Bigger is better

Bigger does not always mean better, but it at Sushi Pier 2. The new location is huge. It’s more like a sushi warehouse than a pier. With two massive sushi bars, a full wet-bar and enough tables to seat large parties, the place looks big enough to feed several hundred people at once.

My sister, Sandy, sent me a text message saying she wanted to meet my girlfriend and me for sushi. We all agreed to try out the new, improved Sushi Pier 2.

There were crowds of hungry, chic people chowing down. It looked like a high-fashion mess hall. To the left of the hostess stand was a large room for private parties, which looked like it could seat about 40.

The sushi bars themselves are high-style. One of them is a horseshoe shape, and the other is flat-up against the wall in front of the back kitchen.

The new floor plan is more efficient and aesthetically pleasing than the old one at Park Lane Mall. The restaurant is obviously doing much better business here. The décor is geared toward a 20- to 30-something crowd, with flat-screen televisions on every wall playing ESPN’s X Games and hip-hop music bumping throughout the dining room.

We arrived for dinner on a Thursday night at about 7 p.m. Luckily, Sandy and her husband, Matt, and some of their friends had already gotten us a table. Otherwise, we might have had a long wait. When Cherie and I arrived, the sushi was already being unloaded onto the table—big platters of nigiri sushi and long rolls. Everyone in our party ordered the all-you-can-eat dinner for $17.95.

We had salmon, tuna and yellowtail in the first round. The fish was sweet and tender—just the way it should be. Shortly after we polished that off, two giant platters of San Francisco rolls, rodan rolls, happy rolls, komodo rolls and crystal shrimp showed up. After we were about two-thirds of the way through that platter, we were beginning to feel full. Sandy wanted to make sure that we had enough food, so she was a little overzealous with her ordering. Now we were faced with eating another platter of long rolls and hand rolls.

Matt was a real team player and did his best to muscle-down two or three of the delicious long rolls. We took turns trying to finish off the platter, but no luck. They had filled us up.

The whole party thoroughly enjoyed Sushi Pier 2. The chefs served us quickly, and the quality was excellent. I imagine that because they are such a big restaurant, and they go through so much fish, that it is always fresh.

Sushi Pier 2 is deliciously cool—the hippest sushi bar in town.