A new sushi restaurant made its debut this month in St. Petersburg. E.B.I. Sushi is a full-service concept is located at 7900 4th St. N. just a few streets over from Noble Crust.
While the resto scaled down its menu to reduce the amount of staffing in the building to ensure the safety of staff and guests during the pandemic, E.B.I. still has a fairly healthy selection.
Starters include eats like edamame, chicken karaage, a spicy tuna tower and gyoza (Japanese pan-fried dumplings). There's a selection of soups, salads, and plates like teriyaki, garlic shrimp, poke and chirashi made up of a variety of sashimi-style fish on a bed of sushi rice and Japanese pickled vegetables.
The sushi menu is stacked with samplers and a variety of rolls for newbies and seasoned sushi enthusiasts. There's even a "4th Street Roll" comprised of avocado, crab meat, crispy salmon skin, kampyo, spicy masago mayo topped with avocado and eel sauce.
If you're not in the mood for sushi, the entrees are currently limited to a miso-glazed fish (black cod or salmon), or fish and chips made up of fried black cod with Japanese style beer batter served with Asian chips and sauce.
Be prepared to see an uptick in menu items once COVID-19 gets kicked to the curb. If you're not quite ready to dine indoors, you can opt for pickup and delivery through E.B.I.'s website.
E.B.I. joins fellow sushi-slinging newcomer, Eastern Kitchen. The restaurant made its debut at 5226 4th St. N. this fall, with a menu inspired by Pan-Asian flavors including Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Thai.
EK's tapas selection includes tapas like potstickers, crab rangoon, and spring rolls. There's also a lineup of souls and salads, and bowls which, for the most part, are vegan with the option to add meat. Like the Thai Spicy Basil bowl made up of broccoli, celery, carrot, snow pea, onion, and zucchini with your choice to add a double helping of vegetables, tofu, chicken, beef, or shrimp. EK also has a variety of fried rice and noodle dishes like ramen, pad thai, and stir fry udon.
There's also an entire page of the menu dedicated to sushi rolls, bowls, and combos. If you have room for dessert, you can choose from mochi ice cream, tempura fried cheesecake, chocolate matcha lava cake, a few ice cream options, and even a bowl of lychee. Guests can dine-in, or opt for delivery through third-party apps like UberEats, GrubHub, Bite Squad, and DoorDash.
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This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2020.