Sushi 9

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  It seems like every shopping center in Mobile has a sushi restaurant.  While some are good, others fall way below the mark.  I was wary of trying Sushi 9 on Schillinger Road primarily because of the location.  It's in one of the spots that you would have to risk life and limb to get in and out of.  My brother and I found ourselves just across the street and starving so we decided to swing by and check it out.

Sushi 9 is a combination Japanese and Thai restaurant.  There is a good mix of both cuisine represented along with some Chinese in the mix.  A glance at the lunch menu and I was in for a sticker shock on both sides of the spectrum.  The lunch special complete with an entree, soup and spring roll was under $7.  The sushi menu was another ball game.  It consisted mostly of chef's special rolls that start at $9 and the most basic of them all, a California roll, was about $6.  We decided to get a lunch special and a sushi roll to get a feel for the quality.  

Lomein

I went with the Lomein lunch special and I wish I was one of those people that didn't feel so bad sending things back.  This was not at all what lomein is suppose to be.  Lomein is an eggbased noodle.  Sushi 9 uses a wide rice noodle that had the consistency of mush.  I think they boiled it too long and then when they stirred fried the noodle it got even softer.  The flavors were nice but I just couldn't get over the mushy noodles.  The soup and springroll that came with the special was mediocre.

Kitty Roll $8.95

Thankfully, the sushi was much better.  We ordered the Kitty roll, which consist of salmon and cream cheese on the inside and tuna and avacado laid over on top.  A spicy mayonnaise sauce is then drizzled on top. These type of rolls are usually just a little salmon and huge chunk of cream cheese.  Not here.  The inside is about a quarter size around and most of it was salmon.  It was really stellar.

Sunshine Roll $8.95

After finishing off the noodles and single roll, we decided that we were still hungry and since the sushi was so good we would have more.  We ordered the sunshine roll and the sashimi salad.  The sunshine roll consist of salmon tempura, scallion, mayo inside, smoked salmon and eel sauce outside.  This was delicious.  You can definitely taste the smokiness of the salmon.  It balanced well with the sweetness of the eel sauce.   

If you're craving some raw fish, I recommend the sashimi salad.  At $8.95, you get around 10 pieces of fish.  I only recognized a few of them like tuna, yellowtail and of course the salmon but all the fish tasted very fresh.  The fish is served on top of a little mountain of plain lettuce, a spoonful of seaweed salad and shredded crabstick.  The sauce that goes over the whole dish is delicious.  If pressed, I would say it's fish sauce, rice wine vinegar and sesame seed only.  The sushi at Sushi 9 is really good but I still think the prices are on the high side compared to other places.

As I mentioned the restaurant is in a shopping center, so it's relative small.  There is plenty of seating with the sushi bar, two huge booths in front and four top tables lining the wall all the way to the back.  It was just after the lunch rush when I visited and I had to wait for quite a bit of time for the waitress to even knowledge me.  Once that happened though, it was a much smoother experience.  

Sushi 9 does not have a website but I did grab one of their to-go menus and scanned it.  Click on the thumbnail to enlarge.  Note:  it's in no particular order.