Sushi Suyu
★★★★★ 4.6 (100)
"I give Sushi Suyu 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. If this restaurant was located in a bigger metropolitan area, like Atlanta, I'd give it a solid 3 ("OK"). For the Triangle, it's good, but not great like M Sushi in Durham and Sushi Mon in Raleigh. That said, I don't regret making the 25-minute drive from Chapel Hill to Apex to try it.Sushi Suyu is located in historic downtown Apex. The town is lucky to have this place. If it wasn't for this restaurant, I'm not sure my wife, friend, and I would've ever "gone out" in Apex. My friend, who's lived in Raleigh for many years, had never been to Apex until we dined here. The downtown area is small and quaint, what you'd expect of an old North Carolina town. The commercial part spans only a couple blocks. It's nice to walk around.Sushi Suyu shares a building and small parking lot with other businesses. The lot only has nine spaces. There is, however, plenty of free parking down adjacent Templeton St and around the corner, in the back, on Temple St. We parked for free in the public parking lot across the street, at N Salem St and Seaboard St, next to the fire station.We visited on a Monday around 6:15pm. The place was busy when we arrived. At one point, I think every table was taken and one or two parties had to wait. At the time of our visit, the restaurant catered to walk-ins and accepted a very limited number of reservations. We were walk-ins and were seated immediately.The restaurant isn't huge, but it's spacious enough. An outdoor, umbrella-covered, string-lit patio is available when weather permits. Inside, there's a small five-seat sushi bar in the back. The dining room is partitioned into a few different spaces. The interior design is simple and clean-looking. Tables are placed closely together. The atmosphere is casual.I found out about Sushi Suyu after seeing one of my Instagram friends' stories with the restaurant's "sushi ladder." "Sushi ladder" is how it was described to me. They're actually more like "sushi stairs." It's gimmicky, but it works for the business because it looks great on social media and draws new people in (like me). On the menu, it's called the Nigiri Moriawase (assorted nigiri) 10-piece chef's choice platter ($32).The 10 pieces I got were tuna, salmon, beet salmon, yellowtail, red snapper, amberjack, scallop, squid, surf clam, and eel. Surf clam was the only thing I didn't see on the regular menu. Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed with my 10-piece because it didn't look as good as the other platters I'd seen on Instagram and Yelp.First, my platter only had five steps instead of six or even 10. Yeah, I know, a trivial thing, but it's part of the fun of ordering this dish. More importantly, the pieces of nigiri I received weren't as high-quality as the ones I'd seen online. For example, most of the pieces I got were plain while the ones I'd seen online had been cut and/or dressed up in particular ways, with way more care and attention to detail. I'm fine with getting "plain" nigiri, but even these plain nigiri - such as the most basic kinds, like tuna and salmon - were simply cheaper quality. Finally, the accouterments I received were less than I expected. Online, I saw wasabi paste, pickled ginger, kizami wasabi, and lime or lemon. All I got was the standard wasabi paste and pickled ginger.Based on pictures I'd seen, including on Sushi Suyu's official Instagram page, I expected the nigiri to be higher-end, but what I actually received was more run-of-the-mill quality. Maybe the night of our visit, the B team was in or maybe the restaurant has changed to using cheaper-quality sushi, I don't know. Anyway, I don't mean to criticize too much. I still enjoyed it. For Apex, this is good. My wife and friend also enjoyed a variety of nigiri, which included a-la-carte orders (e.g., red snapper and amberjack, 2 pieces for $9) and the 6-piece chef's choice platter ($20). If you're wondering what "beet salmon" is, it's beetroot-cured salmon. I was told they cure it in-house.Other items we ordered included Truffle Salmon Carpaccio (seared salmon, fried onions, tobiko, truffle oil, soy mustard, apple aioli; $15), a Trio Plate (tuna, salmon, yellowtail, fried onions, tobiko, apple aioli, soy mustard; $18), Tempura Shrimp ($11) with assorted tempura vegetables, Sweet Spicy Edamame ($6), pan-fried pork Dumplings (6 for $9), a Spicy Tuna Classic Roll ($7), and a Hamachi Fever roll (shrimp tempura, avocado on the inside, seared yellowtail, microgreens, garlic chips, Sriracha aioli, sweet soy on top; $16). Overall, everything was tasty and beautifully presented. They generally do a nice job with the presentation here. Of these other items we ordered, my favorites were the Truffle Salmon Carpaccio and the Trio Plate, both of which were very similar.We also got a K-Pancake with Ice Cream ($9) for dessert. I highly recommend it. It was delicious.Our server was Jess and she was fantastic. Nolan was great too.Sushi Suyu opened in May 2022."
"No idea why I didn't give Akai Hana 5 stars! I guess the acoustic 90's rock channel must've been too fresh in my memory. I think they've improved the ambient music, finally. Plus, now I usually get take-out. As for the sushi? It's easily the best in all of central NC. Fresh, tasty, and solidly prepared."
"This place was pretty good. I got the scallop hibachi. The scallops were tender although appeared to have been cut in half and were very thin. Would have preferred them whole. I didn't love all the sauce they used to cook with scallops and veggies in before serving. It was sweet and too much in my opinion. With that said, it was a lot of food, the staff was very friendly and the take out process was seamless. I would go back for sure and maybe ask them to go easy on whatever sauce/marinade they use to cook with."
