New South Tampa Sushi Spot

Fall is always the busiest time for teachers, thus my summer blogging hobby has taken a back seat to lesson planning, conference nights, and grading papers. The new school year is off to a great start, though, and I've expanded my resume to include 8th grade Language Arts, Alternative Education, and sponsor of our school's Ladies' Quest club. I've also picked up a new hobby of "couponing", which is fantastically rewarding and only slightly embarrassing (I may or may not have created an excel spreadsheet to calculate savings...). I did want to take a moment, however, to share with you my latest dining experience at the newest restaurant to hit the South Tampa sushi scene- Sushi Ninja!

Apparently, Sushi Ninja has been around in the Brandon area for quite some time, but is brand new to us in South Tampa. I first heard of Sushi Ninja through the Facebook page Never Have I Ever. They wrote a blog bit about their experience at the grand opening, and it seemed pretty legit, so I checked them out on Yelp. I've found Yelp reviews to be pretty accurate and a solid indicator of what to expect at a restaurant, including suggestions for everything from cocktails to entrees. Whilst scanning through the reviews I noticed that they have a cucumber/jalapeno cocktail and I was immediately sold- hands down my favorite flavor combination in a mixed beverage. So, Trey and I jumped in the car and headed north of Gandy (which we rarely do anymore...S.O.G!).

Overall, I'd give our dining experience at Sushi Ninja an 8/10. They received points for the following:

-Yelp did not steer me wrong, the Cucumber Jalapeno Margarita was the best cocktail I've had in quite some time (as you can see, no time was wasted slurping down this magical mixture).

Cucumber Jalapeno Margarita

-Trey's a big fan of sunomono salads, and he was very pleased with their version. Lots more meat than Yoko's or Soho Sushi's, and a little tastier as well. The only draw back for me was the fact that it came in a martini glass (I'm admittedly messy and giving me anything in a martini glass is just asking for a disaster). Trey didn't seem to mind, though. His masculinity stayed in tact.

Sunomono Salad

-Very Tasty sushi! We agreed that the Volcano and the Spicy Tuna were more flavorful than what we'd experienced elsewhere. "Joe's Special Roll", however, was ironically not very "special", and was even found to be a little lackluster.

From Left...Volcano Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll, Joe's Special Roll

-The bill was comparable to other Sushi venues. Our order consisted of my glorious cucumber/jalapeno cocktail, a large hot sake, one sunomono salad, one ginger salad, 2 specialty rolls and 1 makimono roll. Our bill came to around $60.


The restaurant lost points for the following:

-I did feel that the specialty rolls were priced a little higher than what we're used to at Soho and Yoko's, anywhere from $13-$17 each. The Sake was cheaper, though, so I guess it worked out for us.

-VERY slow service. It took us over an hour to eat, and we even waited for our bill for over 15 minutes after our server had cleared our plates. I attribute this to the fact that they just opened and are still training staff and working out the kinks. Our server did seem pretty knowledgable and friendly, though.

I can't speak for the Brandon location, but overall, I'd say Sushi Ninja Tampa is a great place to try if you're looking to branch out.

Sushi Ninja Tampa is located on Kennedy Blvd. near the MacDill intersection.