Is it folly to expect good sushi in Tucson during the hot months?
It shouldn't be. Air travel means we can get sushi so fresh that it's practically still swimming.
Nor should it be folly to expect a favorite sushi restaurant to stay as good as memory serves.
After all, that's what keeps customers coming back.
For years, Sushi-Cho, owned by partners Shoji Asuma and Nguu Du, satisfied the urge for tasty tuna, succulent salmon and sublime snapper — all raw, fresh and memorable.
Sushi-Cho's reputation for fresh-from-the-sea fish explains the overflowing dining room and the handful of customers waiting patiently to be seated early on a recent Friday evening. The wait time is longer later in the evening, and the restaurant draws quite a lunch crowd.
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But expectations were not met over several recent visits to the midtown restaurant.
It was just, well, so-so.
Except for the squid salad ($5.75), which was a refreshing treat filled with rice noodles and tender squid bathed in what tasted like a rice vinegar marinade.
After that, the meals were completely underwhelming.
The sushi and sashimi dinner boat ($39.95 for two) was a beautiful presentation, loaded down with too-much-for-two-at-one-sitting rolls and sashimi (slices of raw fish served sans rice).
Part of the joy of Japanese food is the colorful aesthetic, and Sushi-Cho did not disappoint there.
The boat and accompanying plate burst with reds and pinks and greens.
There were thick slices of white and red tuna — the red is much more flavorful than the white, and while both were silky, neither had the rich, distinctive taste you find with raw tuna. It's not that it tasted old; it just didn't have much taste.
During the summer months, fresh fish is flown in two or three times a week, we're told — more frequently during the other seasons. Maybe we just got it on a couple of non-delivery days.
The yellowtail was tender, but not nearly as sweet as you expect with that fish. The shrimp, cooked slightly and served nigiri-style on a finger of vinegared rice, lacked flavor, and the rice was dry.
The halibut, the octopus, salmon, eel — they were all the same story: not bad, but not as distinctive, or as rich, or as sour, or as sweet as one expects with sushi.
The California rolls come with the fake crab that is the bane of my existence. Whoever came up with the idea of taking pollock and adding flavor to make it taste like crab should be publicly flogged with a wet mackerel.
But I digress.
The rice in the California roll was dry, too, though the avocado was just the right ripeness, which made that pollock go down easier.
Even the Bob Walkup ($5.85) — a spicy tuna roll with cream cheese, avocado and cucumber — tasted a bit dry and too subtle, tastewise. It's the mayor's favorite Sushi-Cho treat, we were told, hence the name.
On a return visit, we dove into a couple of the restaurant's non-sushi entrees: tempura ($11.95) and udon ($7.95).
Disappointment, again, prevailed.
The tempura coating left a discernable film of grease on the lips and tongue, though the onion, shrimp, (fake!) crab and broccoli were nicely done.
An abundance of soba noodles swam in a gentle mushroom broth in the Nabeyaki Udon. It was also loaded down with shrimp, fish (including crab that was, you guessed it, fake) and mushrooms. The soup was fine, but nothing to encourage you to beg for seconds.
Making the visits to Sushi-Cho even more challenging was the service, which was efficient but completely uninformed. When a waitress was asked what was in a sauce that came with the tasty pork-and-ginger-filled gyoza appetizer ($3.95), she looked quite blank. "I don't know," she said before quickly slipping away. That was the typical response on a return visit.
I'm not giving up on Sushi-Cho: It was good once; I believe it can be again. Maybe in the cooler months.
Review
Sushi-Cho Restaurant
1830 E. Broadway, 628-8800
• Hours: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; 5-10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.
• Family call: There should be enough to entice the young'uns.
• Noise level: Bearable.
• Vegetarian choices: Several.
• Dress: Casual.
• Reservations: Accepted.
• Price range: Entrees range from $7.50 to $11.95. Boats for two top out at $39.95.