Restaurant review: RA Sushi in Southlake

The management at RA Sushi of Southlake assured me that the “RA” is a play on words, really denoting “raw” but just being hipsterish about dropping that pesky final consonant.

But, with the exuberant and often successful way the restaurant delivered its seafood-centric dishes, I considered the “RA” in RA Sushi as a cheerleader-like chant — as in “ra ra team” — of boosterish pride at making raw fish fun and tasty.

Who could blame RA Sushi for being chest-thumpingly proud of its success? Its Southlake outlet (open since Sept. 14) is its third (after Plano and Addison) in North Texas, and among 27 branches scattered around the country.

RA Sushi’s eight-page menu sprawled over a dizzying selection of cocktails, no fewer than 21 appetizers, and, of course, literally dozens of its namesake sushi offerings. And for those landlubbers who only want to see their fish in an aquarium, RA Sushi offers a few chicken and steak dishes.

But make no mistake, RA Sushi is mostly about pleasing those who already are sushi devotees, or hoping to convert reluctant diners to the delights of meticulously curated and presented raw fish.

RA Sushi began its winning campaign early with its seasonal tuna guacamole ($8.50), featuring perfectly fresh, raw tuna atop a throne of creamy guacamole, resting on a toasted rice cube, and all of it crowned by the ultimate in Southwestern tastes: a beret of jalapeño. I slid this creation across a tangy slick of soy sauce and my taste buds were pin-balling from crunchy to briny and on to Mexican heat.

Lobster spring rolls ($11.75) performed the same familiar/exotic-ingredient tango. The typical spring-roll vehicle (except this one is phyllo-thin and shatteringly crisp) housed an unusually opulent amount of lobster. The accompanying mango sauce was almost redundant in amplifying the inherent sweetness of the shellfish.

The appetizer seafood saga continued with a stop at yellowtail — aka amberjack ($7.75). The restaurant’s sushi whisperers delivered six razor-thin slices of fish on a simple white dish, with the fish lightly napped in a garlic ponzu sauce studded with scallions. The fish was so expertly cut that it melted in my mouth: They were devoured history in 30 seconds.

The two maki rolls sampled continued RA Sushi’s winning undersea tour. The shrimp tempura roll ($9) contained several shrimp standing at attention, their fried-tails acting as handles to reach its underlying mix of crab, avocado, asparagus and cucumber.

Meanwhile, the spicy salmon roll ($7.50) was paradoxically less spicy, despite its zesty presence of jalapeño and Sriracha. But their muted effect did allow the pure salmon taste to rise above its cucumber and cilantro allies.

Crunchy calamari roll ($8.85) may have been a persuasive argument for letting the Italians handle deep-fried squid. The RA Sushi calamari tempura, though expertly crispy, was nullified by dull cream cheese and a listless sweet eel sauce.

Meanwhile, the meal’s only outright bust was the scallop dynamite roll ($13) — a dish that was the unruly, textural love child of nachos and seafood gumbo. The dish’s only redeeming feature: the perfectly cooked nubbins of bay scallops swimming in a zippy sauce.

The spicy chicken teriyaki udon ($14.75) was a laudable attempt at appeasing those customers hesitant to brave sushi. The resulting dish consisted of juicy, if stodgily safe, slices of fowl bobbing in al dente udon noodles. Even though the dish received some needed fire from jags of a teriyaki-fueled sauce on the plate’s sides, it was still a conventional yawner.

No boredom at all in the sweet mochi trio dessert ($7.50). Collage art on a plate, this dessert’s half-moons of sweet rice cake contained either mango vanilla or strawberry ice cream that had more in common with fine Italian gelato than Breyers. Forming abstract borders between the ice cream were fresh shards of kiwi and strawberries, orbiting a nucleus of chocolate-covered whipped cream.

Like the sweet mochi trio plate, where each corner housed a different pleasure, RA Sushi’s interior was equally compelling. Comfortable booths and traditional tables were done in ruddy mahogany tones, and dominated by dozens of red orbs hovering overhead. The wall art portrayed women with Kabuki-like, skim-milky complexion, sporting far-away gazes.

All of these interior touches helped transport me out of my familiar dining zone — to a land where delectable surf, not everyday turf, predominates.

All in all, RA Sushi made for a highly illuminating tour guide.

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 3:03 PM with the headline "Restaurant review: RA Sushi in Southlake."