All-you-can-eat sushi for $14.95 at Simply Sushi in SLC

Just a few years ago, sushi was a special treat that was enjoyed on rare occasions. Today, you can eat it any day of the week at 15 locations or more. But for the most part, it is still prohibitively expensive to have more than once or twice a month. And then comes along a trend of drive-thru sushi and all-you-can-eat sushi. So, what’s the catch?

At Simply Sushi’s two locations in downtown and West Jordan, there are a few rules. You can’t just eat the fish and leave the rice. You can’t camp for hours on end. Five people can’t eat off one paying diner. You can’t take everything to-go and if you leave more than one full roll you’ll be charged for it. Not really unreasonable requests considering what you are getting.

The selection of menu items available for the lunch all-you-can-eat price of $14.95 is quite fair. There are 11 nigiri options, 10 hand rolls and 17 long rolls available for lunch. At lunchtime, rolls on the Dinner Long Roll Menu as well as sashimi can be purchased at the menu price and non-sushi items like salad, tempura and teriyaki are also available at the a la carte price. (That being said, even though I’m the Lunch Examiner, your best value is to go here for dinner for $19.95!) Kids under 12 are $9.95 for lunch and $13.95 for dinner.

Mind you, this is not the most fantastic sushi ever had, but it is quite good. They have well-trained sushi chefs who are as knowledgable and friendly as most other sushi restaurants. Criticism includes that the rolls are heavy on the rice. Fair, but also falls in the “duh” category as this is all-you-can-eat after all. You wouldn’t really expect a plate of sushi-grade fish served to you in never-ending quantities.

In fact, I was rather impressed with some of the items I tried and would be willing to pay for them individually if I had to. One of those is the Spicy Upside Down Shrimp which is a butterflied shrimp filled with crab and spicy sauce. One order includes two of these and they are delicious and pretty. The Irish Veggie Long Roll (tempura sweet potato, onion, avocado and sweet sauce) was really delightful with a variety of flavors and textures. Certainly the most unusual item we tried was the Rangoon Roll which includes cooked salmon, shrimp and cream cheese that is deep fried in eggroll paper. Most of my group didn’t care for it because it was a bit on the sweet side but it was actually one of my favorites. I would advise that you order it as one of your last items as it was sort of dessert-like. (It’s heavy on melted cream cheese.)

Other long roll recommends (on the lunch menu) include the Simply Sushi Long Roll (crystal shrimp, cooked scallops, crab and sweet sauce) and the King Kong Tempura Roll (crab, tempura shrimp, cream cheese and sweet sauce).

Overall, Simply Sushi is a great place if you want to try a bunch of things that you might not be willing to pay $10 a roll for or if you’ve got a large group and want to pass everything around the table. One final note, if you are single or a group of two, you will be seated at the sushi bar only.

**Note: I stand by this review for the downtown location only. We recently visited the West Jordan restaurant and were disappointed in the overall quality, taste and even appearance of the sushi. It seemed that not only the spicy mayo sauce but also all the items containing crab were mixed with Miracle Whip (awful). Service was quick and friendly but sadly the sushi just did not compare to the downtown location at all. We would not visit the West Jordan restaurant again and will drive out of our way to get to the downtown location for dinner.

Downtown Location
200 West 400 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
801-746-4445