Sushi Spot

REAL RAMEN in Boulder, Colorado! That is most important about this place. The guys who work there are very nice too — Chef Elliot takes care of me any time i go it. They have 6 kinds of ramen (has to be the only place in the state that does), but I go for the Tonkatsu, which is really hard to get because it takes more than a day to make the broth (pork-​based). Creamy, rich Tonkatsu broth accompanied by two slices of chasu pork, a tea egg (overcooked, but real ramen is so rare in CO, i won’t complain too much), pickled ginger, garlic/​soy/​pepper sauteed bean sprouts, a heap of noodles, and green onion to top it off. It’s absolutely delicious (not your grocery store packet o’ ramen in any way). And at only $ 8.50 a bowl it’s a great value. I’ve had smaller bowls of Tonkatsu ramen that cost a few bucks more!
I did have a few sushi rolls one time i was here too. It’s my fault for ordering no-​frills happy hour rolls, but they were satisfying enough. The people next to me got an 8-​Ball roll which looked phenomenal (smoked salmon, eel, avocado, etc). I would try some of their fancy rolls another time, but I pretty much always get the ramen because NO place in Boulder or Denver (now that Den Deli went away) has real ramen anymore and i need my fix! It is good. Other than the tea egg being way overdone, the broth is authentic, something like you’d get in Little Tokyo in L.A. And NO MSG! They have good happy hour sake and beer deals too.
i knocked a star off because the service, while friendly and helpful, is slow so do not go here if you are in a hurry because the folks who work here aren’t in a hurry. I’ve never been here while it’s been crowded either. But because I go in knowing they’re not speed demons, I relax and enjoy something I can’t get anywhere in the region ! i hear some place in Niwot has it on Sundays but that’s just too inconvenient of a location for me living in Denver and being in Boulder only during the work week.
ENJOY YOUR RAMEN!

We really enjoy the Sushi Spot. We’ve been big fans of Sushi Zanmai for 10 years but it get so crowded. Sushi Spot is owned by the same person, Now San, and the fish is the same without the Zanmai wait. Colin the manager is very friendly and always available to offer up his suggestions. Try the ramen and the Z-​9 roll just yummy.

The sushi rolls were really good… the service and lack of organization was ridiculous! Just felt like everyone was on mushrooms or something. Sat at the bar, had to order from a waitress, not the sushi chef in front of us. Waitress, visited twice, once to give us water and once to give US one paper napkin, two sets of chopsticks and one soy sauce bowl, after we got our sushi.
Had to walk over to pay my bill or I think we’d still be there. Nice people, fair price… they need a system.

Not the best sushi around, but also not a bad place to have lunch if you’re stuck on the hill. Their build your own sushi roll is a unique feature and the first time I’ve seen it. The rolls are not bad for the price either. My major gripe with this place is that they take foreevvvvveeeerrrr to bring your food… but they are cheaper and I think better than Hapa on the Hill, so I will more than keep going here went I want sushi for lunch.

I came to this place because I heard about the happy hour. When I walked into the place, the smell was overwhelming, very fishy mixed with soy sauce and sake, but a little bit too ripe. I know that’s probably how a sushi place naturally would smell, but it wasn’t appetizing. They need to do something about the smell.
We decided to sit at the sushi bar, where there is a statue of a green alien sitting on the counter. That’s a little disturbing when eating slightly slimy food. The décor is rather strange all around.
Other than that the sushi was good. It was about like any other place you would go, nothing really special. The great thing about it was it was sooooo cheap! We got the californication roll and 5 pieces of nigiri for around $ 8! The waitstaff were nice, just seemed like college girls providing decent service.
I might go there again if I’m really craving sushi and don’t have much cash, but the atmosphere needs some help.

Have you ever had service or a meal so bad that you left the restaurant spitting mad? This place was that experience for me. The restaurant itself was filthy, the table next to us stayed dirty the entire time we were there, the furniture was ripped and falling apart, and the place looks like it was decorated by a 13 year old boy on a time crunch. It literally looks like they put 5 minutes into the décor. We stayed because of the Unilocal reviews, but really ended up wishing we hadn’t. The food took FOREVER to arrive, and when it did, the sushi fell apart and tasted like it had been shipped to Colorado warm.
To give the poor girls who work at this place some credit, a server had bailed on them that night and the sushi roller was in training. My beef is with the management, who must be stoned to think that anything about this establishment is acceptable. Step it up or shut it down.

Sushi Spot is AWESOME! Stopped in after reading other reviews, sat at the sushi bar during lunch and was completely taken care of. I didn’t know what I wanted and the skilled sushi chef, Adam, just created a series of incredible small plates. It was akin to something I might pay well over $ 100 for in NYC, but for under $ 15!
They specialize in traditional press sushi (using molds) which gives a great texture to the creations. I’d suggest you sit at the bar, take your time, and give yourself over to their creativity — you won’t be dissapointed.

Do you know that, as long as I’ve lived in Boulder County (18 years, 3 of them in the Republic itself) I’ve never spent any time hanging on the Hill? I mean, why would I? I’m not of college age (thank baby Jesus!) and I’ve spent 16 of those years raising mes enfants. But now that I’ve got a teen who goes to high-​school in Boulder and has designated the Hill as her spot to see and be seen, we decided to have bonding-​girl time on… the Hill. After bonding over getting piercings, we ambled up the way looking for an inexpensive place to eat that wasn’t a sub or a slice. Walked into Sushi Spot, sat at the sushi bar, and proceeded to have one of the MOST FUN TIMES EVER! Because I’m still watching my «feed the children fund», I stayed true to my budget and opted for the cheapest rolls (Cali and Spicy tuna), but was not disappointed. Super fresh and bursting with what you’d expect from such rolls. The Spicy tuna was our fave– it included watercress, which totally gave it a spicy crunch. Cause I do appreciate spicy, crunchy in my life. Munched on a bowl of edamame, which arrived just how I like ‘em– lightly salted and jumbo sized beans that burst perfectly from the pod. Just noticed I’ve used «burst» twice, but I think it could be used more in this day and age. Eating edamame is fun! Chatted up the sushi-​chef and found out that this «spot» is owned by Sushi Zamai, which explains why this «cheaper» sushi joint didn’t fall to the level of «those» places. C’mon, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Food poisoning, anyone? Not here– they’ve got a rep to protect and a gazillion whippersnappers to feed. And, oh yeah– the tab was a whopping $ 20.00, so yay! It got me to thinking that maybe the Hill isn’t so scary and a girl like me should spend more time there. But only in the off-​season…

I came in here the other day to get sushi to go. I was unaware that it was happy hour, but it was, and so I got an 8 pc spicy california roll and an 8 pc spicy tuna roll for $ 5.50. Total, that is. You can’t really beat that deal– you can’t even buy sketchy sushi in the supermarket for that cheap. The rolls were fine, but were definitely rice heavy. They didn’t skip on filling, they just added a ton of rice. I didn’t really think the spicy california tasted like a california, just this spicy, creamy thing.
They have lots of good deals on sushi at happy hour, and their beer deals are really good. I don’t know if I would come back here not in happy hour, but it’s good to have a super cheap, semi-​decent place for sushi in a relaxed location.

All right. So after multiple entreaties from Sushi-​Spot affiliated people to to come in and give them another try, I finally decided to do so the other day. At happy hour, so if it still sucked, the monetary damage wouldn’t be as painful. And indeed the monetary damage was not as painful — Dan and I left to the tune of $ 14.
So… have they made a major turnaround? I’d say no. But they’re not a one star place anymore, I’ll give them that. The logistical problems have been (mostly) fixed. They now have menus with actual descriptions of the food, were not out of half their menu items, have acquired soy sauce dipping plates (only upon request though), and managed to thank both of us for eating there instead of just defaulting to the male.
Things that still need work: if it’s happy hour, give us a happy hour menu so we don’t have to read the one in the window backwards from our chairs, and please, waitresses, do not douse yourself in perfume so strong that clouds of it waft around our table for minutes after you leave, completely obscuring the taste of the food.
The food. As much as I wanted the food to have made some amazing turnaround, it just hasn’t. We ordered sesame salmon maki, a rocky roll (eel, avocado, masago), and the 3 for $ 5 sliders «deal».
The pork sliders were nothing more than bone-​dry slabs of tasteless pork stuffed in a Safeway-​esque hamburger buns, served with a three dipping sauces. The sauces could have saved the sandwich, but alas, all I could taste was generic, watered down, out-​of-​a-​bottle teriyaki sauce with way more than its fair share of MSG. This sauce was in all three bowls, with the difference that one bowl also had mustard in it and one had mayonnaise. What? That does not count as three sauces. Not worth $ 5 in general and definitely not a deal at $ 5.
The sesame salmon maki would have been okay, except whoever made the rolls didn’t know to leave off the brown mushy part of the skin on the salmon when slicing it, which totally ruined the taste.
I’d say the best thing we ate was the rocky roll — the avocado was fresh and ripe and the eel was well cooked. But again, it was really nothing special, and it was tinier than any roll I’ve ever seen before (except for the rolls I saw on my first visit here).
I SO want this place to be good because the Hill SO needs a good casual sushi joint, but I’m out of luck because it just isn’t. They’ll probably stay afloat because they’re also a bar and they’re open really late, and I’m sure when you’re drunk, exotic bar food is exotic bar food whether or not it’s well made.
As for me, I’ll be happy to make the trip down to Pearl St for decent sushi.

This place simple has a great vibe. You come in, it has local artwork on the walls, classic Japanese animé on other walls, TV screens and an overall eclectic feel. There is a full bar, and not only do they have great sushi but they have a few American favorites as well –like buffalo wings. This a great place to go to lunch, there happy hour is great. It’s a social spot, you come there to have a good time. Good friends, good food, and great fun. And the HOT SHOT (jalapeño infused vodka) a must try — it invigorates your sole.

Ok, I’m never one to give up, so I tried again.
They did it! Went with a bunch of friends on a Wednesday night. The staff was super friendly, knowledgeable, and took great care of us. And the rolls and drinks were GREAT!
Way to go, guys. Thanks for showing us that a new business on the hill can be great!