Color us pleasantly surprised by this new Tempe location of a West Valley mini chain.
Opened: December 2023
Mexican sushi is the rap-rock of the food world – an initially appealing hybrid that occasionally yields good stuff, but mostly not. After a meal, I’m always asking myself the same question: “How much cream cheese does a human being need to eat in one sitting?” So, color me pleasantly surprised by this new Tempe location of a West Valley mini-chain. Set in a vast, corporate-park-ish restaurant space that must surely have been a Ruth’s Chris in a former life, it certainly offers no shortage of cream-cheese-stuffed maki rolls – including one, the Cordon Bleu roll ($18.75), that brazenly invites beef, chicken, bacon, avocado and Monterey Jack to the party – but also lighter, well-phrased maki like the Señorita ($18), essentially a shrimp tempura roll crowned with tuna and a lusty squirt of sweet-funky eel sauce. (I said “lighter,” not “light.”) The menu boasts no less than 50 of these clown-car oddities, with alternately tasty and baffling results, plus a selection of ceviche-like aguachile ($24-$33), various Benihana-style fried rice dishes ($12-$15) and a legitimately great calamari tempura ($11.25), plus other standard sushi-joint appetizers. Rap-rock on, sushi amigos.
Wild Card: Leave this pescatarian nonsense behind with ribeye aguachile ($31) – one of five entrées on the grill-oriented “filet” menu.
1410 E. Southern Ave., Tempe,
480-912-3009, eltatakisushi.com
