Nigiri Front

CONTRIBUTED BY KATIE CLARY

When I lived in Okinawa as a kid, I thought that Sushi-go-Round restaurants were the coolest thing in the world. What an inventive idea! I love being able to see my food before I choose it, and sushi is already one of my favorite foods. Coming back to Okinawa as an adult slightly changed my perspective. I visited an old favorite “Kaitenzushi” (the Japanese word for Sushi-go-round) restaurant in American Village, and it was a lot more expensive than it used to be (when my parents were paying!). Plus, it takes about 40 minutes to get there from my house, and I tend to forget I’m hungry until I’m ravenous.

I thought we would never go to a Kaitenzushi restaurant again, until my husband and I heard about the ¥105 Sushi Go Round. Not only is it less than 10 minutes from Courtney AND McT, but it’s cheap, and has really good sushi!

The full name of this restaurant is Nigiri Uminai. The first word, Nigiri, is the name of the style sushi that has a piece of sashimi sitting on a little ball of sushi rice. The second word, Umi, means ocean. To be completely honest, I have no idea what the last part of it means. If anyone speaks more Japanese than I do, please feel free to let me know! To keep it simple, I just call this place Nigiri Sushi, for short.

Nigiri Sushi
Nigiri Sushi

Like any sushi-go-round, Nigiri Sushi has both a bar area and booth tables organized around a moving track full of individual plates of sushi. You are free to grab whichever plate catches your eye, and at the end of your meal, your price will be calculated by tallying the number and type of plates on your table. There is also ice water and hot green tea available at your table, via tea packets and a hot water spigot at the table.

If you sit in the bar area, a sushi chef in the middle of the tracks can take special requests for you, and make them right in front of you. If you sit at the booths, however, there is a really neat touch screen computer system that will allow you to special order sushi, drinks, desserts, and even some assorted side items. Everything is written in both Japanese and English, and it’s really intuitive. Even better, when your order is ready, it wheels out to your table on a little race car or airplane!

Nigiri Screen
Nigiri Screen

This is a great family friendly restaurant to go to. It’s better if everyone going likes sushi, but there are a few other things available as side items. They usually have small bowls of soba, fried chicken pieces, potato wedges, and some assorted dessert items. There are a few things on their menu that are a little more than ¥105, but they are still fairly cheap. (Sometimes the desserts are expensive, and they offer beer for a higher price as well.) We usually leave completely stuffed for under ¥2,000 for two adults, including a few sodas.

Directions:  From Camp Courtney, simply take a left onto Route 75. You’ll cross through 3 stop lights before seeing Nigiri Sushi and the Tsutaya movie/music store on the right.  From McTureous, take a right out the gate onto Route 8. From there, continue straight for a while. Take a left onto Route 75 just past the KFC and Lawson. Drive one block north, then turn into the Tsutaya parking lot on the left, and Nigiri Sushi will be at the far end of the parking lot.

13 COMMENTS

  1. Husband and I just drove out to eat here and it is closed! Sign is taken down and shutters cover the front door. Just wanted to update so no one else wastes their time. Maybe they moved to a different location, i don’t know.

  2. It has been a while since this place was last reviewed. My wife and I stopped in for lunch because we love the sushi go round places. Unfortunately this is not the place. I think age of the establishment might be taking a toll but it just doesn’t compare to the Hamazushi chains. The place is dirty. Our plates stuck to the tables.

  3. Katey, I found a Japanese website that says their Naha location is open 10am to 10:30pm every day. I imagine the location by the base is similiar. They are likely only closed for a day or so over New Years and possible at Obon, which this year is August 12 or 15.

  4. We LOVE this place! So good! From Kadena….um. Most straight forward is to go out Gate 3 onto 26. Turn Left onto 329. Then turn Right onto 329 again. Then turn Right onto 8. Then turn Left onto 75 and its just about one block up on the Left in the same parking lot at as the big arcade/movie store, Tsutaya. Its easy to miss but Tsutaya is big and has a large sign.
    Use any shortcut you know to get from 329 to 75. Its basically just North of the 8 and 75 intersection on 75. Did that makes sense? I hope so! I really do love this place!