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But the ladies and I nabbed a spot at Piranha Killer Sushi‘s packed soft opening last night and got a chance to sink our teeth deep into the sushi (and martini) menu.
In contrast to most of the other sushi places in town, Piranha is bright with lots of light and light-colored wood–the wine racks are even clear, giving the illusion that the bottles are floating on the wall. I was surprised at first, but it makes sense with Piranha’s whole attitude. The sushi bar is in the center of the room, with low-slung wooden tables scattered about. We had a small table at the front, but I’ll get to that in a minute. First, let’s talk food and drinks.
They have an extensive martini menu organized by flavor: straight, semi-sweet, sweet, dessert, etc. We tried a few and found that all were delicious. They fit pretty well within their descriptions, and contrary to convention, even the sweet weren’t TOO sweet. Which was awesome. Faves were the Naught Asian (no really) and Cowboytini (what man would order that?). Perhaps even more importantly, our waiter could talk about the drinks and recommend them, and his recommendations were spot on.
Same goes for the food. Tony, our charming if slightly nervous waiter, recommended their spicy tuna roll, and it didn’t disappoint. I don’t generally like spicy tuna, but this was panko-encrusted and flash fried, which gave it a tasty crunch to counteract that mushy spicy tuna inside. We ordered several others, including Tony’s recommendations the Latino and the Spider, and they were delicious. Creative and totally different than most combinations in rolls. Many of Piranha’s rolls rely heavily on cream cheeses and tempura, but we managed to steer clear of most of those while ordering all of this:
In the foreground, you see the Marry Me roll, an interesting roll topped by strawberries. Works surprisingly well. Then the Latino roll and a rainbow roll. We did step slightly out of the roll comfort zone and try a sashimi salad appetizer (tasty but a little too mayo-y) and some red snapper nigiri. It was amazing. Fresh and light.
Our other apps were crab cakes and mussells. The mussells were in a buttery saffron sauce, which was really good. But they didn’t give us the proper utensils, so trying to eat mussells with chopsticks proved to be an interesting endeavor. Same goes for the crab cake: we divvied them up by splitting them with chopsticks.
At the end, Tony convinced us that we MUST try the fried ice cream. So we did:
And it was divine.
Cons: back to that small table, it was too small. And I hope it’s just because we were at the front, but I think not, it was really, really loud inside. Like, horrible-place-for-a-second-date, great-place-for-a-first-date loud. But with the brightness on the inside, no one really thought it was lounge-y anyway, right? You’re there for the innovative, creative menu that actually isn’t like anything else in town.
With martinis at $9, the spider roll at $11, most rolls between $9 and $13, nigiri between $2-3.50, and lunch bentos between $10-$14, Piranha is in a pretty good spot for Killer Sushi. They don’t have a happy hour right now, but keep your fingers crossed (and they’d have to in order to compete with Imperia’s badass 2-for-1).
Downtown next to Max’s Wine Dive.
Sushi Zushi is a chain with outposts in Dallas and San Antonio; their Dallas-monikered Oak Lawn Roll was easily our favorite–and recommended by the server. It’s on the far left, then a Spider Roll, Summer Roll, Sushi Zushi riceless roll, and a Valentine’s Roll. I was excited that they offered rolls intended to be riceless, and their signature one at that. It didn’t disappoint, with crunchy asparagus lending a new texture to smooth fish, which really got to shine without rice.
Universally shared yet a solitary experience, looking through car windows is a world we rarely take the time to see. Artist Alec Drummond takes us on the highway to explore it.
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