Sumo Steakhouse & Sushi Bar is massive in size with a massive menu to match. It’s a nice addition to the chain-heavy area surrounding East Towne.
You have many ways to eat here: In one of the two dining rooms, the sushi bar, the bar, the hibachi area or the private dining rooms. You have so many menu options at your disposal that you could eat two meals a day here and not repeat for a few weeks.
Sushi is a prime example. You can get sushi appetizers (e.g. crab tar tar, $8.15), a two-piece order of sushi, a three-piece order of sashimi, sushi entrees (e.g. Sumo Boat A, $59.95), rolls and signature rolls, which is where I descended.
Named after the street on which the restaurant is located, the Parkside roll ($10.95) has plump shrimp, crispy tempura, the right amount of sauce and a decent amount of shredded crab. I like that it’s crunchy on both the inside and outside. Meanwhile, the crawfish roll ($10.95) is cut into big pieces, enough for two+ bites for some people. It’s milder in flavor, not spicy as it claims, has a good amount of crab and crawfish and has big chunks of avocado.
I also ordered a sushi appetizer, the Karashi octopus ($6.50). The octopus is served in cubes, and there’s plenty of it amid the generous portion of avocado and julienned cucumber. The dish is fresh tasting and a little spicy.
All entrees are preceded by onion soup–which also comes with mushrooms–and a salad.
The selection is diverse. There’s hot pot chicken ($14.95), rosemary lamb chops ($17.95) and lemon dill salmon ($13.95), to name a few. I couldn’t resist trying the Sumo pineapple fried rice ($11.95), which is honestly big enough to feed 2-3. The carved-out pineapple, which holds all the food, is pretty, but the rice and steak were so bland I had to add liberal amounts of salt and pepper to get through it. The mixture also contains cashews, which seemed unnecessary, plus raisins, eggs and chunks of pineapple.
As no surprise, the bar menu also has a large selection, with sections for imported beer, sake, wine, specialty cocktails, frozen drinks, after-dinner drinks and signature martinis. From the sake cocktails section, I chose the ocean blue ($6.95). Its prominent flavor is the pineapple juice, though fortunately, it doesn’t completely mask the sake, which you can still detect. Next time I’m going to get the rum volcano ($13), a two-person drink consisting of Bacardi, Myers, Captain Morgan’s, Bacardi 151, Malibu and tropical juices in a flaming volcano bowl.
Sumo Steakhouse & Sushi Bar is open every day for lunch and dinner, with dinner served all day on Sundays.
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See more photos in our Sumo Steakhouse & Sushi Bar Flickr album.
