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Tasty fare despite odd location

BY PETE TITTL Contributing columnist
pftittl@gmail.com | Sunday, Nov 06 2011 12:00 AM

Last Updated Sunday, Nov 06 2011 12:00 AM

Ambience is too often ignored in new restaurant planning, but not at Toro Sushi. This tiny sliver of a restaurant on Coffee Road between Rosedale Highway and Hageman Road has a captivating, relaxing mood if you can overlook a somewhat clumsy entrance area (the understaffed restaurant seldom has a hostess there to greet you, and there's no sign present telling you whether to wait or seat yourself).

The walls are black. The music playing in the background is the type of soothing, New Age music that you imagine would be used to keep you calm during a root canal. There is a row of small tables across one wall, parallel to the sushi bar and a mirror at an angle on the wall so while sitting with your back to the sushi bar you can still see the chef at work. My companion thought it was both cute and intimate, with a flat-screen TV tuned to the baseball playoffs on the night we visited.

The menu is quite extensive for such a small kitchen, but we passed on the tempura and entree options to stick to the sushi and rolls, sampling the red snapper and tuna sushi ($4 each for two pieces) and two "special" rolls: Kiss Me ($10.99) and Sal-Lemon ($9.99). The options include 21 sushi/sashimi selections, 13 sushi rolls and 30 special rolls. Though Toro has a sister restaurant near The Marketplace, this restaurant has a more low-key vibe.

The sushi was fresh, succulent and satisfying, even if the prices seemed a buck or two above competitors. The snapper and standard tuna sushi were brought out first and were quickly consumed. The tuna seemed to have citrusy hints. The rolls were indeed inventive enough to be worthy of the special rolls list. The Sal-Lemon had salmon on top of a California roll, with thin lemon slices (including the rind) laid on top. I removed it for the first bite, and found the citrusy influence to be subtle. Eating it with the lemon on top was different, with bitter notes and a stronger flavor from the oil. A bit of sweetness, too. I couldn't decide which I preferred.

The other roll we sampled had a spicy tuna roll as the base, with cucumber, salmon and masago (roe, or fish eggs, from capelin) on top. This was a nice mix of flavors: bite from the spicy tuna in the center, the punch of fresh vegetables from the cucumber, the heft of the salmon and the color and subtle presence of the masago garnish, which isn't as brackish as many roes and gets additional support from such sushi fans for its environmental sustainability (a major issue with almost all seafood nowadays).

Other intriguing selections we didn't get a chance to try include Lisa's Lobster roll (spicy tuna and crab, cream cheese, avocado and lobster on top, $15.99), Red Dragon (eel, cucumber, avocado, masago and spicy tuna on top, $14.99) and Titanic (shrimp tempura, cucumber, spicy crabmeat, avocado and eel on top, $14.99). They also offer, at market price, toro sushi, the fatty underbelly of tuna that some insist is so far superior in taste and sensation that it must be experienced at least once (though it may ruin your future enjoyment of other tuna).

I wonder if the location is a problem. The strip shopping center where it's located, on the west side of the street can be tricky to get to if you're driving north. Such slight inconvenient driving features can, sadly, discourage many customers. But based on what we'd sample, I'd go through that again.