Sushi. We’re in love with the stuff.
It wasn’t always so. Decades ago, sushi was an exotic cuisine in the U.S., a chewing experience many approached with trepidation. Who in their right mind would ever eat raw fish? That was the thinking, based on lingering memories of fumes from fish markets or sweaty sea piers. Have you ever cleaned a fish?
But once you conquer that angst, you’re hooked. The flavors, the textures, the feeling of swallowing fraying silk — they are addictive. It’s like dining on hypnotic vapors.
Sushi has been around for centuries. Its earliest forms originated in Japan when fermented rice was packed with fish and left to age. Sushi as we know it today — raw and draped over rice — emerged in the early 19th century when vendors sold it from stalls in the city of Edo, now Tokyo.
Authentic Japanese sushi debuted on American shores in Los Angeles in the 1960s. From there, it spread. By the early 1980s, it was hip — the cuisine of celebrities and Wall Street money changers. Today, there are more than 4,000 sushi restaurants scattered across the U.S. You can even find spicy tuna rolls and iterations of the California roll in gas stations.
No surprise. Dining on sushi reignites the primal connection we have with eating meat; the raw immediacy of sustenance, divorced from industrialized processing and packaging. But it’s an elegantly choreographed primal scream animated by the delicate carving of freshly killed flesh and the pressing and folding of it into works of art. Plus, you don't need a fork or a knife to eat sushi. Fingers or chopsticks work just fine. Primal.
We combed the expanse of Collin County to find the best of it. So, cleanse your fingers, fine-tune your chopstick chops and taste with feverish abandon.
Ebesu Robata & Sushi
1007 E. 15th St.
Plano, TX 75074
ebesu-usa.com
5-9:30
In Plano, Ebesu Robata & Sushi is headed up by Chef Koji Yoshida, who was one of 20 semifinalists for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef in Texas award last year. No surprise here. We tried the yuzu hama roll, a mesh of rice and avocado draped in strips of yellowtail, topped with serrano pepper slices and spattered in yuzu-soy truffle vinaigrette. The roll was infiltrated with tempura crumbs, adding a crispy foil to the delicate flesh. We concluded with a devilishly light matcha tiramisu, a velvety cream with minimal sweetness, allowing the herbal flavors to shine through. Ladyfingers were stunt-doubled by an intricate sugar cookie leaf planted next to a dab of cream with berry sauce cascading off the crown— a tangy counterpoint to the subtlety; soothing without the drowse.
Heian
2960 Eldorado Parkway, Suite 50
McKinney, TX 75070
Decor-wise, Heian is spartan and clean, with lots of light and a rectangular sushi bar with small tables around the perimeter. A large pill in a little black bowl is placed at each table setting. Beware: this is not an amuse-bouche. The pills are compressed towels that bloom into utility when warm water is added. But that’s only part of the magic. The Heian numbered specials provide additional sorcery. We chose Heian 5, a layered sushi construction with amaebi (sweet shrimp) draped over rice with scallop, toro (fatty belly tuna) and a dab of uni topped with a blot of caviar. It’s a symphony of marine flavors and textures that explode in the mouth, a creamy burst of sea foam. It’s accompanied by a deep-fried prawn head, its dread-stare dark eyes glaring at you as you plop it into your mouth. Note: Uni is sea urchin gonads — the fivefold sexual reproductive organs that produce the roe. Think of it as the Rocky Mountain oysters of the surf.
Imura Sushi & Robata
8050 Preston Road, Suite 106
Frisco, TX 75035
imurasushirobata.com
Opening near the close of 2023, Imura has emerged as a top-flight sushi destination. Its engaging environs are trimmed in rough-hewn planks, and white tile and modern lighting elements drip from a black ceiling with exposed ductwork, wiring and support beams. From this canvas, you can sup tantalizingly rich miso soup and plunge a fork into a side salad — an interlacing of greens with carrot slivers instead of the typical roughly-cut iceberg flaps dotted in orange dressing. We sampled the sashimi butterfly kiss, which offers a choice of yellowtail, tuna, salmon or red snapper and halibut. We opted for the yellowtail. The kiss is slivers of avocado and crab, swaddled in strips of fish and served on a plated leaf garnished with an orchid. The creamy textures and delicate rich flavors come alive with every bite.
Kinzo
14111 King Road, Suite 2100
Frisco, TX 75036
kinzosushi.com
5-10 p.m.
Kinzo is bright and understated with lots of natural light spilling through glass, glossy blond wood surfaces and a tree in full bloom in the middle of the sushi bar. Is it fake? Cue the arborist. The menu is the work of Chef Leo Kekoa, a veteran of Nobu Dallas. He flourishes at this intersection between Frisco and Little Elm by merging Edomae-style sushi with French technique. We sampled his craft with aki from the maki roster, an exquisite roll constructed from minced yellowtail, cucumber and avocado, with cilantro, garlic chip and Thai chili sparking the flavor afterburners. It’s rolled with rice, sheathed in nori (seaweed), brushed with nikiri (sweet soy sauce) and served on a slate platter. It’s an exquisite stream of flavors and textures, at once hearty and delicate, washing down easy with sips of Asahi Draft.
Koji Sushi
101 N. McDonald St., Suite 105 B
McKinney, TX 75069
kojisushimckinney.com
Tucked into a strip mall, sandwiched between Cricket Wireless and Dallas Smoke N Vapes, Koji Sushi has a phone book-sized list of specialty rolls with names like French kiss, mango fandango, call me Devil, and panic (spicy tuna with jalapenos and hot sauce). Many of these rolls are variations and permutations of the venerable California roll from the state that pioneered rolling blackouts. We opted for the chef’s special, a non-California roll creation fabricated from four kinds of shredded raw fish (undisclosed), imitation crab, asparagus and carrot sheathed in cucumber. The serving plate is accented by cucumber sculptures: protruding phalluses and curved slices resembling flower petals. Each segment is topped with a different shade of tobiko (flying fish roe) — green, black, red and orange. It’s as refreshingly tasty as it is beautiful. Take note of the koji mural, a work with icons that vibrate in American culture: Joe DiMaggio, John Wayne, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and a modified Fender Stratocaster guitar — a kind of visual California roll for glazed-over eyes.
Kyoto Hibachi Sushi & Bar
1620 N. Hardin Blvd., Suite 1200
McKinney, TX 75071
kyotoinmckinney.com
Kyoto is a moody place with dark finishes on the tables, chairs and sushi bar, all brought to life with blue, green and violet lighting accents. The menu is extensive, with ramen, udon, poke bowls, teriyaki, hibachi, sushi, sashimi and a directory of “chef special” rolls. But plumb the menu, black with red splashes, and you can find some real gems. The king crab uni spoons are looped metal implements placed on a contrasting bed of greens that is spread over crushed ice with an orchid nestled on the edge. Sections of crab rest in the bottom of the spoon bowl with uni draped over the top and capped with caviar. The flavor is sweet and lush, with the uni’s musky essence lending depth to the crab. We also sampled bluefin tuna kissed with searing heat, dashed in sumo sauce and resting on cucumber slivers. Plus: a devilishly delicate mackerel duct-taped with seaweed to a rice pad: clean, cool and mouth-meltingly delicious.
Sushi Nunu
12275 University Drive, Suite 150
Frisco, TX 75035
The newly opened Sushi Nunu is easily among the best of the genre in Collin County — not to be missed. The rice is supple and fluffy with just the slightest bit of adhesion. We plumbed the specials chalkboard and settled on hirame kobujime, cured flounder sassed with a little lime and sesame seeds. The flesh easily separates, almost dissolving in the mouth on contact. We also tried the uni, a meticulously crafted rectangle of rice crested with creamy orange sea urchin naughty bits. It’s rich and buttery, a spectacular marine pate. It is served on a wooden plank, a motif that blends seamlessly with the clean contemporary environs, blond wood accents and crisp surfaces.
Sushi Marquee
3625 The Star Blvd., Suite 315
Frisco, TX 75034
sushimarquee.com
11 a.m.-2 a.m.
Located in The Star in Frisco, Sushi Marquee is the sushi bar that swallowed a Las Vegas kitsch shooter. There are lots of screens, a Buddha clad in disco-ball decor and a mural of Yoda in a Japanese headband pinching a Star Wars TIE fighter between chopsticks. At least, that’s what it looked like. Marquee is billed as an homage to live-action films, TV shows, music videos and characters from the 1980s and ’90s. We sampled one of the Marquee rolls from a register that featured names like Godzilla, Rock the Casbah, Spinal Tap and Michael Myers. The last is named after the hockey-masked mad slasher in the horror film Halloween (wait, wasn’t that from the ’70s?), a conglomeration of imitation crab and shrimp wrapped in rice with cucumber and jalapeno. Each slice is draped in raw albacore tuna and crowned with a serrano pepper slice bulls-eyed with fire sauce. It stabbed and slashed the tongue with heat. Michael Myers lives on.
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