New Lakewood Ranch restaurant offers all-you-can-eat sushi. Take a look inside
Upon entering Sushi Kami in Lakewood Ranch, diners have a choice: eat off the a la carte menu or pay a flat rate to eat until you’re full.
Sushi Kami Endless Japanese Fusion, located at 5726 Ranch Lake Blvd. near State Road 70 E. and Interstate 75, opened its doors on Dec. 31. The restaurant boasts an all-you-can-eat menu that is prepared to order.
The concept is from owner Nick Li, who has similar restaurant styles with Umami in St. Petersburg and Crazy Sushi in Wesley Chapel.
“People, they try to save money and they come here, lunch (is) around $25 (and) dinner (is) around $35,” Li said. “They pay one time, eat anything including appetizers, meal and we have no limit.”
Inside Sushi Kami, there’s a 360-degree bar to the right of the entrance with tables surrounding it. Rows of tables sit behind the full-service bar, with a sushi bar in the back left of the restaurant.
“That’s where all the sushi comes out, all the raw appetizers, things like that,” general manager Jessica Nadal said. “The kitchen right behind it is where the hibachi, teriyaki, udon, everything cooked kind of comes back on that end.”
Sushi Kami opens in Lakewood Ranch
The all-you-can-eat lunch menu has 10 sushi rolls to pick from, while the dinner version has 20 rolls. The all-you-can-eat portions are slightly different from what is featured on the a la carte menu.
For example, the Krab rangoon appetizer is five pieces per order on the regular menu, but it’s only two pieces on the all-you-can-eat menu.
“So that way you can try a little bit of everything,” Nadal said.
The dinner version is $34.99 per person with discounts for children 11 years old and younger. The price for children ages 4-8 is $11.95 and children ages 9-11 is $18.95.
The lunch menu’s regular price is $24.95 with cheaper options for children ages 4-11. The all-you-can-eat lunch option is available Mondays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
How much do diners eat?
“At this restaurant, I haven’t seen anything too crazy,” Nadal said. “In our other restaurants, people can probably eat an entire salmon in one sitting. I’ve seen people order 60 to 120 pieces of sashimi in one sitting.”
All-you-can-eat sushi spot in Manatee County
Aside from the all-you-can-eat menu, which features a variety of sushi rolls, a popular menu item so far is Sushi Kami’s ramen.
There are two options, each $15.95 off the a la carte menu: tonkotsu or miso.
Sushi Kami’s tonkotsu is a preparation of pork broth with fish cake, black fungus, bamboo shoots, seasoned boiled egg and pork chashu over noodles.
Teriyaki with a variety of proteins such as chicken, beef, salmon, shrimp, fried tofu and hibachi dinners are also on the menu.
Unlike Li’s other restaurant ventures, Sushi Kami has a full-service bar as the centerpiece. The roughly 7,500-square-foot space has over 70 tables.
“Not only do we have regular cocktails and spirits, but we also have sake-oriented cocktails,” Nadal said. “We have a Sake Sangria that we created about a little bit less than a year ago.”
The fruit sake, for example, comes in mango, strawberry, coconut and lychee flavors.
Sushi Kami also has sake flights of six shots for $20.
Sushi Kami’s hours of operation
The restaurant replaces Hungry Howie’s, which previously closed. Sushi Kami is open daily. On Mondays through Thursdays, the hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. It’s open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays, 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturdays and 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.
For more information, visit Sushi Kami’s Facebook page.
