Enjoy Traditional Sushi at Little Tokyo

Visiting must be an exhausting experience. The massive store is ringed by a pair of strip malls chock full of restaurants to help restore your energy once you're done with a hard day of shopping.

Little Tokyo is sandwiched between a Mexican and an Italian restaurant with a sport's bar only a couple doors further down. The inside feels exactly like what you'd expect from a strip mall restaurant with it’s bland grey walls and ceiling plus aging rickety tables. But in the middle of all that is a lovely black lacquer sushi bar lined with 10 dark wood and leather chairs. It feels somehow out of place, like a bit of elegance was dropped into the middle of an aging mall.

Little Tokyo is a straight up old-school sushi restaurant. They don't have a hibachi grill or offer bento boxes and assorted cooked food. You come here for fish and rice prepared by a man wearing a kimono and a chef’s hat.. Although they don't offer any flashy, dramatic rolls that are set on fire at your table or wrapped in slices of cucumber instead of nori,  the menu is surprisingly more adventurous than what I often find in flashier sushi bars.

The Mexican Roll includes spicy shrimp, avocado and cucumber. A Love Roll gets you scallops, crab, cucumber, avocado and eel. The Futu Roll comes with crab, egg, cucumber, pickles, squash and radish. All three rolls are made with traditional ingredients, but not ones I usually see combined.

I opted for the Spicy Tuna Roll (my baseline comparison for all sushi joints), the deep fried Philly Roll and a simple, refreshing Cucumber Roll just in case the Spicy Tuna was super hot. After 15 minutes I ordered some vegetable tempura as an appetizer so I’d have something to snack on while I waited. I couldn’t understand the delay. I was one of only seven peole in the entire restaurant.

That said, the sushi was worth the wait. I really liked this rendition of a Spicy Tuna roll. Instead of chopped tuna in a spicy mayo base, this was a sleek, cool piece of solid fish surrounded by sriracha and wrapped tight in rice and nori. At first it seems cool and refreshing. A second later, the spice catches up to you in a rush. I'll take this over the wetter fillings on other spicy tuna rolls any day. The tuna itself had a crisp, clean flavor that made me wish I’d ordered some nigiri so I could enjoy it in it’s most basic form.

The deep fried Philly Roll was an exercise in indulgence. Sushi is actually pretty good for you. A little bit of carbs, a little bit of protein and a little bit of vegetables. A good Philly Roll adds a little bit of cream cheese, a little bit of tempura batter, and a bunch of oil for the deep frying. It's great. This one came drenched in a thickened, slightly sweet soy sauce which worked perfectly with the creamy interior filling. If you have a friend who insists they can’t get over the idea of eating raw fish, a fried Philly Roll is an excellent introduction to safer sushi. Everything ends up fully cooked and it's stuffed with familiar flavors like salmon and cream cheese.

My crisp, cool cucumber roll would've been a perfect counterpoint to a highly spiced roll. The spicy tuna roll, which was excellent, had just enough heat to catch my attention but not enough to loosen my sinuses. I didn't need the cool contrast of the cucumber, but it was a nice bite by itself.

The large, sharably sized vegetable tempura had a couple of nice surprises. In addition to the usual broccoli, onions and (my personal favorite) sweet potato, they included large slices of white daikon radish. The sweetened soy based dipping sauce was a little sweeter and lighter than what I usually expect, but was a still a nice accompaniment.

This isn't a fusion sushi restaurant. This is the place to go when you’re in the mood for classic, old school sushi prepared by people who do one thing and do it well.

The only real drawback is speed. The friendly party of six at a nearby table were there before I arrived and still waiting to pay when I left. Twice I heard them ask how long it would take to get the rest of their orders. I was there for an hour. During that time, their conversation turned from "ooh, you should try this" to a collection of calls back to the office delaying meetings since they weren’t going to make it back on time. The waitress seemed a little overwhelmed to have seven people in her dining room. If you’re in a hurry, try Sushi Ai. However, if you’re in a mood to kick back for a leisurely night with friends, Little Tokyo offers excellent renditions of traditional sushi.

My total for an iced tea, three rolls, and an order of vegetable tempura came to $26.82, including a $4 tip for my poor overwhelmed waitress.

A speed improvement and slightly more attentive service would bump up their grade. Under the circumstances, I give Little Tokyo a B+.

Little Tokyo is located at 1456 Bass Pro Drive in Charles, MO.