We have a favorite sushi shop in Hilo and it pretty much would be even if it was located anywhere we lived. The quality is high and the prices low. The Japanese owners process their own brown rice for the shop via their own method. Not easy to get brown rice to hold together like regular sushi rice. This is a take out place but there are a couple small tables if you wish to sit there. Just walk across the street and you are on Hilo Bay and can sit and eat with a fantastic view.
Hiroshi is the chef and he does a wonderful job in his tiny kiosk, located on the main street in old down town Hilo. He is a very talented sushi chef and his wife Hikaru, who helps out about twice a week, are super nice people. Hikaru is a writer, so has her own thing to do usually but is there helping for the heavy traffic days. Hiroshi always has a big smile and winning personality when we come in. Nice people, great food, cheap prices……..works for me!
Sushi has become synonymous with Japanese food these days. In the decades before it was fashionable, most foreigners could not imagine eating raw fish. Before that, it was probably sukiyaki that was most famous. I confess that I mainly like Tuna raw and most foreigners who like sushi almost always like that one. I usually add Ebi, [shrimp] but that is cooked and cooled. My Japanese wife eats it all and I pick at some of it but nothing impresses like good, raw tuna. Especially here in Hawaii where our fishermen go out and troll for it daily. Suisan market is famous for buying and selling local fish and is located just blocks from this shop.
Hawaii loves poke, which is a Hawaiian food that is mostly raw tuna, marinated in a sauce and I have not been terribly impressed. His poke is his own recipe and his poke bowl is absolutely wonderful. He uses high quality tuna and in many other places on island, they chunk cut it and don’t always use the best cuts. If you live in Hawaii and like Poke, you owe it to yourself to try this one. I bet you will say it is the best you ever had!
They are open 11Am to 5:30 except Thursday. If you are walking the old famous bay front in Hilo, do yourself a favor and have some high quality brown rice sushi at a price you will love!
Here are the pictures from out take out yesterday. I paired this with Hapa Brown Ale from our local Mehana Brewery. Went exceptionally well together.
Here is a short clip of Japanese knife skill, cutting my wife’s salmon roll sushi
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