Sushitarian

Eat somewhere else unless you must have sushi. Edamame too salty, Miso soup too cold, boring sushi and way too expansive for what it is.

Originally we were going to eat at the sushi restaurant across this restaurant but they were close during the Fourth of July, so we tried this place instead.
The place was tiny, chairs and table is also tiny and uncomfortable. We got seated after 10 minutes of waiting and our orders was taken after 15 minutes.
My husband and I love sushi and my kids love potstickers and chicken teriyaki. Every time we go on a sushi restaurant here in the Bay Area, we order 3 sushi for me and my hubby, potstickers for my kids and teriyaki dinner for mom and she shares it with my oldest daughter.
That night their sushi was disappointing. 3 orders and to our surprise their sushi was very tiny! It was not the regular size sushi, for prices that cost between $ 10 – 14 /​sushi you would expect a regular size roll but theirs was not. Potstickers was not that good either.
I understand that we are on a tourist area but common, a teeny roll size is just a rip off. If their sushi was excellent in taste I wouldn’t mind paying their price but the sushi is not that good. Not worth paying for the price they want.
Also, they made my mom Wait for more than an hour for her teriyaki order. My husband and I are done eating already, it doesn’t take that long to eat teeny tiny roll of sushi even if it’s 3 orders. I had to ask the waiter and the waitress 3 times for a follow up. We are ready to go cause it’s ridiculous to wait for a simple dish for that long. Then the dish arrived after more than an hour of waiting and they offered to take the teriyaki dish for free. My mom was hungry so she ate it and was done fast.
We got our bill and to our surprise the teriyaki dish is still there! I got up and asked the server why are we still paying for the teriyaki dish that they gave us for free? She then blame the other server for not remembering to take it off our bill. Hmmmnnn Oh well, when we go visit Durango again, we will avoid this place. Maybe there are other decent sushi restaurant in the area.

Came in for lunch. The place is clean and attractive. We got our food quickly especially considering we were a party of 7. I got the «Sushitarian Lunch» with a spicy scallop roll. It also came with miso soup, which I was happy had lots of mushroom! My lunch was very tasty. The roll was yummy and the sashimi tasted very fresh. I am just visiting the area but if I lived here is definitely be back.

My daughter Hannah is pushing for 5 stars — I’m at 4.6 :-)
I’m pretty stingy with 5 star ratings, but this is close!
Atmosphere was fantastic, the waitstaff and sushi staff were so friendly!!!
The food was incredible, the Temporel with some of the best I’ve ever had — especially the asparagus and shrimp!
The moshi dessert was awesome!

The food was really enjoyable. The atmosphere average. Staff was great. But the bill was $ 20 more than the average sushi meal for 2, and we ordered from the happy hour menu. I’m a tough critic, and I know my sushi, so 3 stars it is.

We had already eaten, and were just walking around town when we found this place. But, for some reason, we went in anyway, and we loved it.
Right off, a gentleman came to our table with hot towels to wipe our hands. Then, since it was happy hour, we were able to order great «vegetarian» sushi off the menu, and they gave us extra.
This restaurant is very cute, and nicely decorated, but they don’t advertise much, so you kind of have to know where it is, or find it the way we did. Who would think a person could find good Japanese in a mountain town, but there it is.
They even had a «vegetarian» version of Miso Soup that was really good. I’ve had the vegetarian efforts of others that tasted like dishwater, but not this one. It was seasoned perfectly, and had just the right amount of seaweed and tofu to make it great.
We especially liked the enthusiastic, friendly, and courteous service. The price was right, the service was great, and the food was as good as any Japanese I’ve ever had anywhere, even in the kitchen of my Japanese friends. This is definitely a place not to miss when visiting Durango. Skip the chains, and come to this place for personalized service. You’ll leave happy, and feeling like a king.

This place was just fine. The sushi was fresh and service was up to par but I did feel that there were more exciting places to try in durango. We ended up here after several other restaurants we tried to get into had a minimum 2 hour wait. We spotted a free table from outside and were immediately seated. The menu was pretty average for a sushi restaurant. The drink menu was quite interesting. When I ordered a vodka, the waiter asked me if I wanted it on ice LOL. I was expecting more of a mixed drink like a vodka tonic or vodka cranberry. Overall good experience here but I feel like I wouldn’t come back because there are lots of other places to try out in durango.

Love this place! Great service, fresh fish (I know, I know but it was) and beer/​sake/​wine. This place is always accomadates to larger groups and isn’t an 1 ½ wait on the weekends like other overated restaurants in Durango. Please stop in and give this great sushi joint a shot.

True Japanese style sushi. And not made up. I have been to Japan quite a lot and if I am in Durango, I have to stop and get some great sushi. I brought my daughter in law’s family who are Japanese on a visit from Japan and the bill was $$$ because they could not stop eating. I guess two weeks of American food left them hungry! This is the best for Tako, Tobiko and sake

Sushi mediocre at best. Service was «good». $ 6 for edamame??? The Pinot was horrible. Tasted as if it had been opened for too long. Skip the «specialty» rolls and just get nigiri. Can’t mess that up…

Really good sushi and some unique and creative items as well. My son enjoyed the udon soup too. We were told that this restaurant is related to the sushi restaurant across the street. This is a very small place and a bit cheaper than the other.

Went downtown looking for a steakhouse. Planned on going to the Ore House, two doors down, but as we were driving by, my wife saw East by Southwest across the street an suddenly decided on Sushi.
Once we finally found a parking place (parking is downtown Durango is not all that great, but meter enforcement ends at 6 pm), we walked back to East by Southwest, looked at their posted menu and found it a little rich for our pocketbook.
Still wanting sushi we walked up to Sushitarian and checked out the posted menus. Still pricey, but its a tourist town in the middle of tourist season. But the clincher was the shop’s apparent theme song playing on the speakers outside. A pop-​punk ode to the joys of eating sushi.
We were not disappointed at all in the food. We ordered the California Eel Roll, the Caterpillar Roll, the Fried Calamari Roll, and the Rock ‘n Roll. These are the same ingredients we have had in rolls at other sushi joints, but somehow they were just plain better than anywhere else we have ever been. The sushi chef on station in front of us was an older Japanese guy, who clearly has been classically trained, has been doing this forever, and loves what he does.
We also ordered two Japanese-​made fruit sodas (grape and strawberry). Not sure that a 6.5 ounce soda that requires both assembly and adult supervision is worth $ 4. Once for the experience, maybe, but not again.
Two cons keep this from being a 5-​star review:
1. Our server took our order and then never checked on us again. The sushi chef delivered the rolls (he was right in front of us) and the hostess cleared our dishes. The house was busy, but not so busy the guy couldn’t follow up on his orders.
2. The sales tax was added in to the price of the individual items, rather than at the end of the ticket, leading to some confusion when it came time to pay as the prices on the ticket did not match the prices on the menu.
All in all, one of the best sushi experiences my wife and I have ever had, and the second time we have had an awesome sushi experience in SW Colorado. See Stonefish in Cortez.
4 rolls + 2 Japanese soda = $ 50.

I love coming to Durango and I love coming to the best sushi place in town. It’s actually one of the best environments of any sushi place anywhere I’ve been. I love that they have Woodchuck Cider served in a cold glass:)The sushi is made fresh to order with a Japanese chef team preparing it in front of you. Talk about great!

Salmon Sushi Throwdown! We ordered Sushi To-​Go from all three Sushi restaurants in Durango the same mid-​week night. We choose to compare our favorite Salmon Rolls/​Sashimi from each (listed below by price.)
* East by Southwest — Salmon & Lemon $ 16.00
* Sushitarian — Super Salmon Roll w/​avocado $ 14.83
* Rice Monkeys — Tiraditos — Salmon Sashimi w/​citrus & chili $ 14.00
* Rice Monkeys — Southwestern Roll w/​Hamachi, Salmon & avocado $ 13.50
Results are listed by restaurant under their own heading. So, you’ll need to check all three reviews to compare comments.
Order & Pick-​up
* Sushitarian: fairly well-​organized, but some delays in ordering & pickup due to priority with the on-​premise customers — 4 stars
Taste & Presentation
* Sushitarian: Presentation was fine, but flavors were just OK and a bit bland. Needed soy (or a citrus) to brighten up. Salmon was slightly fishy and required wasabi to mask fishiness — 2.5 stars
Price/​Value
* Sushitarian: Not bad, but would probably order something else next time and hope for fresher fish with brighter combination of flavors — 3 stars
We enjoyed the head-​to-​head comparisons of our Salmon Sushi Throwdown. We would encourage others to try their own Throwdowns.

We had a great dinner here last week — good variety of rolls, sushi, salad. Very nice atmosphere and very high quality food!

I had a nice lunch here today. They had a 3 hand roll special of your choice plus a miso soup. It was fast, good and friendly. And under 20 bux. Love it!

This place used to be a 4* for me, but I guess I never had a reason for it not to be a 5* review. Just finished a great lunch, the service was extremely fast because they knew I had to catch a flight… To top it off, the waitress chased me down half of a block and handed me the car keys I had forgotten at my table. This place not only serves amazing sushi, but they really get all of the little things to keep customers coming back. Bookmark? Yes, thanks… I’ll be back soon.

The happy hour prices/​serving sizes are not that great. Wish I had gone
across the street to East by Southwest like someone had recommended.
Our waiter (30 – 40 year old white guy) was a total cocky douche bag. I am a vegetarian and ordered all the vegetarian rolls on the happy hour menu. Others in our party of 7 ordered fish items. The food came out on one huge plate. I immediately asked for my own plate for the vegetarian items as I am picking them up from touching the fish items. He wouldn’t bring me a plate as this restaurant uses shared plates! WTH!!! I have eaten at TONS of sushi restaurants and never before has a vegetarians food been served touching non vegetarian food. Then when a customer asks for a plate is refused?!
The only *good* roll was the yam one. I will NOT go back.

Sushi in a landlocked state is always a little sketchy, but after months in the hinterlands with no ocean to be seen — I needed sushi — STAT.
The Sushitarian offers some lunch specials, so we decided to indulge in a gluttonous sushi stuffing. The Brewer and I both ordered the «5 rolls of 3» lunch special, which runs about $ 12, and we made sure to order different rolls so we could get some variety. We also ordered the $ 1 Saki special, as a $ 1 drink special would be a sin to pass up.
The sushi was textbook. It’s prepped right in front of you, which is cool, and the ingredients looked and tasted fresh. The rolls offered on the special are pretty standard, but they are good nonetheless. My personal favorite was the shrimp tempura roll.
My biggest complaint about this place is that our waiter took forever to come by and take our drink orders, and the place isn’t that big and they weren’t packed.

Alright we’re tired, tired of hauling the stupid skis down the mountain because the tram took forever to come pick us up at Purgatory. And we were so hungry… hungry enough that McDonald’s would’ve been a gourmet meal.
But then we saw Sushitarian. Sushi in Colorado… Sweet!
The place was packed when we walked in. It didn’t help we had a big party. Took us about 15 minutes to get seated. They put us in the side room with the traditional Japanese table.
I’m a pretty big sushi fan. It doesn’t hurt I worked at sushi place for a long time. Here are some of the stuff that stood out.
Lobster Tempura roll. You can’t mess this up. Large chunks of lobster tail in crispy tempura topped with eel sauce. The lobster was perfectly fried. The tempura flakes were still crunchy inside the roll unlike some sushi places forget the tempura flakes when making the roll.
Also good was the Salmon Scallop Timbale. It sucks how I didn’t get a picture of it. It was gone in an instant. Fatty Salmon… Yum!
They also had toro. It’s a bit pricey though but how can you miss out on toro. It’s like butter from the sea.
Check their website. I believe they have happy hour. Might be a nice place to get some cheap drinks after a long day of tumbling down the hill like we did.