Assembly-line sushi rolls out custom orders
Customers select each ingredient as pre-cut fish and other items are added step by step
Sushi can come from high-class sushi bars, strip-mall eateries and even supermarket cold cases.
It tends not to come from chain restaurants.
But a new wave of small operations hoping to go big is out to change that. Two of them have opened outlets in Southern California, and a third will soon join them.
The key to all three is a kind of assembly-line production — like at the hugely successful Chipotle chain — in which customers call the shots every step of the way to get customized sushi exactly to their liking.
“You can already customize your computer, your car, your coffee — why not your sushi?” said Jen Duarte, cofounder of
Sushifreak, based in San Diego. “When we get a line, we can just pump through. We’re a well-oiled machine.”
Knife-wielding chefs at expensive sushi bars will customize to a limited extent — if they’re in the mood. But these far less expensive sushi restaurants are all about letting the customer rule while also offering convenience.
More than half of Sushi-Freak’s customers order takeout, which many sushi bars don’t offer. Dine-in patrons are usually in and out within half an hour.
The design-it-yourself sushi eateries are aiming for a sweet spot between the ultra-convenience of plastic packaged supermarket sushi and the quality and artistic creativity of high-end sushi restaurants.
Former financial planner Yuen Yung came up with the idea for his Texas-based How Do You Roll? — which just opened its first California outlet in Marina del Rey — after his quest for a quick bite between client meetings ended with some unimpressive pre-made sushi.
“I was thinking, ‘This is like dating somebody I don’t like, but it’s better than having nobody,’ ” he said.
Making the customer an active participant in customizing offerings is hardly a new idea. Some Asian restaurants — Korean barbecue eateries in particular — have patrons actually participate in the cooking. Likewise, the Venice Room Bar and Grill steakhouse in Monterey Park has for decades allowed customers to cook steaks to their liking on indoor grills.
And frozen yogurt chains such as Yogurtland have visitors dispense their own flavors and apply toppings from a large array of choices.
“More and more people want to have it their way,” Yung said. “They want complete expression of individualism and freedom of choice.”
At U-sushi in Beverly Hills, patrons create their sushi rolls by first selecting their rice and then the seaweed or soy wrapping. They move down the line to select a type of fish, which is presliced, and then farther down to a choice of up to three vegetables.
After picking up sauce and garnishes ( tobiko fish eggs, anyone?) at the end, employees roll and cut the sushi.
In the background, robotic machinery speeds up the process. U-sushi and similar restaurants often use a machine that pats down the rice and another that prepares miso soup.
U-sushi founder Jeremy Umland believes that this type of restaurant, with all the basic ingredients for sushi rolls out front and the customer in control, could bring wider acceptance of the cuisine. Although no longer considered exotic in many places, raw fish still makes a lot of Americans squeamish.
“We’re taking the guesswork and fear out,” Umland said. “There are no sneaky tricks — we’re not going to slip in any uni [sea urchin].
“It’s the final step in allowing sushi to have nationwide acceptance.”