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| - One of my biggest complaints when I moved to Charlotte was the sushi situation. I mean, deep fried sushi? What the heck? I'm no purist, because I do love to experiment and try new flavors. But dropping a roll of perfectly-rolled sushi into a deep fryer is blasphemy, in my opinion. So... for this reason, I was hesitant to try Sushi 101 because I feared it would be another trendy sushi spot (I avoided any place with deep friend sushi for that reason). Anyway, our usual sushi spot was going through some management changes and the menu changed, so we had to branch out and try new places.
My family is pretty predictable. The 9-year old boy loves ramen noodle soup with chicken and no veggies. The hubby loves sushi and ramen noodle soup with all the veggies they can fit in the bowl. I skip the soup and just eat sashimi and maybe a hand roll or two, a ginger salad or some edamame.
We found Sushi 101 to be a really pleasant surprise! As you can imagine, we skipped the deep fried sushi (and now, I will step off the soap box)...
Their noodle dishes are wonderful. I love how you basically build your dish. Pick your starch (noodle choices include udon, buckwheat, glass noodles and ramen... or rice), then your protein, then your "style". They can make it into soup, a stir-fry or even a "don" style which is over rice. LOVE this format!
The sushi menu is extensive and satisfying to any sushi lover. For the purists, you can get a lovely sashimi. The fish is fresh and expertly prepared. Their presentation, even for the simplest of items, is lovely. The nigiri sushi rolls are great, and the portions are great for one, or to share (if you order a few). My only complaint is that there's just a little too much rice on the nigiri, but that's no biggie. I am in love with their Half Moon, which is a lightly broiled scallop concoction, it just melts in your mouth and leaves you begging for more!
They do have a full bar, wine list (not extensive), sake and Japanese and domestic beers. The sodas are served in cans, which I've always found to be a little strange, but, again, no biggie. Just different.
All in all, we love the service, the location and the menu. The food never disappoints, and this is now one of our regular sushi spots. It's best at lunch time, because you can get in and out in less than 45 mins!
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