Sushi has always been my favorite food.

I’d opt for a piece of sashimi over a slice of pizza any day, so I was thrilled upon finding out a new sushi restaurant was opening just a mile or so away from Syracuse University.

Asahi, located at 508 Westcott St., recently opened its doors Feb. 19. The restaurant specializes in “conveyor belt” sushi, which allows diners to choose from freshly made options as they rotate past, including maki, sashimi and hand rolls. Diners can also bypass the conveyor belt and order off of the menu, featuring rolls, teriyaki, hibachi and noodles.

Upon entering Asahi, the restaurant was inviting and, although there were not many people there, the conveyor belt in the center added excitement. Things seemed promising.

The peppy waitress directed us politely to seats of our choosing. She remained attentive throughout the meal, stopping by frequently to refill water glasses and ask the quintessential, “How’s everything going?”

We chose to sit in a booth, which allows access to the conveyor belt and view of the chef, though you can also sit at a table or the less formal bar.

The thing about Asahi is that eating solely from the conveyor belt isn’t cheap. The portions on the plates are tiny, usually three maki pieces or one to two sashimi pieces, so you either have to plan on spending a lot or don’t go there hungry in the first place.

A dish’s price corresponds with the color plate it’s on. At Asahi, yellow is $2.50, orange $3.50, red $4.75, purple $5.75, blue $6.75 and black $7.50. Unfortunately, only a few yellow plates rotated around while we were there. Most of the plates were red, purple and blue.

Ordering off of the menu gives you more bang for your buck, so that’s exactly what we did. First up: seaweed salad, $4.95. Seaweed salad goes with a sushi meal like butter on toast, and it’s supposed to be packed with umami flavor.

Unfortunately, Asahi’s version fell short and was one of the least flavorful seaweed salads I’ve ever had. Grocery store versions have been better. The typical flavors of soy, sesame and rice vinegar were muted and barely distinguishable. The salad’s portion was skimpy and the seaweed was served atop a bed of chopped lettuce, which took away from the seaweed’s wonderful chewy texture.

Asahi has a wide assortment of sushi and sashimi a la carte, which comes with two pieces per order. We ordered the Uni, market price. Uni, or sea urchin, is a must-try for those who have not had the pleasure of doing so. It is luxurious, sensual, sweet and tastes of the sea.

The sushi was mostly Uni, with only a bit of sushi rice, all bound together by a toasted sheet of nori. Although there were only two pieces, they were plentiful with Uni and well worth their $7.50 market price.

We ordered the Dragon Roll, $9.95, for our heftier, entrée-sized dish. The roll is filled with eel and cucumber, and is topped with avocado and eel sauce.

This was probably the biggest flub of the night.

When a roll has eel in it, which is a prominent flavor, you should be able to taste the eel. However, in Asahi’s version, the eel was completely overshadowed by the avocado. I could barely detect any eel at all. Either there was too much avocado, or there wasn’t enough eel in the roll — my money is on the latter explanation.

Since Asahi brands itself as a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, we felt obliged to try something off of the rotating belt. We had a three-piece California Roll on a yellow plate, priced at $2.50.

The crab was real, tender and sweet, and there was a nicely sized portion of avocado in each piece. My one complaint was that the sushi rice was unevenly laid onto the nori, leaving gaps in the rice.

Asahi had only been open two days when we visited, so I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that the errors in preparation are just post-opening jitters. Overall, the sushi was decent and the atmosphere was fun, but if you order off of the conveyor belt, be careful — you could end up spending a small fortune.

Published on February 26, 2013 at 11:50 pm

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