Sushi Pop, located in the small town of Oviedo about 3-4 miles from the University of Central Florida, this place is this GEM! Sushi POP is a modern cooking inspired sushi restaurant; chef and owner Cantu and his Sous Chef Mike "Good Ol Boy" Gleason. I found about this place through Chef Windus and the reaction I got from him was I had to try it. The place sits maybe 75-90 people including the seats at the sushi bar, all the servers are dressed in weird "japan pop clothes" and on all the TVs they are playing Jap-Anime. Chef Mike came to the table and brought us an amuse which was a Pork Fried Rice ball with togarashi aioli and sliced kumquat. The soy sauce dispenser was interesting since I have seen these too many time in my tenure at bluezoo.
We ordered our drinks and I wanted the Hitachino Nest White, and my fiancee order one of their signature drinks which was the strawberry saketini; both drinks were amazing.
I had them bring out all of our food in course structure since I like to look, eat and reflect on what I have eaten. The first course came out which was there Oysters Rockefeller. Wianno Oysters, smoked Gouda, micro shiso, sea salt, toasted panko. If there was any dish that was weak, I feel it may have been this one, everything tasted great but to me just did not stand out compared to all the other things.
Next we had the Shishito Poppers which was Japanese sweet and hot peppers stuffed with cream cheese, bacon, chives and panko fried. These were really good, simple and delicious.
The next course was the Kurobuta tacos, braised pork belly, hoisin BBQ sauce, scallions, avocado and crisp greens. These were GREAT, the pork belly melted and everything paired perfectly with each other. I am a huge taco fan and could eat taco 3 times a week, but it would have to be these that I eat two of those three times!
My next course I forgot to take a picture and it was the dish chef mike brought us personally from his station. The Harvest Duck, with braised pumpkin, toasted marsh mellow foam, mushroom, and cranberry reduction. The dish tasted really good and everything fit well together. They sous vide the duck breast and slice it thin which is great but I think to add to the texture and the integrity of the dish a quick hard sear on the skin side would have been perfect. Overall solid dish though.
Now on to the dish that made the night for me, It's No Yolk.. Fresh Cubed Salmon tossed with lime juice, olive oil, shallots, Thai basil, a "sunny side up" egg of coconut milk and mango puree and seaweed rice crackers. This to me was the definition of a "Sexy Dish" The flavor of the salmon was refreshing and the "egg" just added to the depth of the flavor.
Of course we couldn't go to a sushi place without trying some of their signature rolls. The roll in the back is the Ceviche Roll: hamachi with avocado, tempura shallots, chipotle lime sauce, topped with flounder, siracha, micro cilantro and Hawaiian pink salt. The middle roll was the Choleste-Roll: bacon, avocado and creme fraiche, deep fried and topped with baked spicy conch, smelt roe, scallions and spicy mayo. The roll in the front was the Hot Mess: Smoked Salmon, avocado, and tempura flakes with maple soy, topped with baked tuna, salmon, yellow tail, flounder, spicy mayo, smelt roe, scallions and rendered bacon. I like the Hot mess, but i think my favorite was the ceviche roll.
AND for dessert we were stuffed as it is but whats going to a restaurant when you don't get dessert, and when you also don't have a choice in that matter. We got the Apple Fritters, 5 Spice apple fritters topped with cinnamon cream cheese, maple ginger ice cream and candied bacon. Tasted good the bacon was different but very enjoyable.
Great place, nice atmosphere, great food, hats off to Chef Mike and Chef Cantu. I definitely will be back in the near future.
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