Fancy Sushi Asian Fusion — Restaurant in Surf City

We went to Nikki's at around 7pm on a Thursday night in early August 2015. When we arrived, there were only about 6 tables seated, but more folks came before we left. We were served promptly, and our food came in a timely fashion. Two servers served us, but were not very attentive once we had our food. We had spring rolls for an appetizer, which were very good and probably underpriced at $2.40 for two. My son had the veggie tempura entree, which was good, and comes with a salad or miso soup for $14.95. My husband and I ordered the sushi meal for two, which is $39.95. The waitress asked us each in turn whether we wanted soup or salad, and we each chose a salad, but she only delivered one salad, which she placed in front of my husband without asking us any questions. When I inquired about when my salad would be coming, she was very insistent that the sushi meal for two comes with only a single salad or soup. This seemed very odd to me, and a little disappointing, since I was expecting a salad of my own. Speaking as someone who eats a fair amount of sushi in higher-end restaurants, the actual sushi meal for two platter was fairly good, though I'm not a fan of california roll and there was a lot of it. There were 18 pieces of sashimi including salmon, octopus, escolar, tuna, shrimp, hamachi, but no mackerel. I also had a mojito, which was yummy and only $6. The outside is pretty dumpy. The inside looks okay, but the lighting is a little too harsh and bright for an evening meal. We probably...

Love in the Time of Corona: This place absolutely ROCKS. Not only is their food to absolutely die for, but their contactless curbside pick-up procedure is efficient, flawless, and conscientious. I wish I'd taken a picture of their set-up. Here's the process: You call your order in and they tell you about how long it will take (realistic wait time, not the standard "10 minutes"). When you arrive, you remain in your car, call the restaurant, and let them know you're there. They have two tables outside the front door labeled Table 1 and Table 2. Each table has two pen cups, one labeled "Sanitized" and one labeled "Used", a box for signed receipts, and a big bottle of hand sanitizer. They let you know which table they will be placing your order on. Once your order is placed outside, you take a sanitized pen, sign your receipt, place it in the labeled receipt box, put the pen in the "used" cup, and off you go with your meal. Brilliant. Efficient. Safe. OMG and delicious. I seriously can't stress enough how fantastic their food is; from the ma po tofu, to the soups, to the chicken and beef dishes, the egg rolls, the SUSHIIIII, we've had just about all of it and I think my only "complaint" is that their spicy dishes could be spicier. But I keep in mind that they're cooking for the standard American palate and not everyone loves hot chili oil as much as others! Great folks, great food, great prices, we...

We're from Toronto, and we're big into sushi and Chinese food. And there's tons of these restaurants where we're from. Being in Topsail, far from an ethnic population, we didn't have high expectations but thought what the heck we'll try it. BLOWN AWAY. If this place was in my neighborhood back home, I'd order from here all the time. We had the yellowtail jalapeno appetizer, which had some generously sized pieces of hamachi on a bed of cucumber matchsticks, thickened tataki (?) sauce, topped with jalapeno slices and a dot of hot sauce. This is a signature dish, I've never seen it done this way before, and it hit all the notes. Godzilla roll: on the higher end of the rolls in terms of price, but had all the good stuff, softshell crab inside, torched white tuna on top. The torched flavor was perfectly executed and elevated the roll. General Tso's shrimp: every new Chinese restaurant I go to I judge by the General Tso's chicken, it's a guilty pleasure of mine. I saw a shrimp version so why not. Shrimps were big, plump, perfectly cooked, light fluffy breading which soaked up an addictive sauce surrounded by broccoli florets also perfectly steamed tender crisp. You might want to get two bowls of steamed rice if you're into that sauce. We also got an order of white tuna sashimi because that's one of our faves. Some of the freshest pieces I've had. And this was a Monday night. What a nice surprise...