Several weeks ago I was having lunch at Thai Spice in the shopping center at Irvine Center Drive and Jeffrey. When driving thru the center I saw construction for a new restaurant, Sushilicious.

Sushilicious is named by the owner’s daughter. She said let’s call it Sushi Delicious – so Daniel Woo, being the owner and marketing guy that he is, finally called it Sushilicious. I have always considered this shopping center as a destination shopping center. There is no large grocery store anchoring it, just a conglomerate of restaurants, dentist offices, insurance and formerly home to the Irvine Dance Studio. People drive to this center for a reason, it doesn’t have alot of foot traffic.

I swung by Sushilicious after seeing a posting on Facebook that they were open for business yesterday to large crowds, waiting lines and actually running out of some ingredients. Today they reopened for dinner but didn’t see the business they saw on Saturday night. Tonight was night #2 of their soft opening. I told them it was Oscar night and many are home watching the awards. Daniel plans on their real grand opening later this week. They are open for lunch starting at 11am and open throughout the day until 10pm.

Sushilicious is bright with bold colors set in a furniture set in white. Everything has clean lines and attention has been taken to the graphics on the menu and sushi labels. Sushilicious is a Kaiten style sushi place – meaning it has a conveyor belt that travels the length of the restaurant with various selections. Each plate has a color and the pricing is determined on the color of the plate. The least expensive being $1.50 a plate in green to $4.00 a plate in red. In addition to the items on the belt, you can also order any sushi item from the sushi chefs behind the line. There are a number of seats that line the “bar” but there are also booths that are right up against the belt. You can place your sushi order with the sushi chef or with your wait person.

For the tech geeks out there, all their ordering is done on iPod touches. Their POS system is Mac based! Kewl!

My dinner companion and I had several plates of sushi. My sampling included unagi (fresh water eel), sake (salmon), saba (mackerel), seared salmon and Scallop. In addition to the items on the belt, there is also a selection of Bento boxes. For around $8.99 you can get a bento box that has a protein (chicken, salmon and beef), salad, miso soup, vegetable tempura and rice. Tonight I sampled the Salmon Misoyaki. The $8.99 gives you alot of food. Ask for a larger bowl of tempura dipping sauce.

Sushilicious also offers a selection of Desserts to end your meal. My partner had the Tempura Ice Cream and I had the Assorted Mochi. Richard was most intrigued by the idea of Tempura Mochi and I said it was akin to Mexican Fried Ice Cream. I told him the ice cream has to be frozen solid. It is dipped in tempura then flash fried for less than 30 seconds. From the time the dessert comes from the fryer to the table, the ice cream starts to soften., You get a contrast of hot and cold, crispy and soft. I loved it. We also had mochi in mango, strawberry and green tea.

Our server this evening was attentive and the meal was good. The bento box was nice, but you are really here for the sushi. We found a good selection of sushi on the belt, but felt that there could have been more choices – something to set them apart. It is important to note that the master sushi chefs behind the bar have a combined 50 years of experience. The chefs are seasoned chefs and will make whatever you want. Please acknowledge them when you are seated and don’t be afraid to ask for an item you don’t see.

I’ll definitely be back later this week with my lunchmates and see how Sushilicious is doing. Meanwhile if you’re on Facebook, you can find them them at www.facebook.com/sushilicious or you can find them on Twitter as Sushilicious.

Sushilicious
15435 Jeffrey Road, #119
Irvine, CA 92618
949-552-2260
www.sushilicious.com