Food Fight!: Don't miss this sushi around Columbus

Among the standout qualities of Polaris-based Sushi En is that all of the sauces are made in-house, creating the perfect flavor for each roll.

That helps maintain the flavor customers have come to love, while keeping preservatives out of the food, says owner Diana Bae. The restaurant’s Special #1 roll is for those who are looking for something a little more healthful. Rather than being wrapped in white rice like a traditional sushi roll, the Special #1 is wrapped in a thin slice of cucumber. And filled with tuna, crab, tamago, kaiware and masago.

“Sushi is edible art,” says Bae. “We serve traditional, but we pay attention to where the trend is headed.”

–Amanda DePerro

With some 50 rolls on its menu, Sapporo Sushi Factory had a lot of options for choosing the one that would bear its name.

It’s no surprise, then, that the item dubbed the New Sapporo Roll would become one of the most popular items at the Westerville restaurant. It contains shrimp tempura, tuna, cream cheese and mango wrapped in soybean and topped with crab stick, tempura flakes and spicy mayo. It’s a top seller, though it’s sometimes rivaled by Sapporo’s Lobster Roll when that happens to be the day’s special.

“Most places … fry lobster tail or something like that,” says Ngamta Tanglain of Sapporo. “But we use a lobster meat that’s on top; we don’t fry.”

–Garth Bishop

With locations in Grandview Heights, the Short North, Clintonville and Easton Town Center, FUSIAN is quickly turning into one of Columbus’ sushi staples.

The fast-casual restaurant takes a “make your own” approach, giving diners the option to build their own sushi rolls. With its peanut butter and jelly roll, FUSIAN proves that even kids can get in on the action, offering a soy wrap, white rice, creamy peanut butter and grape jelly. Depending on the season, some diners may add their own twists with mango, strawberries and honey.

“We originally put it on the menu for kids, but it also serves well for adults who still feel like kids,” says co-founder Stephan Harman. “It’s a good first step into a sushi roll. Our goal is to make sushi as accessible as possible.”

–Hannah Bealer

Sushi Ting has grabbed attention with its creatively named rolls: Dreamy Goat, Sweet Potato Dynamite, Insanity Roll and Monster in Law are just a few of the options.

There’s more to the Clintonville-area restaurant than just names, though. One thing that really sets apart such rolls as the Ting’s Lover – spicy tuna and crunch roll, topped with fresh tuna and wasabi tobiko – is the quality of the rice, says owner and head chef Jacob Dong. Sushi Ting uses tamanishiki rice, which makes a noticeable difference, he says.

“The flavor (of a roll) is 70 percent from rice, (and) only 30 percent from fish,” Dong says.

–Garth Bishop

Nida’s Thai on High features an extensive menu of authentic Thai cuisine, but you don’t want to overlook its sushi menu.

Take the Heart Attack, for example: a tempura-batter deep-fried sushi roll with spicy tuna, jalapeño peppers, cream cheese, all topped with a spicy mayo and eel sauce. Nida Perry, owner of the Short North restaurant and its sushi stand at the North Market, crafted the roll with a goal in mind: offering up a sushi roll no one else could master.

“I don’t think anyone in town has something like this,” says Perry, who hails from Thailand. “I wanted to make it different.”

–Hannah Bealer

It’s hard to look away from the food at Royal Ginger Asian Fusion Bistro (Upper Arlington) and HY Asian Cuisine (Clintonville area), because the jointly-owned restaurants subscribe to the notion that sushi is an art form that should appeal to all five senses.

The sushi may come out in the traditional sushi boat, but diners may also be served in a cocktail glass if they get the pictured sushi and sashimi combo, with daikon radish cascading out of it with sushi delicately placed inside and around the base. The restaurants place a great deal of importance on making sushi a feast for the eyes as well as for the stomach, says manager Victor Liu.

“When (owner David Zheng) got the place, he really invested in presentation,” says Liu. “Presentation, special sushi rolls and unique ingredients.”

–Amanda DePerro

Mr. Sushi, located in Dublin, aims to impress both with its décor – sectioned off by traditional Japanese-style light wood and a gridded half-wall with translucent paper – and the freshness of its fish.

That’s been a major area of emphasis for manager and chef Daniel Kim since the restaurant changed management a little over a year ago. The Mr. Sushi roll (pictured top left in the sushi boat) is a good example, offering eel, sweet potato and cucumber plus katsuobushi, or dried tuna flakes, with tobiko. A happy hour and an increase in quality accompanied the increased freshness, Kim says.

 “We get new shipments of fish three times per week,” says Kim. “That lets us keep track of the fish, and keeps everything fresh.”

–Amanda DePerro