Food review: Fire ball nigiri

Restaurant: Sushi Delight (San Francisco)
Food description: Spicy tuna deep fried and topped with maguro tuna sashimi and spicy sauce
Food rating: 6 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Food review: Shiro maguro toro (albacore tuna)

Restaurant: Sushi Delight (San Francisco)
Food description: White tuna albacore toro nigiri sushi
Food rating: 8.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 2

This dish may not look like much, but it'll make you go mmm the whole time. Along with the bluefin toro, it's one of the best things at Sushi Delight, and some of the better toro I've had. Both of those items are specials, so they might not be available all the time. This toro is albacore, so its slightly less fatty than bluefin toro, but tastes pretty close. The texture is softer than bluefin toro so it still melts in your mouth nicely. I always try to prolong the experience of toro by eating it v e r y s l o w l y and hope more will magically appear, but it never does. Otherwise, I'd be sitting there for days gorging myself. Since we go to Sushi Delight regularly, the chef always hooks us up with something really fresh, this time it was the albacore toro, which was a special treat. I'm not sure if it's always this good, or if we're only getting it at its best, but you can ask the chef yourself what's really fresh and he'll recommend something good.

Food review: Maguro sashimi (red tuna)

(tuna on right)

Restaurant: Sushi Delight (San Francisco)
Food description: Raw slices of red tuna fish
Food rating: 7.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 10+

I order maguro sashimi pretty regularly here and it's one of the better tuna sashimi dishes that I've had. I enjoy tuna sashimi but I don't crave it as much as hamachi or toro. The color of the maguro sashimi is consistently good--it's always a sign of freshness when the color is a nice deep red, never brownish or pinkish. Thankfully, the cut is also great here-tuna that's cut from the wrong part of the fish has stripes of chewy tendony stuff. Proper chefs won't serve you this, and use it inside the rolls instead. I've sent tuna back at places like Sanraku for this reason. The flavor of this tuna is nice and clean, and actually has flavor compared to some other places (for amazing flavor, try the maguro at Sebo in Hayes Valley). The texture is usually very smooth, and doesn't require a lot of chewing. Overall, the maguro at Sushi Delight is pretty tasty and a great bang for the buck ($7 for 6 pieces).

Food review: Dragon roll

Restaurant: Sushi Delight (San Francisco)
Food description: Shrimp tempura roll with cucumber, topped with avocado and eel (unagi)
Food rating: 7.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 5+

I'm more of a sashimi person than a roll person, because the flavor of the fish gets lost too much. The great part about the Dragon roll is that the eel and avocado are on the outside, so you can actually taste what's important first. In combination, the eel and avocado deliver a rich, buttery, sumptuous flavor. When you throw in shrimp tempura, you've now got grease overload. Even with the cucumbers cutting the oilyness, it's still somewhat ruins what the eel/avocado combo had going for it. Though that could be said about all dragon rolls, I still think there's more things the chef can do here to offset the heavyness of the oil in this roll. Overall, this roll is still pretty tasty, just make sure you've got some Kirin nearby to cleanse the palette.

Food review: Dynamite roll

Restaurant: Sushi Delight (San Francisco)
Food description: Spicy tuna, eel, and cucumber roll deep-fried amidst a bed of seaweed salad
Food rating: 8 out of 10
Times ordered: 10+

This is one of the more creative rolls available at Sushi Delight. For not being a huge fan of spicy tuna, this roll hits it out of the park. The presentation is excellent and the flavor is a nice balance between spicy and sweet. It's not overly greasy and the cucumber isn't overpowering. The seaweed salad is a nice companion to cool off the spiciness. The eel gets a little lost in the spiciness, but it's still a very tasty combination. Overall, it's a very nice rendition of the spicy tuna roll and one of my favorite items on the menu.

Food review: Hamachi sashimi (yellowtail)

(hamachi on left)

Restaurant: Sushi Delight (San Francisco)
Food description: Raw slices of yellowtail hamachi sashimi
Food rating: 8 out of 10
Times ordered: 10+

What can I say but YUM!! One of the best things on the menu at Sushi Delight and a staple of my diet. It always tastes so fresh, it's hard to tell if it was actually frozen (like much sashimi) or not. The flavor is rich and buttery, but not oily like salmon. It's less fatty than some other hamachi, but barely noticeable. The texture is semi-soft and melts in your mouth. The cut is consistently great and is just the right size. A must-try for any hamachi fans. Oh, and did I mention it's a great value ($7 for 6 pieces)?

Food review: Edamame

Restaurant: Sushi Delight (San Francisco)
Food description: Steamed soybeans lightly salted and served hot
Food rating: 7.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 10+

Every time I go to a sushi restaurant, I can't go without my edamame. Since I go to Sushi Delight about once a week, I can safely say that the edamame is pretty consistently decent. It's served hot rather than cold, which I prefer, and since I'm a salt-a-holic, the waiter/owner knows to serve it with a salt shaker. The soybeans look fresh and taste fresh, and you don't have to worry about pushing aside any rotten-looking ones. My one gripe, and this is a matter of personal taste, is that the soybeans are slightly too soft. I prefer edamame to be al dente : tender but crisp. Other than that, I like 'em just fine.

Food review: Miso soup

Restaurant: Sushi Delight (San Francisco)
Food description: Japanese soup made with miso paste, tofu, and seaweed
Food rating: 6 out of 10
Times ordered: 5+

Overall, the miso soup at Sushi Delight is just average, though I somehow keep ordering it when it's freezing cold outside. One thing that really irks me is any miso soup served in a plastic bowl. The steam from the soup gives off a plastic-y smell and if you drink it the tru Japanese way, straight from the bowl, it'll taste like plastic too (though I'm probably the only one who notices stuff like this). The soup itself is pretty minimal, and more take-out style than gourmet-you know, those tiny little cubes of tofu and bits of seaweed! Mostly broth, but like I said, good enough for just warming you up. And c'mon, at $1.50, what'd you expect anyway?