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Simply put this place is good but a bit overpriced, luckily most times I've been it's been at the behest of others who were paying with their corporate card.
Despite it being the happy sumo I'd say it's not really a Japanese restaurant as it is Asian American fusion and a perfect example of food that was Asian but given and American twist. considering this is what many people are looking for in an Asian restaurant it will probably be right down you're alley.
They focus mainly on various sushi rolls and there are some great creations if that's what you're looking for, if you're idea of sushi is nigiri or sashimi then you'll want to pass these guys up.
To sum up: If you need a place to go with your work buddies on the company dime, it's great because yon won't feel the overpriced sting, and it's still safe enough for the more conservative eaters in your party to feel like they're really going on on a limb. If you're on a date or looking for some authentic Japanese, don't even pause outside the door.
Sexy. Hip. Modern = 3 Stars.
Food? A-OK.
Service? A-OK.
I'm thinking for some, it must be hard to be sexy, hip, modern and give good service too. I'll come back until I get the chance to sit in one of the booths with candles and sheer drapery. I'm a sucker for ambiance.
I have mixed feelings about this restaurant, especially because I've had so many different experiences here. This is the first restaurant that I've ever had sushi at, and I would blame my friend who took me here for making me try nigiri sushi instead of the rolls first. However, I've learned to love and hate this place for different reasons.
The look and feel of the restaurant is AMAZING. I love the dim lighting and the jazzy music they play. I love sitting in the booths with the curtains on the side, but if you're dining with a smaller number than 3 people, don't count on getting sat there. I'd love to work there one day, just because the dress code for the waitresses is just the opposite of conservative.
I've had one occasion where I actually had to speak to a manager because my waitress was just providing bad customer service to our table on my friend's birthday. I managed to get the same waitress again on a different visit, but she was much more courteous the next time around.
You have to be very careful about the rolls you order because some of them are delicious, some of them are moderate, and some of them are just absolutely disgusting. I don't remember clearly but I think it was the Vegas roll that disappointed me and nearly made me gag.
However, I definitely recommend their Tempura Banana Split. It is SOOO delicious and there were occasions where I would stop by the restaurant just to order that for dessert. Make sure you save room for dessert because it will top off your meal just right. I also recommend becoming a VIP if you're planning on being a frequent customer because they will send you coupons or vouchers via e-mail on your birthday or during their promotional period.
I love this place! If you like "trendy" sushi, you have to come here! It's great! The restaurant is pretty consistent, food/ and taste wise. It's usually busy around dinner time. The sushi is a bit pricey, however, it is worth it
I want to see the list of prerequisites to work here. I imagine they include:
- Blond
- Taller than 5'6''
- Female
- Good looking
- Semi visible tattoo that keeps you guessing.. will she won't she?
I've been to happy sumo on numerous occasions and have never really been more impressed with any sushi serving staff. Black is the color of choice here, and you'll be lucky to find anything other than dim lighting. The music reminds you of what Thom Yorke first solo album would sound like if you played it through elevator speakers and mixed it with a little bit of Nip/Tuck's arrogance.
Oh, and the Sushi is good.
With so many sushi restaurants in Salt Lake, why do I keep returning to the Happy Sumo? Is it the hip atmosphere and funky vibe? Is it the vast array of inventive and mouth-watering speciality rolls? Is it the fresh sashimi? Is it the fun appetizers and well-executed entrees? Is it the warm glow I get from two pots of sake? Or, is it fact that Happy Sumo has some of the hottest, coolest, sexiest waitresses in the valley? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and hell yes.
The hot tea here is barley tea. Japanese restaurants should have green tea. Korean restaurants should have barley tea. A case of mistaken identity perhaps?
The place has many specialty rolls and makes a pretty mean caterpillar roll that comes out looking like a cute caterpillar. The scarlet lady roll was good with unagi and fresh crab, but the cream cheese over powered the eel.
Speaking of overpowering, they made the spiciest spicy tuna/salmon/yellowtail rolls I have ever had in my life! OMG! Horrible. Were they trying to cover up some really bad fish? HMMM...
Oh yea, the decor has pictures of half naked fat men (hence 'sumo' in the name). Not exactly stirring to the appetite.
Not a bad little place hidden in the crowd of restaurants in the eatery part of Gateway. You probably wouldn't know the place was Japanese aside from the name on the outside of the building, but they do their sushi well, which I figure is the main draw for this place! I feel like they went with a decoration scheme similar to Takashi, which is trying to be a step up from the usual sushi bar, but I still think it's a bit dark there.
Nonetheless, the food should be the deciding factor when you come to a place and I was satisfied with what I got. Happy Sumo might not win points for roll creativity (nothing really jumped out at me) but they do the good old classic rolls just fine. I also believe they may have the largest variety of on-the-menu rolls (remember, sushi chefs always have specials off menu!) so people not sure what they're craving will no doubt be fine here.
Service has been good when I've come by and the sushi chefs are friendly bunch. I always think about stopping here when I'm in the Gateway area around dinnertime!
I love to eat at this place after shopping. The place is very modern and the atmosphere is lively. Hip music, friendly staff, and satified customers keep it that way. They very cleaverly use cheaper decor in the restaurant, it's so creative that I dont mind at all. The booths are great for small or large groups. They give the feel of private rooms without the isolation.
Sushi here is slightly Americanized but is still delicious. My favorite would be the spider roll(soft shell crab) which the crab is very crispy and is always longer then the roll. The lolipop roll had generous amounts of fishes, they are not greedy on their meat here.
Other than sushi, their steak udon is worth trying. A full steak sliced over udon is as great as it gets. Make sure you get the steak cooked slightly more rare than your personal taste because the soup is very hot and it cooks rather quickly.
For dessert the fried icecream is something to indulge in. You may be disapointed the the actual icecream isn't fried but dont be becuase the banannas are crispy. I actually perfer this dessert made this way because the ice cream remains cold. A name such as fried banana split would be a better fit for this dessert.
This place is NOT Japanese. Although their rolls are good, that's pretty much where it stops. I'm not sure why they call that stuff udon because it is definitely not udon. As for the other stuff (like edumame) which you can't exactly mess up on. They're alright. I like the rolls there which is the only reason I keep going back.
Since my last review, I've tried their sushi several times. Mostly just the vegas roll, but it was super good so now I can say that I would recommend their sushi!
Let me start off by saying this is not a review of their sushi. I do not eat sushi so I could not… Read more »
I absolutely love Happy Sumo at the Gateway. There are only a few places in Salt Lake City that serve quality sushi, in my opinion. I am a frequent visitor to Happy Sumo and only once in the countless times I have been there was the service poor. The wait staff is very helpful, friendly, and the rolls are innovative and delicious. Not to mention it is so cheap!
I'm sorry, but this is a place only fit for those who enjoy rolls, heavy sauces, carbo loading and more rolls. The sashimi was awful. Well, I take that back. I wouldn't eat it after I saw it. So in fairness, there sashimi looked awful. They had a couple attractive employees overshadowed by their arrogance and texting. Who manages that place - what establishment allows their hosts to text during operations? They need to find an identity outside of their rolls. Perhaps that is what sells, but c'mon - every roll was a slight variation of another.
The sushi is decent. I had the Wasatch and Sunomono roll. I saw a lot of others order the sunomono but thought it was rather bland. A lot of fillers like cream cheese, crab, tempura and not enough good fish. I'd give the sushi 3 stars but the service was good. Overall, it was pleasant. But i'm gonna base my review on the food and the price.
Good tasting, but questionable freshness. Trendy setting at the Gateway and convenient for downtown events.
The food here might well be delicious. Unfortunately, the smell of rotted garbage permeating the restaurant on our visit quickly drove us out the door and into Thaifoon at the other end of the mall. While the food there was horrible, at least we didn't have to worry about impending physical trauma, allowing us the opportunity to wholly focus upon the emotional trauma.
The other patrons didn't seem to notice the odor. Had my partner not also (and independently) smelled it, I would have thought it was my imagination. The customers were so animated, so happy, so blissfully unaware that they were eating raw fish within an environment that smelled like that fish had been retrieved from a garbage can after being left out in the hot summer sun for a few days. Or perhaps they were quite aware, but thought this was what a sushi restaurant was supposed to smell like.
I really liked the food here. It isn't traditional so if you're looking for authentic japanese, this isn't your place. They had a huge selection of specialty rolls, however, it seemed as though some of the rolls were exactly the same, just topped with different things and called other names. I had a Playboy roll which I really liked and the tuna sashimi was exceptionally fresh.
The downside: this place got super noisy as it got more crowded and on top of that, I thought the service was kind of poor. Long wait for the food and the waitress was rather unattentive. Nonetheless, I'd come back.
One of my favorite places to get Sushi rolls in Salt Lake City. Always have enjoyed my meals here. I like the Beehive and Firecracker rolls and box lunches.
Some nights it can be impossible to get a table, but lunches seem to be less busy.
I recommend the bar seating, so you can get faster service and watch them make the rolls.
I loved the opening salad, it was wonderful.
Great atmosphere, I will be returning.
I have been craving GOOD sushi for a long time. The sushi in Seattle doesn't cut it; so plain compared to the California sushi I had gotten accustomed to. My manager and I shared the Playboy Roll, the Veggie Tempura Roll, and the Surf & Turf Roll - delish!!!! After our yummy dinner, we all had dessert ... I got the Tempura Banana Split which was decent. But, I just wish they had a place like this in Seattle!!! It's one of the reasons I would want to go back to Salt Lake City besides the snow!
ambiance was nice and what'd you'd expect - modern asian, flatscreens all around, spacious. it was a bit warm when we came for dinner though but not terrible.
dragon scale appetizer - a bit too heavy but was pretty good. the rolls are good and geared more towards the "sushi wusses" like my bf and i who do not particularly enjoy straight up sashimi. the rock shrimp roll was delicious, but it didn't need all that sauce. jezebelle roll was just ok, fish was fresh but the overall flavor was missing something. there are a million rolls to choose from though, which is nice, but a lot of them were really similar and it was kind of overwhelming to go thru the whole selection.
service was eh. our waitress was really special and put in the wrong order for one of our rolls, so we had to wait a little while before getting that. she did make up for it by bringing by some free edamame, but we were still irked that we had to wait. when we paid, she also forgot to bring back the receipts for us to sign, and it took us a while to get her attention to fix it. while our waitress was nice, the staff definitely needs some more training and could use some work on their attentiveness.
will probably come back and try out some of the other rolls (i'm a big roll person) the next time i'm out in slc, but they need to work on their waitstaff before i'm ready to give out any more stars
When I walked in this place i was like, so... are they like vampires here? They have boths and tables and a bar to. The food is good, they have a maki combo that is heaven!
In a sentence there are much better places to get sushi in SLC (there are also worse places). It's typical westernized, comfortable sushi that fits right in as shopping mall fare. It's a place to take your clueless co-workers that constantly ask "does this have raw fish in it?". Strictly for sushi n00bs.
Salt Lake City, UT
Category: Japanese
Salt Lake City, UT
Category: Japanese
Salt Lake City, UT
Category: Japanese
Salt Lake City, UT
Category: Japanese
Salt Lake City, UT
Category: Sushi Bars
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