After walking down Cedar Street and through the velvet curtain that stands in the entryway of Sushi Mike’s, my eye was immediately drawn to the mural of sea creatures eating sushi that cover the walls of the back room. We were seated in this room (where we saw 3 other tables of Masters students) and we ordered too much food for two people. Here are the highlights of the meal:

Gyoza: I have a philosophy that when eating dumplings you should always be able to recognize what kind of meat is inside them, otherwise they’re probably thawed from a package. I could recognize the pork inside of the gyoza. The dumpling was crispy without being hard, soft without being slippery, and delicious.

Chicken Udon: My qualms about udon lead back to the fact that sometimes the noodles are greasy and chewy, but this was not the case. The udon came piled on a plate with pieces of pan fried chicken and vegetables scattered throughout. The noodles were smooth and easy to pick up with chopsticks, they didn’t get stuck to the roof of your mouth, and they were flavorful.

Kamikaze roll: If I’m going to a sushi restaurant to review it, I can’t not order a speciality roll. My favorite one was the Kamikaze roll. Inside of the rice was shrimp tempura, cucumber, pickled jalapeno, and on top was a spicy-ish sour sauce. Though the pieces were big and somewhat falling apart after I took a bite, the roll was great. The tempura didn’t get soggy underneath the sauce, the cucumber added some crunch, and the jalapeno was enough to make the roll not bland.

I’m still working on becoming an adventurous sushi eater and moving on from cucumber rolls and spicy tuna, and Sushi Mike’s had a menu that appealed to me as well as my friend who is more culinarily risky. I can see Sushi Mike’s becoming the place I go when I have some time after school and am craving sushi. By the end of the meal I was happy and full and excited to go back to try more things.