"Eat the eyes! Eat the eyes!" chanted my two young daughters in hushed tones.
The server at the Sushi Garden restaurant in Foothills Mall had just deposited the plate of sweet shrimp nigiri ($6.75) — on one end were two pieces of shrimp sushi, and on the other were two deep-fried shrimp heads, eyes intact.
The eyes looked like peppercorns or the overcooked crumbs at the bottom of the popcorn bucket. Honestly, how bad could it be?
So I ate one.
It was so small you could barely detect it on your tongue. Crunchy. No distinctive flavor. A bit gritty on the back end.
Then I took it one step further: I ate the head. Actually, I ate the insides; the fried outer shell had little pricklies that tickled the roof of my mouth in a not-too-pleasant way.
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The meat tasted like liver, which made sense after a little research. The shrimp's head is where you'll find all the essential organs — main digestive, circulatory, respiratory and reproductive systems. It wasn't great, but it wasn't gross.
Take that, Andrew Zimmern.
The shrimp head on the plate looks gastronomically adventurous, but it's in line with Sushi Garden's fairly traditional sushi offerings. If you've already shed your raw fish inhibitions, there are only a couple of menu items that might intimidate you: The quail egg shooter ($2.50) and the oyster shooter ($4.50) both employ raw quail eggs.
On a recent visit for dinner and another at lunch, the most texturally challenging item was the spicy scallop nigiri ($4). The dime-size raw scallops have an inherent sliminess that's buried somewhat in a spicy dressing. Once we got beyond that slippery slope, we found the scallops a tender and sweet contrast to the spicy sauce and the subtly grassy backdrop of the nori wrap.
Sushi Garden, a Midtown institution for nearly 20 years, made its move to the Northwest Side last January. It opened in the sleek and airy space in Foothills Mall that was home for three years to the more upscale Japanese restaurant J Nippon.
Sushi Garden has a decidedly casual personality, from the way diners dress in shorts and T-shirts to the laid-back but informed service.
Korean-born owner Sue Kim crafted the menu at both locations, pulling in ideas from family members and her staff of sushi chefs. She also borrows liberally from the sushi playbook of mild and rich fish like salmon, yellowtail and halibut. You won't find fare worthy of "Bizarre Foods," like fermented soybeans or stinky tofu, but the fish is impeccably fresh and the sushi selection ample and enticing.
A proper start to a sushi meal is the miso soup, which is prepared here with mildly fishy accents. You can add appetizers — the crispy eggrolls ($4.50) had a veggie filling lightly kissed with ginger, and the beef and veggie sautéed gyoza dumplings ($4.50) were bite-size comfort food — but you might risk filling up before you dive into the sushi.
Sushi Garden has an all-you-can-eat menu ($19.95 per person) that represents much of the nigiri and sushi roll menus. But it doesn't include one of our favorites, the volcano roll ($7.50). The mix of crab and shrimp folded into cream cheese accentuates the salty dashes of salmon roe on top.
We also were enamored of the salmon skin roll ($5), whose crispy signature ingredient played nicely with warm salmon flakes and the nori. The halibut ($4) and yellowtail ($3.75) nigiri were wonderful palate cleansers — tender and straightforward.
The dessert menu is fairly predictable. It leads off with the ubiquitous green tea ice cream, which we skipped in favor of a very dessert-sounding offering from the sushi roll menu: The tootsie roll ($6), which turned out to be an addictive combination of crab and cream cheese topped with crispy, sweetened tempura flakes. It was gooey in a way that didn't get your hands sticky, and so memorable that it washed away all visions of those shrimp eyes.
Review
Sushi Garden
7401 N. La Cholla Blvd., at Foothills Mall; 877-8744.
• Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-midnight Fridays, noon-midnight Saturdays. Happy hour with special drink and sushi prices from 10 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays.
• Wine list: Modest selection of mostly domestic and California wines by the glass.
• Family call: There's a kids menu with cooked meals including teriyaki steak ($6.95) and chicken tatsuta ($4.95).
• Et cetera: Sushi Garden's original location is at 15 N. Alvernon Way.
• Noise level: Moderate.
• Vegetarian choices: Enough to delight.
• Dress: Casual.
• Reservations: Not needed.
