Next up in Blog Preston’s series of Preston’s best and worst reviewed eateries is Sushi Tasty in the City Centre.
Located in the Fishergate Shopping Centre, Sushi Tasty has garnered rave reviews, with customers commenting on the ‘amazing, fresh and tasty food’, and ‘lovely owners’.
I couldn’t have the full sit-down experience as I was running late to visit friends, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and surprise them with some take-out Japanese food.
As soon as I walked in I was given a warm welcome by the manager and chef, and a menu to look at.
The small restaurant is bright, casual and cheery, with traditional pictures on the wall and emoji cushions on the chairs provided for takeaway customers. I apologetically perched in front of the cushion that looked anxious, as I didn’t want to engage with the creepy one that was smiling and sweating next to it.
I’m not too experienced with the different names of sushi, and despite a helpful staff member talking me through the menu, I failed to retain any of that information and once again ended up panic-ordering a Bunch of Stuff from an extensive choice.
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I went for a portion of eight fresh tuna maki with blue cheese wrapped in a nori roll at £5.85, and a portion of eight avocado maki at £3.20.
The tuna inside the maki was beautifully soft, and the hint of blue cheese enhanced the flavour of the fish without overpowering it. The avocado maki was made with the same care, but was a little bland in comparison, which wasn’t the fault of the restaurant; I’d ordered avocado and rice and received avocado and rice.
For £4.85, the tuna temaki – an artful cone of seaweed tightly packed with tuna, rice, vegetables, avocado and toasted sesame – was surprisingly filling and a joy to eat right up until The Stealth Wasabi Incident.
All the sushi came with pickled ginger, a generous scoop of bright green wasabi and sachets of soy sauce. I thought I’d been careful when I divided the condiments amongst the pieces, but half way through my temaki roll I was jumped by a blob of wasabi that must have somehow reformed and become even more powerful, like the Terminator 2 could, and like the Spice Girls couldn’t.
It crashed my mouth, nose, ears and eyes so ferociously that, for one cosmically enlightened second, I think I actually became the wasabi. Fortunately it quickly passed and my temaki roll and I pulled ourselves together and just acted like nothing had happened.
A bento box for £13.95 contained lightly seasoned, stir fried chicken pieces on a generous bed of steamed rice, crunchy bean sprouts flavoured with sesame, one prawn and one salmon nigiri, three saltily-delicious chicken gyoza dumplings and a carton of hot miso soup that I wish could be replicated in supermarkets.
Most people in the UK are familiar with umami, known as the fifth basic taste in addition to sweet, sour, salty and bitter.
It is described as savuory and meaty, and can be found in foods such as Marmite, Bovril and soy sauce. Everything in the bento box had the characteristic Japanese umami taste, but the miso soup had it in buckets.
I can see how Sushi Tasty has amassed so many excellent reviews. The staff are lovely, and were extra speedy with my order as they were aware that I was in a rush. The food is fresh and the ingredients are obviously of excellent quality.
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The only negatives of my experience were of my own making, and avoidable in future. The next time I visit I’ll find a menu online beforehand and spend a good half an hour Googling exactly what it all is so I can order a more diverse and interesting selection.
The hamachi tataki – seared tataki fish, fish roe, lemon-grass, chive and yuzu dressing – sounds fantastic, as does the Katsu Ramen – deep fried chicken or prawn or pork, ramen noodles, pork bone soup, katsu sauce, sesame oil, vegetable, egg and fish cake.
The other thing I’ll remember is to pat down all the sushi like a bouncer in a Blackpool nightclub before letting it anywhere near my mouth, because one Stealth Wasabi Incident per lifetime is more than enough, thank you.
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Have you seen infinite galaxies be created, die and reborn after being Stealth Wasabied? Cosmically enlighten us in the comments.