Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Narumi Sushi still offers specials and surprises in Lemon Grove
New outpost of a local’s favorite La Mesa spot is larger, no less winning
A $12 sashimi combo featuring ahi tuna, salmon, and yellowtail
For several years now, Narumi Sushi, at the Fletcher Hills end of La Mesa, has been a favorite of my family. We’ve gone there for birthdays, when out-of-town relatives visit — any occasion we decide we want to eat together but no one’s willing to get stuck washing dishes.
It’s a sushi spot that sits right at the sweet spot in the curve, where you see a rise in fish quality before you hit accompanying jump in price that goes with premium fish. Five or six years back, the place might still have been called a best kept secret. But word’s been out for a while, enough at least that in recent years, we consistently see Narumi’s small dining room full; often there's a line of customers waiting out front.
Narumi Sushi's new outpost in Lemon Grove
Which is why I’m glad to find a much larger space when I walk into Narumi’s newer outpost at the northwest boundary of Lemon Grove. A sushi restaurant is not new to this location at the southern terminus of College Avenue (6950 Federal Boulevard, Lemon Grove). At least two prior tenants of the freeway adjacent strip mall operated Japanese restaurants. I visited neither, but would bet Narumi finds a bigger audience for the property.
Asahi beer and a seared salmon nigiri happy hour special, $7.50 total
Parking was easy on a Saturday night, and there wasn’t a wait. But I was still in time for my old friend, the Narumi happy hour. Every day from 5 until 7pm, buying a large beer or bottle of sake gets you a 99-cent food item, chosen from a list including fried chicken karaage, and basic sushi rolls from California rolls to shrimp tempura. In my case, when I spent $6.50 on the same 22-ounce bottle of Asahi lager I would have ordered anyway, I scored a pair of delectable, seared salmon nigiri for less than a buck. I could not feel like more of a winner about this.
A larger dining room
We followed up with a $12 mixed sashimi combo that likewise offered memorable value. They might have worked better with a finer cut, but our six pieces of tuna, yellowtail, and salmon showed remarkably good texture and flavor for the price.
Pork katsu curry
This Narumi offers the same long list of special rolls that I’ve sampled over the years, which are pretty on par with So Cal style sushi restaurants. Meaning, plenty of them incorporate the likes of avocado, jalapeño, and/or pico de gallo. They’re mostly winners, especially when you order one of the $15 to $19 sushi roll combos, which lets you try half-portions of up to four different rolls, adding up to a welcome variety.
Salmon Skin hand roll
Narumi’s a solid choice for non-sushi Japanese meals. This latest visit, I got nostalgic and ordered a katsu curry, with a well-flavored sauce dressing the panko fried pork cutlet. My dad’s fond of the stir-fry yakisoba noodles. And if you’re after a combination of cooked protein and sushi, check out a menu of baked rolls, including a baked salmon roll stuffed with crab and grilled eel.
A spicy yellowtail hand roll, and tempura avocado hand roll
In other words, there’s a lot to like at Narumi, and I always seem to find something new to add to the list. For example, I knew I liked the restaurant’s hand rolls, so when we ordered salmon skin and spicy yellowtail hand rolls, there were no surprises. However, on a whim, I added the tempura avocado hand roll, which apparently I have been missing my whole life. It’s just about the perfect So Cal sushi snack. Okay, Narumi, I guess we’ll keep coming back.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Narumi Sushi still offers specials and surprises in Lemon Grove
New outpost of a local’s favorite La Mesa spot is larger, no less winning
Narumi Sushi still offers specials and surprises in Lemon Grove
New outpost of a local’s favorite La Mesa spot is larger, no less winning
A $12 sashimi combo featuring ahi tuna, salmon, and yellowtail
For several years now, Narumi Sushi, at the Fletcher Hills end of La Mesa, has been a favorite of my family. We’ve gone there for birthdays, when out-of-town relatives visit — any occasion we decide we want to eat together but no one’s willing to get stuck washing dishes.
It’s a sushi spot that sits right at the sweet spot in the curve, where you see a rise in fish quality before you hit accompanying jump in price that goes with premium fish. Five or six years back, the place might still have been called a best kept secret. But word’s been out for a while, enough at least that in recent years, we consistently see Narumi’s small dining room full; often there's a line of customers waiting out front.
Narumi Sushi's new outpost in Lemon Grove
Which is why I’m glad to find a much larger space when I walk into Narumi’s newer outpost at the northwest boundary of Lemon Grove. A sushi restaurant is not new to this location at the southern terminus of College Avenue (6950 Federal Boulevard, Lemon Grove). At least two prior tenants of the freeway adjacent strip mall operated Japanese restaurants. I visited neither, but would bet Narumi finds a bigger audience for the property.
Asahi beer and a seared salmon nigiri happy hour special, $7.50 total
Parking was easy on a Saturday night, and there wasn’t a wait. But I was still in time for my old friend, the Narumi happy hour. Every day from 5 until 7pm, buying a large beer or bottle of sake gets you a 99-cent food item, chosen from a list including fried chicken karaage, and basic sushi rolls from California rolls to shrimp tempura. In my case, when I spent $6.50 on the same 22-ounce bottle of Asahi lager I would have ordered anyway, I scored a pair of delectable, seared salmon nigiri for less than a buck. I could not feel like more of a winner about this.
A larger dining room
We followed up with a $12 mixed sashimi combo that likewise offered memorable value. They might have worked better with a finer cut, but our six pieces of tuna, yellowtail, and salmon showed remarkably good texture and flavor for the price.
Pork katsu curry
This Narumi offers the same long list of special rolls that I’ve sampled over the years, which are pretty on par with So Cal style sushi restaurants. Meaning, plenty of them incorporate the likes of avocado, jalapeño, and/or pico de gallo. They’re mostly winners, especially when you order one of the $15 to $19 sushi roll combos, which lets you try half-portions of up to four different rolls, adding up to a welcome variety.
Salmon Skin hand roll
Narumi’s a solid choice for non-sushi Japanese meals. This latest visit, I got nostalgic and ordered a katsu curry, with a well-flavored sauce dressing the panko fried pork cutlet. My dad’s fond of the stir-fry yakisoba noodles. And if you’re after a combination of cooked protein and sushi, check out a menu of baked rolls, including a baked salmon roll stuffed with crab and grilled eel.
A spicy yellowtail hand roll, and tempura avocado hand roll
In other words, there’s a lot to like at Narumi, and I always seem to find something new to add to the list. For example, I knew I liked the restaurant’s hand rolls, so when we ordered salmon skin and spicy yellowtail hand rolls, there were no surprises. However, on a whim, I added the tempura avocado hand roll, which apparently I have been missing my whole life. It’s just about the perfect So Cal sushi snack. Okay, Narumi, I guess we’ll keep coming back.
Comments