Sushi I — Restaurant in Coeur d'Alene

Always, always amazing sushi. I travel a lot around the country for work and I always make a point to try the different sushi restaurants at my destinations. Well, let me just say that I’m glad I live right here in CDA so I can enjoy some of the freshest and most well put together sushi I’ve ever had. Been here many times and it has always been an enjoyable experience.

Update: I originally reviewed Sushi I when the previous owner was still running the establishment. As you can see by the picture attached to this review, the sushi was absolutely incredible and it was the truly the best I’ve had anywhere in the US so far.

However, new owners have since taken hold and the sushi has become subpar. Not to say it’s not still “good”, because it is. But it’s vastly inferior. The prices have gone up while the portions have shrank. The quality has diminished and the service has lagged well behind ideal. I would no longer have the heart to recommend this sushi establishment. I retract the 5 stars originally given and replace it with a well deserved 2 stars.

Update #2 - 07/22/2021 Tried again. Ordered 4 rolls to go. Took an hour and fifteen minutes. I ordered the Geisha Roll, of which I’m very familiar with, and when I opened the box it was just a squishy little.. something? It was unfortunately disgusting and simply a soggy amalgamation of types of food, indecently prepared. The Godfather was lacking in preparation and simply looked incomplete. The ISpecial was fine and the Tarantula was okay. I apologize but this place doesn’t even exist in the shadow of its former owners and it should be called by another name. I won’t be able to return here for sushi.. and even though I’ve tried all the places in town, and none compared to the original Sushi I, the other places are definitely now better. Keeping the review at 2 stars because the person who took my order was super nice.

I want to add that I’ve been reading over the reviews of this restaurant and something very telling to me is that the ‘owner’ will typically only respond to favorable reviews. This person seems to neglect those who’ve had a less adequate experience. This would suggest no interest in improvement, and a fairly pompous and completely unearned sense of self-confidence. One more reason...

I always make reservations here because most of the time I have a very snobby and picky (especially with sushi) senior citizen in my party who can't wait very long for a table. It's always busy when we go here on Friday nights and I'm always relieved I made reservations. I hate to post this because I don't want more people to eat here, or I may not get reservations anymore!

Service is always impeccable. The sushi.... I have tried sushi all over the world, on coasts, in famous sushi restaurants, etc. But not in Japan, yet. That said, this is THE BEST sushi I've ever had. This humble, tiny restaurant really does embody the "ai" in sushi. And when I say humble, I mean it in the restaurant, and the owner/chef who is very shy and humble.

The crab cheese wontons, which I try at every restaurant I have eaten that serves them, are so incredibly light and crispy with a light sauce, wonderful by themselves, but also allow you to fully taste the flavor of the filling, and there is plenty of it. I could eat 2 meals a day of just those. Never had one like it anywhere else. Perfect.

Every roll and nigiri and sashimi I have eaten here has been perfection. I am not an eater of spicy food, so I cannot speak to the spicy food served here.

In my first iteration of this post, I forgot to speak about the tonkatsu ramen! I was nervous I wouldn't find tonkatsu ramen when I came to Cd'A. I've had it quite a few places, and Sushi I's tonkatsu ramen comes in second only to a place in a posh part of Denver, CO. I am so relieved it is here, and I have ventured out in very bad weather just to get it here. Thank you for having it!

This place has ruined other sushi places for me. Ones I thought were excellent, meant to be cream of the crop in their own cities, or even the country. So happy it is within 8 minutes of my home. Thank...

Go to a different sushi place. This is the worst sushi I have ever had (over the 30 years been eating it). The service was bad too. Unorganized and scattered. I saw our sushi rolls sit on the counter for over 10 minutes before bringing allowing to to cool. Our waiter kept taking the newly made food instead of ours. Sushi is a food that needs to be served soon, especially with tempura inside, so hot and cold touch the tongue offering contrast instead it was mush. I asked to have it remade and it sat for 5 min was cool and mushy. Got the Super Duper roll. Something made it mushy, maybe rice not cooked good or defrosted frozen eel, I don't know (the eel tasted bad on top of the dragon). The dragon roll was short and was a tiny but full price. I tried a bite of the Godfather and it was cold and a mush. I had asked for the menu to stay as we wanted to order more rolls. But he took our menu anyway. Brought bill before done eating (He was doing odd scattered little tasks like he was new but I don't want to go into detail on that as my review is mostly about the bad food -poor service just made it worse). Its like they are trying to be a nice upscale restaurant with courses etc. in a fast food setting with subpar food and bad service.

Originally we wanted to order more rolls and dessert but due to the food sitting no one wanted to order fried ice. It would be a melted mess of mush.

The best thing was the fried mushrooms. We really wanted to like this place but never again. The food isn't worth the price nor to overlook the waitstaff. Sushi is expensive go...