Soho Sushi Bar and Deli

The staff is always friendly. Great specials during the week. Love their seasonal menus– always something new! Love the brick.

Short Version: Odd little sushi place. You’ll walk in and be surprised that they sell sushi. Despite that, they have a good variety of items that somehow compliment one another pretty well. You’ll probably be able to find something for everyone in your party here — even if they don’t like sushi. Decent service and a nice place.
Important to Know:
This place shares an establishment with The Stuffed Olive business. SoHo also doesn’t have dedicated parking but street parking is usually plentiful nearby — you shouldn’t have to walk more than two blocks.
Long Version:
When we first walked in, we were super surprised by how this place looked. Compared to all other sushi places we’ve been, it didn’t LOOK like a sushi place. It looked like a steakhouse with a bar area. It didn’t have any sort of Japanese feel, and all of the employees were caucasians. Definitely not what we expected from a place with «sushi» in the name.
But it turns out that it wasn’t a bad thing. The food was surprisingly good there, and the more «American» feel to this sushi place meant that our non-​sushi eating friends could also find food they’d like while the sushi lovers could enjoy their rolls. SoHo also sells lots of fancy sandwiches (paninis) as well as a pretty generous tapas menu. It makes it easy for most people to find something they’ll eat this restaurant.
SoHo offers both interior and exterior seating. The seating is «Please seat yourself», and we were promptly helped by a waitress after we’d sat down. The bathroom situation is a bit odd. There’s a single bathroom in the back of the restaurant that says «Gentlemen». There isn’t a ladies bathroom, but a waiter saw my confusion and let me know that women can/​should use the gentlemen’s restroom instead. I feel like adding a «This bathroom is for use by all genders» sign would, while being great for folks of any identification, would also alleviate the confusion for women trying to find the bathroom.
SoHo also offers a very, very generous martini and alcohol menu. You wouldn’t expect it from a sushi bar, but I’ve seen so many creative martini ideas here that I’ve never seen anywhere else. For example, a «S’mores Martini» — and it was delicious! It was a martini that tasted like s’mores with a liquid marshmallow liquer, chocolate drizzle on top, and graham cracker for the rim. The bartender, even without being asked, used the chocolate drizzle to make a cute marshmallow guy on the top of the drink. It was adorable.
Everybody in our party really loved the martinis and the dessert, but everybody said the sushi was just «okay». I think I’d agree with that. The martini drinks were amazing and really seemed to stand out, but I’ve had better sushi before — and so had everyone else. The dessert, however, was amazing, and everybody loved their martinis. I would highly recommend their «Doughnut Puffs» to anyone — and especially as they’re seasonal and will end up leaving their establishment. It’s little doughnut holes on a skewer in a martini glass filled with decadent frosting. It’s super good.
Service was pretty good. Our waitress was very knowledgeable, efficient, and attentive. I wouldn’t say that she was particularly friendly or welcoming, but it’s clear that she knew her job and did it well, and she certainly wasn’t rude. Service was definitely good.
We’d definitely come back — and we plan to come back. I think we might give the sushi another try, but we’d like to try out the tapas menu or other more creative choices instead of just sushi — though on Tuesdays, their buy 2 rolls, get 1 free deal makes it pretty easy and affordable to enjoy sushi.

A friend and I were in town for the weekend, so we went to this place hoping for a nice dinner. I’ll start off by saying that the food was deserving of 2 stars– it was mediocre– but the service brought that down by far. I ordered the dragon roll, and it was okay– plated horribly, but somewhat tasty. My friend wasn’t a huge fan of her shrimp dragon roll, but enjoyed the sandwich she also ordered.
However, the service was downright atrocious. We were there for dinner at around 7:15 on ⁷⁄₁₂. Our waitress (I believe her name is Eliza– dark hair and glasses) was extremely rude to us. We walked into the restaurant with bags from Scratch Cupcakery, and she immediately glared at us and said that we had to pay a $ 2.50 plating fee for bringing them in. First of all, I have never heard of a plating fee, but that wasn’t even the problem; the problem was that the cupcakes were literally in a paper bag! It would have been one thing if we ate them there, but we didn’t and a restaurant should not be allowed to charge its customers for something as small as bringing a bag in.
Also, my friend asked for turkey in her sandwich, and said it about 5 times before our server understood. She kept saying, «speak louder, I can’t hear you, what was that?» First of all, you are a WAITRESS– listen to your customers. Being rude about her own actions was the last straw– who tells their customers to «speak louder?» My friend also asked if their was a non-​spicy version of the tuna roll, and our server goes «so you want the spicy tuna roll?» I’m sorry, but what? She mixed up our drinks 3 times; once when asking us what we wanted, another time when giving us refills (which I’m shocked she even did), and again when she gave us our bill (which speaking of, she was just standing there leaning on the counter while we were waiting, and I had to ask her for it). We also had to wait a long time for her to even grab the bill from us, even though the restaurant was basically empty and she was just standing there. I beg your pardon, but I expect so much more out of a place. She was rude and inexperienced, and though this may not be in my position to say, I believe management could hire much better people. As a high schooler having worked as a waitress for almost 2 years, I understand that it is a difficult job sometimes, but never have I ever encountered someone so awful in the restaurant business. It was the first time I left a place without tipping, and I guarantee we will not be returning. Kind of a shame, because the menu items were creative and the restaurant would have so much potential without the crappy management.

Two stars for service and presentation.
Maybe our server was new. Maybe she forgot to bring her personality to work today. Maybe she’s just lousy at her job. She seemed clueless about basic aspects of the menu, her way of dealing with us was impolite and when four of us ordered sushi rolls, she brought three set ups and seemed confused when I requested a fourth.
My wife asked for extra miso ginger sauce for the broccoli roll she ordered, and it took several minutes for the server to understand that she was not talking about soy sauce, which is available at the table.
When the broccoli roll came out, the rolls were circled on the plate, like covered wagons fearing what other presentation atrocities might occur.
The fear was well founded.
Instead of the extra sauce being served in a second soy sauce dish, as one might expect, the entirety of the sauce was plopped, unceremoniously in the middle of the circled broccoli rolls. No chance of dignified dipping with chopsticks possible here. Just sliding the already partially soaked rolls around the plate in order to salvage some hope of enjoyment.
Perhaps it was «bring your toddler to work day» and the sushi chef let the little one plate her broccoli roll…
We frequent this restaurant and this is by far the most disappointing experience we’ve had in a usually top notch environment.

Worst sushi place ever. Everything is over-​priced. I was told by the waiter that my dinner sandwich comes with a side and was then charged for the «SIDE» when paying. It’s ridiculous. Will never go to this place again.

I’m pretty sure the sushi was taken right out of the plastic container and arranged on a plate. Tapas good, sushi no. Service was slow

I got the SoHo roll, their most expensive maki roll because it had a couple of different fishes — ahi tuna, salmon, hamachi, and unagi. I LOVE raw fish, and I was expecting the fish on my sushi to be raw, but they were all cooked. Granted, it said that the roll was going to be tempura battered and deep fried, but I expected it to be flash fried, not fried so long the rice was hot and all the raw fish got cooked. I’m pretty sure I’ve had other tempura rolls that didn’t turn out to be hot sushi. I can say for sure that I do not like cooked fish in my sushi — I had a couple pieces and threw the rest out. What a waste of almost $ 15, sigh.
Should have listened to the other reviewers :/

Sushi was mediocre at best. Had the spicy sample platter. Didn’t like any of the 4 options. Hardly had any sea food in the rolls either. I would not get this next time (if I even go back).

I’ve been to the conundrum SOHO/​Stuffed Olive quite a few times, since I travel to Cedar Falls for business and I stay at the Blackhawk Hotel which is adjacent to it. Maybe its because this is such a small town and there just isn’t enough business to justify having a cocktail lounge, a sushi restaurant, a tapas joint and a New York style deli in their own buildings, so they literally decided to open up this place and cater to everyone.
My first trip to Iowa included me glued to the TV as a tornado formed over the town. As I listened to the local weatherman, I sipped a decent dirty martini with bleu cheese olives and snacked on some amazing fried calamari fingers with a herby aoli. I could have been sucked up into a cyclone a happy woman.
I do like to sit up at the bar and watch the kids make sushi while I have a drink at the end of the day. Usually what I see getting turned out to customers looks pretty legit, although I’ve been warned about the occasional bout of illness. But then again, you’re getting sushi in a little town in Iowa? Maybe you should stick to the pork, which I hear is a big commodity around here. I did happen to order some to take up to my room, and I had been pretty disappointed with what was in the box. The roll was poorly wrapped, and while a spicy tuna roll is usually made with chopped tuna coated in a spicy mayo, this seemed to be your standard tuna roll with a barely-​noticeable smear of sriracha on the rice it was rolled in. Who would have thought we could ever use the words «barely-​noticeable» and «sriracha» in the same sentence?
Another dish I’ve brought to my room was their lamb chops with basil mint pesto. I couldn’t believe the weight of the box! For something called «tapas» and to only cost $ 12.99 for something with lamb, this was a knockout! However there were a few catches. There was a huge globe of mashed potatoes. They were really great, and I loved sopping up juices from the lamb with them. The menu said that they were supposed to have goat cheese in them. I may have tasted the faintest hint of tangy cheese on the first bite, but after that it was gone. They did have a good rustic quality about them with some of the skins mashed in. The dish came with a few spears of grilled asparagus and on top of that I was excited to find 4 lollipop lamb chops of good size propped against the potatoes. The lamb chops were cooked to a perfect medium-​rare and were so tender I just picked them up and ate them caveman style. They were very succulent. The pesto was a big disappointment. There was a green sheen to the meat, and the pesto seemed to have been a concoction of powdered basil and mint mixed with some olive oil. That’s the only way I could justify the lack of texture and flavor but the light green color it gave to the meat. It literally had no flavor at all. If the dish had been labelled as simply a grilled chop with mashed potatoes, they would have nailed it. But I was really left wanting those initial flavors that I was promised via the menu.
So enough ranting, let’s talk about what they do well! Breakfast! Yet another thing they’ve managed to wrap up into their concept is a great little selection of breakfasts. I’m sure it was a no-​brainer since you have a hotel full of people who are looking for somewhere quick to eat before starting their day. They have a small menu of your typical items like eggs cooked to order, omelets and a small a la carte section. They guys in the morning are efficient and make just the right amount of small talk with you as you sit at the bar. My eggs come out a perfect over medium every time, and they give you a whole handful of bacon! Not that «two strips» crap like in places back home. Maybe its because they aren’t trying to be everything to everyone, but I would pretty much say the most important meal of the day happens to be their highlight.

Horrible service. As a past and frequent costumer to Soho– I was incredibly turned off by the lack of attention given to us the last few times we have gone to either drink martinis or eat. Save your money and go somewhere else. Thoroughly disappointed.

I don’t have high expectations for sushi in Cedar Falls, and I’ve never left sushi on the table. Today was a first for me. Staff was friendly but they don’t have much to work with.

I have never not finished my plate of sushi, with one exemption, SOHO. If Panda Express made sushi this would be it. Service was friendly.

Had breakfast here because I was staying at the Blackhawk Hotel and breakfast was included with the room ($ 7 voucher). I ordered an omelet with bacon, sausage, and cheese and it was pretty good. I’m not positive they used real eggs, but I think so. I was the only one in the restaurant, which was sort of strange to me. It wasn’t anything super special, but it wasn’t bad either. It served my purposes well enough when I needed a decent protein breakfast.

Very hit or miss sushi. Have had the best sushi in the Midwest and also the worst all in the same month. In general an enjoyable experience, still go back. Summers outside are the best though.

Between everyone at our table, tried a little bit of everything, including sushi. All of the food was better than average! Service good. Give it a try.

Wide variety of dining options, but my plate of pastrami reuben was pretty tough and bland. My molten lava cake was dry. The fact that this place also serves sushi and mexican food is kind of weird.

Okay, I know Barmuda gets a bad rap around the Cedar Valley, and most of the time, that sentiment is well deserved. But Soho, from service to sustenance, doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with the rest.
My family and I ate there over Thanksgiving break, and the kitchen had apparently rolled out a brand new menu — including the deliciously fresh tasting Mango Jalapeño roll. Don’t like fish in your sushi? Not a fan of over-​riced maki? Order this roll and prepare yourself for a flavor explosion.
Some things I’m not quite as gushy about at Soho: their dining room wraps around a big front set of windows and tapers toward the back to accommodate a few small two-​tops, which can make it difficult to seat a larger group. As if to demonstrate this principle, on my first visit, my family sat next to a large table of older ladies that extended almost into our booth, making it almost impossible not to eavesdrop. And on a cold November night, I kept my coat on inside.
So you might need to layer in the winter. Big deal. Still worth it. And while you’re at it, slip next door to the Stuffed Olive after dinner and grab a martini. It’s a recipe for a good night.

Good food at a decent price, never had a bad meal there, good specials on a weekly basis too. Usually good service

Disappointing. Not even close to good sushi. It’s white man’s sushi. Not authentic at all.

What an eclectic, fun place!
We were visiting this Spring and thanks to the College World Series, we were lucky enough to be in town the same time as some of our good friends (hubs best man and also, our wedding pianist) so we arranged to meet lunch. Steph suggested this place, as her parents still live in the area and recommended it.
Naturally, I the geek checked out the menu online before arriving, since I hate to be ‘that person’ that takes forever to order! I was surprised to see such a variety — from sandwich/​salad/​soup combos akin to Panera, all the way to asian fusion items and sushi — all wrapped in one place! I made the preliminary call that I’d like to at least sample the midwest’s take on sushi but expend most of my energy on a light deli lunch.
When we met at the restaurant, it all came together! The seating area was much larger that I had imagined it would be from the outside and we could see what portion of the venue must be used for their happy hour specials during the evenings — a nice blend of cool coffeehouse meets relaxed lounge.
The entrees were quite yumm-​o to match — I had a roast beef sandwich and tomato soup, and, as I had planned, ordered us a spicy tuna roll for an appetizer. While I wouldn’t fly back to Iowa just for this sushi, it was surprisingly above expectation — notches above grocery store rolls!
After enjoying our meal, we took a stroll outside and we noticed quite a few more places along the cute shop-​lined streets that I wouldn’t mind taking a closer look at.
Thanks, Cedar Falls!