Poway Sushi Lounge

The Mister and I decided to have dinner at Poway Sushi Lounge last night. We've had several lunches and dinner, each very enjoyable. This has become our favorite local sushi place; close to home and wonderful food. I finally took pictures of "most" of the items we had this time. So yes, kiddies, we've got pictures!!

The menu has a very good selection. Check the website for menu. The previous time we were there for dinner, we ended up sitting at the sushi bar for the first time (no available tables) and we were very glad we did. Eric Wong, one of the owners was our sushi chef and he took really took care of us. The only thing I really regret from that visit was not taking a picture of the wonderful presentation of Aji that he made for us. It had aji sashimi, cucumber aji roll, and aji fried bones. The fried bones was so good and the only part I didn't eat was the tail.

I learned about Aji awhile back from Kirk of mmm-yoso (where else?) and have really gotten into it. The only other fried bones I've had was yellow tail at Sammy's Sushi awhile back (no aji that night). Sammy had told me that Aji has more flavor and was better than yellow tail. He was right, aji fried bones are definitely good eats (sorry, Alton). Being the typical me, I didn't take pictures on that visit to Sammy's and just didn't want to bore with my lame review, especially when you can read Kirk and Ed's great reviews with pictures at mmm-yoso here, here and here.

So back to Poway Sushi. We got there about 6:45 pm and the place was already busy. Looks like people in Poway like to eat early. We had a choice of sitting at a table or at the bar this time and for some reason, I decided to sit at a table this time. Mainly because I wanted to be discreet about taking pictures (the Mister gets a bit uncomfortable sometimes when I whip out the camera). As we were waiting for our table, Eric saw us and smiled. As we were heading to our table, Eric mentioned that he had aji. Woohoo! Guess what I'm getting? At that instant, I was sorry I asked for a table rather than sitting at the bar. But that's okay, we'll sit at the bar from now on.

There's always the same placard on each table, one side listing the 1/2 Tuesday Wine and Sake special.











The other side lists the Lounge's Saketinis. Sorry the saketini side is a bit blurry but shows Pomegranate, Lemon Drop, Melon Ball, Raspberry Lemon Drop, and Blue Hawaii. These aren't Japanese saketinis since they are made with Ku Soju, which is a brand of Korean distilled beverage using sweet potatos. I think Ku Soju is trying to rebrand it as vodku (kind of cute). Traditionally, soju is made from rice.





The Mister decided to try the Pomegranate saketini (he picked up a fondness for soju when he used to fly to South Korea a lot). I had a sip and it is a very tasty drink. Not overly sweet, just enough to make it a drink that can sneak up on you fast, you know what I mean (wink, wink)? I likey. I'm going to have to have him try other ones so I can taste them, hehe.

So on to the food. We place our standard order with a very nice waitress (who's served us several times before), the Chef's Sashimi Platter, a Dragon Roll, Aji sashimi, cucumber salad, and a tako sunomono (which is similar to the cucumber salad but with sliced octopus and more seaweed). The salads were served first (sorry, we ate most of it before i remembered to take a picture of it.).

Next was the Dragon roll. I really like this roll because it has some of my favorite roll ingredients and they don't drench it in eel sauce.




Next was our sashimi platter with the aji. We got a 1 1/2 portion (can't tell you what that means, just how it's rung up on the receipt) compared to the 2 1/2 portion from last time. I attribute that to me not really knowing how to order it properly. Nonetheless, it was still very good. The maguro was just okay on this night, other times have been great. The rest were delicious. The Mister said the sake (salmon) was very good, as usual.

By now, we were starting to get full but still had a little room for perhaps, dessert! The Mister decided to try the cheesecake with macadamia nut crust. I had 2 mochi ice cream, mango and strawberry. Good way to finish off a nice meal. The total bill was just over $76, not counting tip. As we were leaving, Eric asked how everything was from behind the bar and bid us with a "see you next time!" Definitely and soon.

Have a wonderful weekend! Now go and eat well

Poway Sushi Lounge
13132 Poway Rd.
Poway, CA 92064
Tel: (858) 748-0070

Business Hours:
Lunch: Daily 11:30am - 2:30pm

Dinner: Sun-Thur: 5:00pm - 9:30pm
Fri - Sat: 5:00pm - 10:00pm