Cox: No frills, good food at O! Sushi

Customers at O! Sushi, Chef Billy Chong’s restaurant in the Dutton Plaza shopping center in Santa Rosa, are confronted with eight menu pages loaded with maki sushi rolls. But don’t worry. The choice is easy because they’re all good, if what I tasted is an indication.

There was a roll called Sensual Pleasure, containing tuna and scallops. The Lion King roll is a California roll topped with tuna and baked. Pink Lady roll features avocado, cucumber, salmon, and lemon. One of the most popular rolls is the Toto, with shrimp tempura, cucumber, tuna, salmon, avocado, spicy crab, and a pinch of tobiko on top. The most popular of all the rolls on the extensive list is the Red Dragon Roll ($11.95 ???). It’s what the Japanese call uramaki, an inside-out roll, with the seaweed inside and the rice on the outside. Stretched out, it’s about a foot long, but chef Chong forms it into a gentle S curve and pours two sauces over it. One is a dark red unagi (eel) sauce, the other a light, peach-colored, spicy mayonnaise.

Then the roll is cut into inch-wide slices and topped with a spoonful of red tobiko. It does resemble a slithering dragon coming at you. But it tastes wonderful because of its ingredients: tempura shrimp, cucumbers, crab, avocado, and spicy tuna. I was a little leery of the crab, since it’s not crab season, but found it to be fresh tasting.

Chef Chong, who is Korean, from Seoul, has had other restaurants in Sonoma County over the years but now runs two: O! Sushi and Lakeville Garden Sushi on South McDowell Boulevard in Petaluma.

The Santa Rosa restaurant is plain, rather dimly lit, with booths resembling wooden cubicles, each with a table and four chairs, and six chairs at the sushi bar. Two extra-large flat-screen TVs are tuned to sports. There are teas and soft drinks, plus Sapporo beer and one kind each of hot or cold sake. The place was open seven days a week, but recently decided to close on Thursdays.

As bare bones as the decor is, the sushi rolls are opulent, and they are not the only items on the menu. Dinner starts with a complimentary cup of light miso soup and a side salad of iceberg lettuce and shredded carrot given a mayonnaise-based dressing similar to that used on cole slaw.

Among the appetizers, Shumai ($5.95 ???) are excellent. These four steamed shrimp dumplings come hot to the table, accompanied by a ponzu sauce for dipping. Ponzu is made with mirin, rice vinegar, seaweed, dried tuna flakes, and citrus juice, heated, strained to take out the flakes, and served with a wide variety of Japanese dishes. It goes particularly well with the delicate dumplings.

Jalapeño Bomb ($6.95 ??½) is an intriguing appetizer, especially if you like a little peppery heat. Spicy tuna, crab, cream cheese, and jalapeño are formed into three balls a little larger than a golf ball, dipped in batter and deep fried. They’re then cut in half and arranged on a plate so you get six pieces.

On, then, to an entree, served with white rice and edamame (soy beans). Chicken Katsu ($9.95 ???) is a bargain, because you get two large breasts pounded out into cutlets, dipped in egg, coated with panko, and sauteed until golden brown and crisp. The Japanese came up with this dish with the western palate in mind, as it’s a lot like chicken nuggets, only in cutlet form. It’s served with tonkatsu sauce, originally developed to go with breaded pork cutlets, but which works fine with chicken. It’s sort of a Japanese version of Worcestershire sauce, made from tomatoes, prunes, dates, apples, lemon juice, carrots, onions, and celery. It also includes more than 10 kinds of spices along with soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar.

When many people think of sushi, they think of nigiri sushi, slices of raw or cooked seafood laid on hand-formed beds of sushi rice, served with wasabi and pickled ginger. O! Sushi serves many kinds, including Salmon Nigiri ($4.50 ???) and a white tuna type called Ono Nigiri ($4.50 ???). You get two pieces with each order, and the fish is clean-tasting and firm, with no fishiness.

To sum up: No frills, but lots of good sushi at O! Sushi.

Jeff Cox writes restaurant reviews for the Sonoma Living section. He can be reached at jeffcox@sonic.net

O! Sushi

Where: 443 Dutton Ave., Suite 2, Santa Rosa

When: Open from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Open Sundays from 3 to 9 p.m. Closed Thursdays.

Reservations: Call 544-1799

Price range: Moderate to expensive, with entrees from $9.95 to $20 range

Wine list: NA

Ambiance: ?

Service: ??½

Food: ???

Overall: ??½

KEY

???? Extraordinary

??? Very Good

?? Good

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0 Terrible