{"id":9082,"date":"2024-06-09T06:00:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-09T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/?p=9082"},"modified":"2024-06-09T11:15:45","modified_gmt":"2024-06-09T16:15:45","slug":"sushi-lover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/?p=9082","title":{"rendered":"Sushi Lover"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9087 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_115819-300x137.jpg\" alt=\"Sushi Lover\" width=\"300\" height=\"137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_115819-300x137.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_115819-1024x467.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_115819-768x351.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_115819-1536x701.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_115819.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Madison&#8217;s west side has an abundance of places clustered together where you can get all-you-can-eat sushi. Namely, we have Takara Sushi Station, Sake, World Buffet and now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/details.php?b=2067\">Sushi Lover<\/a>, located at West Towne Mall.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Lunch is $17.99 and dinner is $28.99. The format is similar to Sake (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/?p=8784\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here&#8217;s my review<\/a>) in which you order items off the menu instead of heading to a buffet area (World Buffet) or using a conveyor belt (Takara).<\/p>\n<p>I appreciated that each plate, except for the sushi, contains a less-than-full-sized serving, allowing you to try a larger breadth of food. Also, you may order several plates at once, and the wait time was surprisingly short.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-9086\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_113321-300x235.jpg\" alt=\"Sushi Lover\" width=\"300\" height=\"235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_113321-300x235.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_113321-1024x801.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_113321-768x601.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_113321-1536x1201.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_113321.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Here&#8217;s a look at some of the appetizers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The harumaki is a veggie spring roll that&#8217;s deep-fried. It was perfectly cooked so that the veggies were not raw, and the shell was crispy.<\/li>\n<li>The miso soup had the right level of saltiness.<\/li>\n<li>The kani salad was very fresh and had just enough crab meat so you&#8217;re not just eating cucumber.<\/li>\n<li>The shrimp tempura was a little bland, but it had a side of sauce to go with it.<\/li>\n<li>The gyoza came in three pieces and were pretty average.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The entrees are divided into fried rice, yakisoba, fried udon, hibachi and teriyaki. Make sure to order the yakisoba. It had an excellent fried flavor, wasn&#8217;t overloaded with veggies and came with a good amount of small shrimp.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m usually hesitant to order udon because it can be flavorless, but this dish was quite tasty. The noodles also had a nice chew, and the beef was tender and flavorful.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the chicken fried rice may have been my least favorite item, and that&#8217;s not to say it wasn&#8217;t good. The rice could have been softer, but the chicken was tender. However, after eating the udon and yakisoba, I thought this dish should have had a stronger flavor.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, a place called Sushi Lover has to have a large selection of sushi, as you will find many variations on the menu. I stuck to the specialty rolls, and as I alluded to earlier, they come in a full-sized serving of eight pieces.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-9088\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_114534_72-300x132.jpg\" alt=\"Sushi Lover\" width=\"300\" height=\"132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_114534_72-300x132.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240425_114534_72.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>In the Green Bay roll, the shrimp was pulverized, and the crab was like a patty. Neither was very spicy. I liked the honey wasabi mayo, which had a hint of sweetness to it but certainly didn&#8217;t taste like honey.<\/p>\n<p>I found the Monkey roll to be creative, as I&#8217;ve never had plantain on a roll before. It actually paired well with the crabstick and the sweet mayo, and I would order this roll again.<\/p>\n<p>The Angry Bird roll wasn&#8217;t very spicy despite the use of Sriracha and spicy shrimp with spicy crab, but it was still good. The tempura panko on top provided the only contrast in texture.<\/p>\n<p>Sushi Lover is open every day for lunch and dinner.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>See more photos in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/eatdrinkmadison\/albums\/72177720317701418\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sushi Lover Flickr album<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Madison&#8217;s west side has an abundance of places clustered together where you can get all-you-can-eat sushi. Namely, we have Takara Sushi Station, Sake, World Buffet and now Sushi Lover, located at West Towne Mall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[81,114,17],"class_list":["post-9082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-restaurant-reviews","tag-japanese","tag-sushi","tag-west-side"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9082"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9092,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9082\/revisions\/9092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatdrinkmadison.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}