Nagoya Sushi, Orlando

Nagoya sushi is an award winning sushi restaurant in Orlando.  "Most Authentic Sushi" and "Best Innovation in Orlando, Florida Area", are some of their accolades.  

"A specialist in innovative sushi creations, the award-winning Nagoya Sushi will delight your eyes and palates with sushi rolled into beautiful works of art. Elegant and cozy, the restaurant welcomes you with an extensive sushi bar and kitchen menu as well as seasonal specialties. Using the best and freshest ingredients available, the master chefs pay great attention to detail in preparing each dish. Complemented by warm and friendly service, you will find a satisfying dining experience awaits you at Nagoya Sushi."

Reviews on Yelp at least seemed to match the rave reviews, and although the menu is Cheesecake Factory style long, with just about everything ranging from the expected classic sushi to cooked Japanese entrees and a slew of totally ridiculous sounding rolls, people seemed to like most things.  And the fish quality seemed high, which surprised me given the menu breadth.  Sorry if I question that a place actually has quality fish when they have about 60 different kinds of rolls, with names like the "Ecstacy Roll", the "Orgasm Roll", the "Mexican Bubble", the "Sweet Sixteen" ... you get the point.  Elaborate rolls, with a slew of ingredients and sauces, toppings and strange shapes, many deep fried.  You know the type.

I was skeptical, but, when I was in Orlando for a conference and wanted some stuff to go with lunch, I decided to give it a try anyway.  I ordered on Door Dash, and it was easy to order, and the food came quickly.

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I enjoyed the items I got, and would order again if I was ever back in Orlando, and I'd even be willing to try some of the actual sushi.

Salads

As I mentioned, Nagoya has about 60 types of rolls on their menu, but really, every portion of the menu is quite extensive, including even the salads.  House salad, seaweed salad, cucumber salad, those are standard, but, then there are some more interesting ones, like baby octopus, jelly fish, or kimchi and conch, and I'll admit, I was curious about the "Tuna Cha Cha" with baked tuna, tempura flakes, caviar, and "seafood sauce" ...

This section also included items like edamame, pickles, and kimchi.

Oshiko. $8.

"Assortment of Japanese pickles."

I threw the order of pickles on to my order at the last minute, but I'm glad I did.  I love pickles of all kinds (I grew up in a pickling family!), and I'm always excited to try new ones.  I'm not entirely sure what all of these were, clearly daikon, cucumber, and carrot, but they were all crisp, tart, and completely satisfying.  I don't know if Nagoya makes them in-house or not, even if not, I still really enjoyed them.  Lovely color assortment too!

****.  I'd definitely get again if I was craving Japanese pickles.

Spicy Krabmeat Salad. $8.

"With cu and caviar."

Next up, the Spicy Krabmeat. 

I knew this was going to be krab, yes, with a 'k', as in kani, crab stick, not real crab, but, I really like that too, and thought it sounded great to have to throw on my poke-like salad for lunch the next day (with the pickles too!).

I was pleased with this order too.  It was basically just a mound of shredded krab stick, I guess with some spicy sauce, but it wasn't particularly spicy to me.  I still liked the krab flavor, and it had some fantastic crispy tempura bits on top, that I absolutely adored.  It ate quite well as a mound like this with the crispy bits, particularly when I drizzled it with spicy ponzu, and it worked great as I hoped thrown on top of a poke-like bowl (kale base, diakon, corn, Japanese pickles, wakame, ginger, furikake, ponzu, spicy aioli, etc).  I also think it would be really, really good just scooped up with taro chips.

The only area it fell short is in expectations: description said it came with "cu and caviar". Cu?  I think "cu" is, um, "cucumber", as this came with a few batons of cucumber on the side?  They were fine, but didn't really round the dish out in a way that made sense to me.  I'm not sure about the caviar either, I didn't find any in it.

I quite enjoyed this, both in its served form and on my own poke bowl creation.  I'd get it again too.  ****.

Grilled Octopus. $14.

"Grilled octopus tentacles on a bed of salad with our house yuzu sauce & dash of togarashi."

The dish I was actually most excited for, as I was really craving octopus, was the grilled octopus salad.  The octopus wasn't particularly warm when it arrived for delivery, but I quickly put it back in a hot pan and warmed it up.

The base was fresh juicy crisp iceberg, along with two fresh cucumber slices, and a juicy tomato.  Not exciting exactly, but they are what made it a "salad" after all, and seemed good quality.  The yuzu sauce/dressing that coated the salad was fantastic - lightly sweet, nicely tart and acidic, extremely strong yuzu flavor.  The dressing made the flavors in the entire salad just pop beautifully.

And then, of course, the star, the octopus.  It was nicely cooked, not rubbery, and beautifully charred.  Super easy to eat, cut into bite size bits.  I was impressed with the high smoky nature of it, many places that specialize more in this style of food don't manage to get that smoky quality so high, and yet, this sushi place, did?!

Another dish that just ate really well, and was nicely prepared.  And yes, another one I'd get again.  ****.

Sauces

If you know me, you know I'm such a sauce girl, so I was thrilled to see that Nagoya had a big list of sauces available on the side, ranging from hot sesame oil, to extra ginger, to honey wasabi sauce (!), and many, many more.  I used restraint, and tried just a few, but I was glad to have them to accent my meal.

Spicy Ponzu & Eel Sauces. $1.15 each.

The spicy ponzu was, well,  ponzu?  Light, slight soy flavor, slight tartness.  It accented the krab salad quite well, and, although it didn't really need it as the yuzu dressing on the octopus salad was plenty flavorful, I did also enjoy dunking some octopus bits in it.  It wasn't as spicy as I was hoping however, but, good standard ponzu it was.  ***+.

The eel sauce I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but it was thicker, slightly salty, slightly, um, eel like?  I guess? A strong umami flavor.  Again, good to drizzle over other things I had, although not necessary.  I was glad to have it left over for other uses too.  ***.