagus, avocado, cucumber, carrot & shitake mushroom.

veggie roll

The veggie roll wasn't as flavorful as I was expecting from so many vegetables packed into one little space. Lisa and I ended up splitting another avocado and shitake roll.

The atmosphere in Samurai Blue is small and trendy but comfy. High ceilings, brick walls. They were playing some pretty great music (in my opinion - alt-rock and some indie) and the service was great. Our server was very friendly and helpful with answering some questions we had about the menu.

***

About a month later, a gaggle of us went to Soho Sushi after a long, sweaty day at Tampa Bay Veg Fest. I didn't take any pictures (it was a long, long day), but the sushi was great! The restaurant is much larger than Samurai Blue. Soho also offers habachi fun. I can't remember what rolls we ordered, but everything was really good and fresh. I would definitely return to Soho Sushi!