Aki Sushi Restaurant & Bar is generating a buzz that we haven’t seen for a sushi spot since Vic Sushi appeared on everyone’s radar. And with quality sushi and good deals, is it any wonder?

Craig LaBan mentioned the soup or salad and two rolls special for $8.50 and the$24.95 all-you-can-eat option.

Now comes word that happy hour features $18 bottles of wine and Center City Sips style pricing of $3 beers, $4 wines, $5 cocktails and half-priced appetizers.

Aki Japanese Fusion Restaurant and Sake Bar [Official Site]

We like the word scrumptious though we don’t hear it nearly enough. So we were excited to see it used by Craig LaBan to describe the sushi at Aki Japanese Fusion on Walnut Street. That the rolls are also a bargain puts it to the top of our must-try list.

Among the options are a $8.50 deal at lunch and an all-you-can-eat sushi bonanza for $24.95.

Scrumptious sushi – and deals, too [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Aki Japanese Fusion Restaurant and Sake Bar [Official Site]

In Craig LaBan’s chat today Craig goes LaBananas about Sakana and the good sushi it is turning out at 1526 Sansom Street. The sushi chef comes from Genji and LaBan can’t get enough.

We had an EXcellent spicy scallop roll (could really taste the scallop meat, and the spicy sauce had zing), the triplet tuna roll brought a pink maguro, escolar “white tuna”, and lightly torched albacore into a very well-built, not overly large roll. I loved the tsubugai, which is sort of like giant clam, with a good crunchy snap, but it’s not as fishy, with a lemony finish. Also, the madai Japanese snappe was sublime, nicely trimmed at a bias, with the lacy gray grid of its skin ribboned down the side. Quality fo the fish was excellent.

The spot opened a couple months ago and is offering 15% off for the rest of September. They also offer free delivery.

Sakana [Official Site]
Talk food with LaBan [Philly.com]

Craig LaBan checks out Sakura Mandarin in Chinatown and finds a place that excels in scallion pancakes, soup dumplings, Szechuan food and surprisingly, even sushi.

And pretty much everything Sakura Mandarin cooked with pork was outstanding, from the shredded lean pork with the lightly smoky garlic sauce to the double-cooked pork belly, whose fat-ribboned meat was tossed with dried bean curd, fermented beans, and a vivid flicker of chile heat. Even the heat-blistered Szechuan green beans got a little porcine boost from crumbled spicy meat.

Two Bells – Very Good

Sakura Mandarin [Philadelphia Inquirer]

The inventive sushi served at Umai Umai makes the Fairmount spot a worthy destination for Craig LaBan and you but the cooked food dissapoints.

But the 38-seat Umai Umai is really all about the magic that McCoy methodically spins behind his sushi bar. His creations aren’t all entirely successful. But he displays such individuality in a town replete with maki-copycats that the most important answer, if you’re seeking a distinctive sushi experience, is a resounding yes.

Two Bells – Very Good

Umai Umai [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Craig LaBan decides to pay Fairmount’s Umai Umai a visit almost three years after it opened. What does that mean? Does LaBaninator come to bury or praise?

Adam Erace visits Aki at 1210 Walnut Street and finds it is more than just another anonymous Center City sushi spot, although one with some caveats.

Aki: In the Raw [Philadelphia Weekly]
Aki [Official Site]

Craig LaBan discovers not all of East Passyunk is Italian and that Izumi provides a great new sushi destination for the neighborhood.

The sushi kitchen is clearly Izumi’s strength, with a focus on standards presented with attention to detail, quality, and value rather than anything especially innovative. And sushi chef Agus Lukito, an Indonesian-born chef trained at Teikoku and most recently at Mikado, does an excellent job.

His fish is superbly fresh, cut with precision, and wrapped around good rice – toothsomely firm and nicely seasoned with kombu-flavored vinegar. This is on full display in the platters, which, at 32 pieces for $50 (and half as many for $25), is a solid quality-value. It featured some less common additions – the sea-savory tang of horse mackerel, the tender snap of rouge-tipped surf clam, sweet white albacore, and a nearly translucent, delicate fluke – to the usual tuna-salmon-yellowtail mainstays.

Izumi [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Izumi [Official Site]

East Passyunk gets a spot that is neither red gravy Italian nor Mexican and that’s reason enough to celebrate. That David Snyder finds Izumi delivers high quality fresh sushi is yet another.

The Fountainhead [City Paper]
Izumi [Official Site]

Yes indeed, sushi has sprung up on Passyunk Avenue. Enjoy Rick Nichols’ look at the “hip sushi cafe” named Izumi.

Sushi comes to East P’unk [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Izumi [Official Site]