Asahi Sushi-Riverside

Asahi Sushi
2955 Van Buren Boulevard D2
Riverside (951) 637-1313
Mon-Sun: 11:30am-10pm

Now I realize Riverside may be a stretch for being in the Inland Empire, but it's my birthday week so I may be stretching my "jurisdiction" a little bit. I have also come to the conclusion that I am an addict. My eyes dilate, my mouth salivates and my body goes into mild shock whenever I get wind of a restaurant in a shopping center or a strip mall. It's sick; I know I should be at a four star establishment...somewhere to see and be seen. I can't force myself to do it. I want to be off the grid, in the grittiest of locations, eating with the people's people. To be even more honest, I find myself to be quite the glutton. So when you entice me with large amounts of delicious food and for a small price, hidden in strange secret places, I am all yours.
Welcome to All You Can Eat my friends. By now I really cannot imagine that there are still people out there who haven't punished themselves with AYCE Sushi. I will entertain the idea that someone reading this may be an AYCE virgin so let me enlighten you. Just like normal Sushi establishments you choose table or bar. You are then given a large spreadsheet of food, on food, on food. With the check boxes of doom, you're probably going to be given a golf pencil. There are choices of appetizers, miso soup, nigiri sushi, hand rolls and cut rolls. Typically the sushi genie will reward you with three rounds, in which you can order as much of what you wish. Let me be blunt by saying that AYCE is usually supermarket California rolls bathed in a mayonnaise-ish, cream cheese horror (although I do believe it is more appealing to others than it is to me). Not at all the case at Asahi; and this is where my journey begins.

    Off the Van Buren exit in an Albertson's parking lot, hiding in the corner is a smallish restaurant called Asahi Sushi. They have a very quaint patio that leads you to the double doors. You are customarily greeted by the staff as you enter. I choose the sushi bar because I want to really take advantage of the word "ALL". I'm here around 3 and luckily i don't have to struggle with a lunch or dinner crowd.The waitress who seated us was very quick at getting us drinks within the first 30 seconds of arriving and soon after that we had wasabi, ginger and plates. They have a very nice organized set-up. An L-shaped sushi bar wraps around the surprisingly spaced out dining room and there are two flat screen TVs on the accent wall and K-Pop music fills the room. Everything is clean, well taken care of and modern without being obnoxious. 

Chef Thi

   I'm lucky enough to meet my chef "Scott". I need to know who I am really talking to, because I know this Japanese guy didn't come here with the name Scott. So we introduce ourselves properly and Thi becomes my new found friend. He immediately recognizes my sincerity and gave me the best sushi experience of my life. He is a master at what he does: marksman accuracy, unparalleled speed and the greatest attention to detail this side of the Pacific. This is the first time I actually didn't have to fill out my paper. He just asked what we wanted and every time we finished something he was right there waiting for his next task.

Octopus, salmon, tuna, yellow tail

    I've heard about the rumor of their monster nigiri sushi with microscopic rice mounds and I couldn't wait any longer to learn the truth. Asahi is no joke. I had about a teaspoon of rice with a 5-inch long 1/4 inch thick "slab" of fish served to me. Tuna, salmon, octopus, yellow tail and ono. The freshness of this fish was shocking. I couldn't believe how beautiful the salmon markings were and how deep red the tuna was. The yellow tail was buttery and ono was light and delicate. Asahi's fish has never been frozen and for a moment I wasn't so sure it hadn't died minutes before I ate it. The octopus was clearly prepared by a true sushi chef because it was not chewy, gummy, rubbery or flawed in any way. It went down with ease. When Thi handed me that first specialty roll I was in complete awe, it surely wasn't for me. This plate was pure art. Cut so cleanly, with flared end pieces, beautifully sauced and an overall kick ass presentation. I was immediately enslaved in this experience. Roll after roll I was completely satisfied.

Riverside Roll

Scorching Crab

Green Mussel and Jen Jen Roll

Now I sometimes feel that people and their choice of sushi rolls are very different, so I will tell you that I loved everything that I got but I won't necessarily recommend any one roll in particular for that reason. I personally, do not enjoy baked rolls or obviously rolls with cream cheese or heavy mayonnaise. So my choice of rolls were all cold and basically raw. Starting with my little Picasso... the Riverside roll, with tuna and salmon inside wrapped in soy paper topped with avocado.Then the Scorching crab: a roll with delicious spicy crab inside. The classic Caterpillar... sweet eel and avocado came next. Then we enjoyed the very original Jen Jen roll with thick sliced salmon wrapped around a little mountain of spicy crab. Once again another original, Stuffed Tomato with thick sliced tuna wrapped around little scallop crab mountains. We also ordered an octopus hand roll and a salmon skin hand roll which were both very tasty. Towards the end we also sampled fried oysters and green mussels. The oysters were good but the green mussels were outstanding. The green mussels were super flavorful and had a perfect sauce without being heavy. I wish I hadn't been fish greedy at first because I would have eaten about 10 orders of green mussels easily.
Overall Asahi's food was pure magic. The highest quality fish I have ever encountered and by far the most impressive All You Can Eat sushi restaurant possibly in existence. Oh did I mention for dinner it is $21.95 and lunch is $17.95. Dinner starts at 3pm and also includes the option to order uni. You also can receive a $5 discount if you flash them your college ID. I also learned that if it's your birthday they will pop on some strobe lights, play techno and give you a pretty awesome cupcake in a take home box, (it was the funnest birthday "song" a restaurant has ever given me). I would suggest coming in on an off hour though because I've heard they get extremely busy and there's a pretty hefty wait time for larger parties. When you visit Asahi come with an empty stomach, don't eat for a couple weeks, empty stomach. You're definitely going to get your money worth either way, but why not eat until your physically ill, emotionally scarred and suffering mental angst. Asahi is definitely my new go to sushi place and I hope it will become yours too.