By Dennis Chu on July 6, 2011 • ( 1 Comment )

SONO SUSHI

Address: 1098 State Route 35, Middletown, NJ 07748

Sono Sushi is a restaurant that is special to me because it was there that I really started getting into Japanese food and started to dabble into becoming a more fluent sushi eater. I remember that my family started going to Sono when I was in middle school, and back then I was more of a fan of chicken teriyaki or chicken tempura, but now I make it a point to get Sono’s maki sushi (rolls).

We took a trip back to Sono yesterday for my birthday lunch, and even though we haven’t eaten at the restaurant in quite some time, many of the things that I remember enjoying about the restaurant, such as the friendly owners, the nicely decorated interior, and great tasting food, all came back during the visit. I ordered the Maki Lunch Special, which came with three rolls of my choice: the Spicy Tuna Roll, the Spicy Salmon Roll, and the Hot Crunchy Crab Roll. We also ordered one of Sono’s signature rolls, the M-16, for all four of us to share. The lunch specials are all served with a miso soup and a light salad beforehand, so there is plenty of food for you to enjoy. Out of all the lunch specials that I saw, I felt like the Maki Special definitely gives you the most bang for you buck, since the three rolls separately would be around $19 and the Maki Special was only $12. With three rolls, each having six pieces, the eighteen pieces of sushi were more than enough to fill me up for a lunch.

Sono is a great place to go to if you’re looking for some really excellent Japanese options, whether it be the sushi & sashimi, the teriyaki, the tempura, or even the donburi. I’ve sampled quite a bit of the menu over the years and I’ve always been happy with how everything comes out. Give Sono a try, and I’m sure that you’ll like it too.

Here are my rankings for Sono:

Food: 5 / 5
The maki sushi options taste great and are always really fresh. Plenty of other variety on the menu as well.

Atmosphere: 4 / 5
Although the restaurant is a little on the smaller side, the lighting and decorations are really spot-on, with a good array of tables and then the sushi bar in the dining area.

Service: 5 / 5
The owners really make an effort to know all of their regular customers by name, and all of the waitstaff are really friendly as well.

Price: 4 / 5
If you go to eat sushi, you can expect to be spending quite a bit of money. But for how much you spend here, you do get good value. The prices are also very comparable to other Japanese restaurants in the area.

Overall: 18 / 20 (90%)