Restaurant:
Cherry Sushi
2910 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95051
(408) 557-0770
Cherry Sushi is located in the middle of an eclectic and unique center of the El Camino Real. The diverse selection you of food appears right in front of your eyes. Across the street there’s a Korean market, to the left a pizza parlor, and to the right an Indian restaurant. Places with so much variety in such little space are sometimes hard to come by when you’re looking for a tasty bite to eat, unless you live smack dab in the middle of San Francisco’s culinary neighborhoods. For the rest of us, we have to settle with what we can find, and luckily for me, I found it. With so much to choose from in the area, I decided I felt like eating sushi that day.
Walking in without looking at the menu, I was really surprised with how nice the place looked. I didn’t feel like I was entering a standard sushi joint, but rather some kind of sleek lounge that you would find downtown. The lighting was darker than many other sushi places I’ve been to, yet not so dark that I would need a flashlight to navigate myself through the tables as if I had been plopped into a poorly written episode of Scooby Doo. The overall sense I would give to the furnishing would be classy and intimate. Although I don’t have any photos to highlight the décor, I can tell you that I was impressed.
Right when my dining party walked in, we were escorted to a table. It wasn’t a particularly busy day, which may explain how fast we got to our table, but nonetheless it was nice that we were taken care of so quickly. From personal experience, I can tell you that at even when there’s virtually no one at the establishment, some places will still give a cold shoulder. Why? Because they are jerks! I kid, I kid. After we sat down and ordered, the waiting time was minimal. There was always a waiter or two to fill our drinks up, and they were always courteous. I can sum it up by saying the service was great.
The sashimi plate we got cost about 30 dollars, and it probably could feed about 3-4 people. Bento boxes went into the 10 dollar range. Roll wise, the low end rolls cost about 5 to 7 dollars while high end rolls went for about 9 to 14 dollars. I would say it’s a little pricier than your average, run of the mill sushi place.
The photo above is the sashimi plate. The size of each sashimi piece was huge, but I’m not sure for the amount of pieces they give you if it could feed the advertised 3-4. We got some rolls on the side. They weren’t the largest I’ve ever seen, but they were decent size. At the end of the day, I was a full boy, but I’m not sure if it was because the rolls were huge, but rather because we had ordered so much. If you want to do the math, one sashimi plate and 4 rolls was enough to get a party of 4 more than full. Take with that what you will.
The sashimi was top notch, that’s a fact. The fish was fresh, much fresher than at other places I’ve been too. You could tell by the texture, as there wasn’t the dreaded ‘stringy’ texture you taste when biting into a fish that has been left on the counter for some time. The flavor of the fish could be tasted to fine tip, with no hint of degradation what so ever.The appetizers and side entrees were standard. There aren’t many ways you can mess up a miso soup or side salad, unless you practiced Japanese culinary behind the back alley of a Kinko’s. If you did, then I have to ask who are you, and where’s the closest health inspector?
The rolls were also run of the mill. Naturally, rolls with fish outside them, like the Cherry Blossom w/ Salmon, seen above, were delicious. The strength of the taste really relied on the freshness of the fish. The rolls that did not were simply average, such as the baked eel roll we had. Also be warned that the spicy selection, like the Spicy Tuna Roll, were indeed very spicy. Yes, it is redundant to say the word spicy so many times, but I think it gets my point across. I’m not great with the spices, but even the other people in the group were noting how hot-hot-hot the food was.
If you like nice atmosphere and fresh fish, Cherry Sushi is for you. The place comes off refined and some what swanky. It’s a great place to take someone on a date and will draw in a young atmosphere. However, if you’re looking for a hole in the wall type place that’s a bang for your buck, you might want to look elsewhere.Questions, comments, concerns? Email us at mail@sfbayfoodreview.com.
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