SushiGo & Noodles in San Francisco, CA: A Review

For any restaurant on the San Francisco State University campus, low price and quick service are much more of a consideration than food quality. It's an overly packed commuter school made up of mostly kids from working-class families and working adults who don't make a whole lot of money, and everyone is always pressed for time. I admire that SushiGo has attempted to bring a healthier Japanese cuisine option to a campus that really has mostly crappy food to offer otherwise, but I think the pressures of the market have forced them into mediocrity.

The pricing is the main attraction here. You can get a big, filling meal for under $6. Their primary deal is the chicken teriyaki over rice with six California rolls for $5.50. While it's a very filling meal for that price, everything is really bland at best. There was an adequate amount of chicken breast slices, but it appeared to be the same sort of pre-cooked slices they sell for a discount in the Safeway freezers, rather hastily re-heated. The teriyaki sauce was a bit overly sweet and overwhelming. And between the California rolls and the rice pile, the whole meal was really just a bit overly rice-y.

A couple of other deals regularly on offer are six spicy tuna rolls for $4. You can also get an udon or ramen bowl with pork or chicken and veggies for $5, which is fairly sizable and filling. The noodles just seem very bland and flavorless, however. And while there's a range of all different types of sushi rolls at reasonable prices, I think they're cutting costs by using generic whitefish treated to look and taste like better types of fish rather than the real thing. I base that on the fact that they look and taste almost exactly like the rolls they sell at 7-11, which all use pollock or something instead of the fish that you're meant to believe they have. A lot of the food seems to go pretty heavy on the salt too, I guess to mask the blandness and low quality of the ingredients.

Though the review isn't great, I'm still glad this is here as an option for at least a halfway healthy and filling meal at a decent price, for all the students trapped for 1/3 of the day or more in endless classes. The food is passable, just bland and uninspiring, but it does the job. And the kids who usually work the counter are at least nice and energetic, better than the attitude and disregard you get at the Subway next door.