Sushi Shop Coaticook

J'adore venir ici parler aux filles, assise au comptoir, pendant qu'elles préparent les sushis. C'est une ambiance très conviviale.

Always thought Sushi Shop was just a cheap fast casual chain since you see them in towns all over Quebec. The locations are franchises, so they’re locally run, and this one looked fancier than I imagined, with proper wooden sushi counters and comfy chairs. Sushi is probably not the first choice that comes to mind in a town like this, but I went in anyway. Coaticook is pretty far from the ocean, and the menu was mostly made with fish that travel well, like salmon and tuna. I got the salmon bonbon poke bowl, shrimp tempura and the Lion maki, and everything was pretty solid. The salmon bonbon poke bowl was listed as one of their most popular items, basically a salmon poke bowl but with nuggets of maple-smoked salmon instead of raw cubes, plus popcorn shrimp. When I first realized it was smoked salmon, I figured it’d end up like a grilled salmon salad bowl from Sweetgreen, but it was essentially a Quebec take on candied salmon. Cured with maple and smoked, so even small chunks brought a lot of salty, sweet, smoky notes, and it turned out better than I expected. The shrimp tempura and the Lion maki were also good. It wasn’t the light, lacy batter you’d get from real Japanese tempura, more of a breaded coating, but it still had a nice crunch.