Monster Sushi - Tustin

Have you ever dreaded the arrival of food like it were the Apocalypse? We did. Somewhere in the middle of our AYCE sushi lunch at Monster Sushi, when our table was already full of plates containing about 40 to 50 pieces of rolls, it dawned on us that this was just HALF our order...40 or 50 pieces more were still forthcoming. It was at that moment we realized we were in big, big trouble.

We didn’t just over order; we hyper over-ordered. We were too hungry, too greedy, and too bad at math to realize that every time we checked off a sushi roll on their list, we had to multiply that number by 8, because each roll we asked for had that many pieces. This meant that when we asked for 10 rolls, we were committing to 80 to 100 pieces in all.

Worse yet: Though we were a party of 5, it was effectively three, because the kid we brought doesn’t eat sushi, and my better-half (as faithful readers of this blog already know) can only put down half a portion of anything.

And so there we were. Our faces drained white with food fatigue, our stomachs bloated beyond their limits. And it was all our fault. Monster Sushi is a very, very good all-you-can-eat sushi bar. And they did everything right. Even the rolls with silly titles as “The Ex-Girlfriend” were constructed of fresh ingredients, good sauces, and not over-packed with rice. There were delicate crab leg nigiris, rolls made bright green with tobiko roe, and sublime cuts of maguro, hamachi, and crisp tempura.

This was great sushi, better than an AYCE place has any business serving. So we realized we had to do right by them. We had to try to eat it all, not just because of the signs that warned of an additional charge to dissuade idiots like us not to order what we can’t finish, but because it’s insulting and a colossal waste of food not to consume everything that was served to us.

We got close. Very close. By the end, we whittled it down to about 10 pieces. But the server saw that we were dying. The last piece I ate I chewed over and over, my throat refusing to swallow. It was about then that he came over and told us we didn’t have to try to finish the rest. They wanted us to enjoy the experience, he said, because they want us to come back.

We were more than relieved, but also grew more fond of the place. We thanked him and vowed that we were definitely coming back...but maybe after a month or two. Right now and for the past week, for some reason, I'm not craving sushi.

Monster Sushi
13832 Red Hill Ave
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 573-2855

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