Sushi Ushi Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Brandon

This is an excellent sushi restaurant in Valrico. I honestly don't visit it as often as I should. What I love is that they have unique sushi roll options without rice. Most places just have Naruto rolls wrapped in cucumber, which quite frankly is kind of boring. They have a ceviche roll that is tasty and unique. It's one of my favorites. But this time, I decided to try a few things off of their Izakaya menu. Everything was delicious! It was my first time trying the X-mas roll. It's wrapped with tuna and topped with lobster salad and these yummy wasabi and chili infused tobiko. The wasabi yuzu vinaigrette that it's served with was a great pairing. It was so light. So much so that I decided to also try the crispy mini roll that was also on the Izakaya menu. This one was fried, and had crispy panko along with the fish. Again, there was no rice which made it light and perfect. It was exactly what I wanted for lunch.

Honestly, I never leave Sushi Ushi disappointed. They have great sushi rolls and ramen. I think the only negative thing I can say is that I wish they had a seasoned egg versus a boiled egg in their ramen. Other than that, the broth and pork belly are both wonderful. They serve Thai tea which is also a plus. The service is always great! There's really not much more I can say. Check out their Facebook page for daily specials and...

The first time here, we had sushi - a "boat" full of it, in fact - and it was... barely decent. Which would have been tolerable - that's about average for the Tampa area - but the price was way out of line for that. I've paid $450+ for three people for proper sushi in the past, so it's not the money - it's the value received - and this wasn't nearly worth it. This time, my friend dragged me here by underhanded means (she made goo-goo eyes at me; what's a man to do?) - and we had the ramen, which she'd heard was good. The rumor had it right. I had the tonkotsu, and she had the spicy miso, and both were as good as any ramen we've had here (and we've sampled pretty much all the local ramen places on Yelp by now. What can I say - we love the stuff.) They even had shichimi togarashi - although the waitress didn't know it, the kitchen had it. Perfectly-seared pork, rich beautiful broth, good noodles... Even as critical as I was ready to be after our first experience, I could find nothing to complain about. So, I still won't eat their sushi. But I'll be back for more of that ramen.

Another visit, 4/15/22: tonkotsu ramen again. Pork overcooked, egg overdone till the yolk turned green, broth was nothing to boast about. Sigh. My best take here is that their quality is very uneven; you might get lucky and run into decent...

We pass this place all the time and the name makes us laugh, but the sign is very unassuming. My daughter had been begging for sushi (not my husband's fav) and it was a special occasion for her, so we looked it up to see: a) if the reviews were any good and b) if they had vegetarian sushi options. It ticked both boxes, so we went.

Wow, we were so impressed by this place. Our waitress was wonderful. I don't think I've ever said that about a waitress before, but she really stood out. She was so kind, friendly, and attentive.

The restaurant itself isn't large, but is nicely decorated, the menu has a great variety, they had a few specials too. My kids love sushi, but don't really love fish (hence the vegetarian options), but I got a tempura bagel roll and it was absolutely delicious and huge - and even the kids ate some. We had the tuna avocado bomb for an appetizer and it was delicious as well. Garlic edamame, tempura veggies, a few veggies sushi rolls, ramen, soba - I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but it was all good and a decent price as well.

We will absolutely be back, one of my favorite places we've been to...