I hear a lot of people say they love sushi. If I were to guess, approximately 97% of those people like dunking fried, cream cheese filled, mayonnaise adorned rolls into soy sauce and downing them thinking, “good thing this is so healthy!”
Yeah, that’s not sushi. I sincerely doubt that the Japanese were the brainchild of something called a “California” roll, that’s something that we Americans bastardized and turned into the shameful representation of a beautiful eastern art that it is today. OK, I’m done complaining (almost).
Kaisen (which is the Japanese term for “continuous improvement”) Sushi in Carrollwood is one of the few Japanese restaurants in Tampa that will serve what I consider to be authentic Japanese food, should you desire it. (No, teppanyaki isn't authentic — in Japan they don’t make volcanoes out of onions and throw shrimp tails at you.) Of course, they still have the Americanized rolls and everything else for the less adventurous palate, but what makes these guys among the best in our fair city is what you are served when you order “Omakase.”
