Sima sushi is one of these little, unsuspecting restaurants that look average on the outside and you always pass them without giving them a chance, but once you give them a try, you cannot stop eating there. The place offers both Japanese and Korean food, and their extensive menu makes it really hard to decide what to order, simply because everything on it looks so good.
How to get there?
Sima sushi restaurant is situated on 1771 Woodman drive in Dayton, Ohio, right next to another awesome place, Valley thrift store. And I have to mention that this very restaurant is the reason I started to like sushi. A few years ago, I would almost vomit when thinking of the idea of eating a raw fish. Now I cannot go for more than a week or two without sushi. True story.
The place itself looks like a tiny castle, and there is a big banner on the front wall, saying ‘Half price sushi’. When I first went there with one of my friends, we joked that we should not eat at a place that advertises sushi for half the regular price because that most likely means small portions and bad quality. Later, we found out that the sushi costs half less on selected days, hence the banner.
Sima sushi has a big parking lot, so you are guaranteed to find a parking spot. You might even be lucky enough to park right in front of the entrance.
All this parking space belongs to the Sima sushi restaurant. And even on busy days, it is not hard to find a place to park.
The interior
Once you enter the Sima sushi restaurant, you will feel like you ended up in Japan. The decoration looks great, although it is a bit too extensivein my opinion. The place always plays relaxing music, which is loud enough to hear, but not too loud, so you are still able to talk with the people you are eating with, without having to shout.
This is how the interior os Sima sushi restaurant looks like. Well, on this picture, you can only see a small part of it.
The main dining room is divided into two parts - the part with regular tables and the part with booths. I always choose the booth, simply because it is more intimate and quiet. If you choose a regular table, servers and other guests will be walking past you all the time, and it can get quite annoying. Once you enter Sima sushi restaurant, the hostess will usually ask you whether you would prefer a table or a booth, unless the restaurant is really full. But in most cases, you will be able to choose between the two options.
There is no silverware at Sima sushi restaurant... well, unless you ask for it. It took me a while to learn how to eat with chopsticks, and once I got the hand of it, I have to say that it is quite fun.
In the middle of the dining room, there is a big aquarium with a lot of colourful fishes inside, and I love watching them when I eat, but sometimes I cannot help myself but wonder if some of these fishes ended up in the sushi I am eating.
The food and drinks
My second favourite part of the Sima sushi restaurant (my favourite part is of course the food) is the way you order food. The server will bring you the menu first, and after a few minutes, he or she will bring you a laminated version of the menu and a dry - erase marker. So, instead of telling your order to the server, you simply circle the things that you want to orderon the laminated menu, and you also have to specify the quantity. Simple and innovative, isn’t it?
Here, you can see some of the menu items.
For the appetizer, I always order miso soup and chicken noodles. They do not come together, you need to order them separately, but I love dipping the chicken noodles into the miso soup.
My absolute favourite type of sushi at Sima sushi restaurant is, without a doubt, the California roll. Sometimes, if I am feeling adventurous enough, I also order a spicy California roll. Other favourites of mine include the tuna roll, avocado roll and any sushi roll with crab in it.
Chicken noodles and miso soup.
And just so you know, one portion of sushi at Sima sushi restaurant equals eight sushi rolls. For me, it is usually more than enough if I order two portions, because sushi can be pretty filling.
I once ordered a seaweed salad just because I was curious, and it tasted weirdly sweet. It is also very slimy, but I still kinda enjoyed it. Well, good thing was that the portion of the seaweed salad was very small, otherwise I am not sure if I would be able to finish it.
And please do yourself a favour and do not skip a dessert at Sima sushi restaurant. I am proud to say that I tried all the desserts from their dessert menu, and my three absolute favourites are definitely deep fried ice cream, deep fried chocolate, and the mochi ice cream. Mochi ice cream is an ice cream inside a rice dough, and you can pick different flavours. I like mango and ripe strawberry the most.
As for drinks, I would suggest you to try their fizzy strawberry lemonade, which is equally delicious and refreshing. One of the drinks I like at Sima sushi is also the sake, but it is not very strong, which is good if you are driving back home. Sometimes, I also order their special tea, which is bitter and flavourful, but it takes almost the whole meal to cool down enough to drink it. Oh, and did I mention that you get free refills for non - alcoholic drinks?
You can see some of the sushi rolls in the background. My favourite way to eat them is to dissolve some wasabi (that green smear on the top of my plate) in the soy sauce and dip the sushi roll in it.
Service
Usually, I do not describe the service in a certain restaurant in a separate chapter, but I feel like that service at Sima sushi deserves a special mention. The servers are incredibly polite, attentive, talkative, but at the same time not annoying at all. And they will always recommend you the best food if you are undecided on what to order.
And the servers will always give you something for free - either a small dessert, an appetizer or a typical drink, if you are a returning customer. It was almost four months between my first and my second visit of the Sima sushi restaurant, and on my second visit, the server said she remembers me, thanked me for coming back and brought me some rice ice cream. I have never had such a thing happen in any other restaurant.
Price
All the items on the menu at Sima sushi restaurant are reasonably priced. Some sushi plates with more exotic ingredients can be more expensive than regular sushi, but they are still worth trying. Just so you can get a feeling about how much the food at Sima sushi costs, I will give you two examples. Two portions of sushi and a regular drink will cost you around twenty dollars. If you order an appetizer, a sushi plate, a dessert and a drink, the whole thing will cost you around thirty dollars. Like I told you, not expensive at all.
A few words for the end…
As you probably figured out when reading this entry, I simply love Sima sushi. Friendly servers, good food and low prices are the reasons I keep coming back. And even though Sima sushi is situated outside of Dayton, with no major shopping centers (well, besides the Valley thrift store) or other restaurants nearby, that does not mean that you should not try eating there at least once.
