ATLGuide
11 Great Sushi Restaurants On The Westside
photo credit: Amy Sinclair
Until we’ve followed up on all of our leads to expose the mystery seaside fish market hidden by wizardry, we have no answers as to why so many great sushi spots are clustered in Atlanta’s Westside. Maybe because this fast-growing part of the city works as well for budget-conscious college students as it does for anyone in search of a great date night destination with impressive omakase choices. We still might need a revelio spell to get to the source of things, but here are 11 great places to grab great sushi on the Westside.
THE SPOTS
At $235 per person, this whopping 20-course tasting menu is a steal compared to the other Westside tables. The 12-seat omakase table feels intimate, but the lighting is a little too good for it to be cozy. Behind the counter is an expert sushi maker who walks you through the details of all the dishes, explains Japanese food traditions, as well as gives you a coveted look at his prized collection of vintage sushi knives. They now have a beverage menu, but you're still invited to BYOB with a $100 corking fee. You’ll just want to aim higher than that regifted bottle of grocery store wine to pair with the venue's silky cuts of fish like toro and kanpachi, flown in from Japan.
photo credit: Amy Sinclair
As one of the most expensive prix fixe menus in the city at $315 per person, this eight-seat omakase counter in the Star Metals building is one of the city’s quintessential “big night out” spots. Their fresh, flavorful plates and elegantly minimalist interior fit the bill of a fancy, buttoned-up restaurant, but this is a fine dining atmosphere that feels homey. Hayakawa offers sizable, memorable mouthfuls of Japanese-imported selections, from bluefin tuna to yellowtail and striped bass, and yet it’s the early courses on the 16-item menu that stand out most. Slivers of tender, raw scallop drenched in a kiwi-miso paste puree and the nutty watercress with a punchy wasabi oil feel like a suspenseful story that keeps you stimulated until the very last bite.
Dining at Mujo feels like one of those secret spy missions. First you need to secure a reservation (good luck), then you need to find the place (it’s a very discreet door beside their sister restaurant Cooks & Soldiers). Once you arrive, you get the VIP experience, where a sliding door reveals a tiny dimly lit back room that looks more like a scene for a game of high-stakes poker. While you may not see Daniel Craig, you’ll probably spy a celebrity in one of the 15 seats at this omakase table. Then begin your 12-course mission through small plates and high-grade nigiri that's fresh from Japan. The experience is $225 per person, and that tag can easily climb with add-ons like crab fingers artfully displayed in a half shell. And that's the price we'd pay again and again to live out our clandestine dreams over a great meal.
photo credit: Nina Reeder
This Japanese pub is a jumping izakaya, and one of the best in the city. On Friday nights, finding a spot in the Northside Drive shopping center can be an intense round of musical cars. Inside, Ginya Izakaya feels just as frenzied—but in a fun way since chatter and laughter fill the air along with the aroma from steaming bowls of ramen. It wont be easy to decide what you want from the book-length menu of sushi, noodles, and small plates. Everything from the jalapeño hamachi to the takoyaki is something worth ordering visit after visit. All we can suggest is to bring more friends so you can order more things. If you're lucky and get a corner room with hanging privacy drapes, a sunken floor, and a shoe cubby, then you might opt to keep the rounds coming until closing time.
Kinjo Room in The Interlock makes us feel like we’re VIP’s fresh off a hot tip about an exclusive sushi spot. We love that it's just one small room with roughly ten tables and a bar. The dimly lit, intimate space is perfect if you want to enjoy dinner with someone you actually like. Electronic-pop and artsy cover music that wouldn't be out of place at a couture fashion show plays softly in the background as you sample small plates (we recommend the tender A5 Wagyu beef or lobster box rolls). So you can really feel like a VIP, grab a reservation for weekends and peak dinner times.
When you want to impress a date or client but still want to come off as casually cool, take them to Eight Sushi Lounge. This space is charming without even trying hard. The chic wooden installations hanging from the ceiling inside and the dim lighting from hanging glass orbs set a comfortable mood without being pretentious. Our favorite from their “This Is How We Roll” sushi menu is the Casanova roll with crab salad, shrimp tempura, and seared scallops topped with serrano pepper to give it a nice kick. For a mixtape of all the popular hits, go with the Hashtag roll (tuna, shrimp, and salmon) instead. Eight Sushi is serious on flavor but keeps things playful with fun menu headers like “Bucket List” and “Mind Boggling.” How annoyingly cool of them.
With so many sushi options in the area, O-Ku holds its own as a Japanese restaurant that serves as a go-to for all your date night dilemmas. With a sleek restrained decor and a solid $150 omakase, the West Midtown spot impresses enough for an anniversary dinner. And their $10-and-under Happy Hour menu can help blur the lines when you’re not sure if you want that “let’s meet for drinks” invitation to be an actual date. There’s also a covered rooftop patio that works well in all seasons when you want to hang out for a while and slowly work your way down the menu from small and hot plates to nigiri. Just make sure you get an order of the smoked hamachi, which is a bold yet smooth and tasty mouthful.
photo credit: Amy Sinclair
Since it’s in Georgia Tech territory on 14th, expect the tiny space to be packed with loud student groups. The tables, like their Emory Village sister restaurant, are pretty closely situated, so you’re bound to pick up conversation about some research project done with ChatGPT (we won’t tell administrators you cheated). The large Japanese menu offers everything from ramen to all the sushi favorites, even one with tofu skin, which mimics the texture of fish so your newly declared vegetarian friend can get in on the action, too. The rolls are a little better than run-of-the-mill, but the real reason to love this location is the attached Japanese convenience store, where we like to end our meal with those squeezable ice creams we ate that one time in Kyoto station.
Head to Satto Thai on Marietta Street when your budget is tight but your hunger is unbound. The aesthetic isn’t the draw here—the interior is so generic that there's a good chance you'll forget exactly what it looks like. Just know that it'll have a cluster of Tech students and a mood that doesn't make you feel rushed. What we like most about Satto are their huge, reasonably priced signature rolls, which could easily feed two or three people. Our favorite is the massive Optimistic roll with flash fried salmon, crab meat, jalapeño.
photo credit: Tabia S. Lisenbee-Parker
Located near the entrance of the Chatt Works food hall, Flying Fish has a small five-seat sushi counter if you enjoy watching the sushi team prep each order. And their work seems extra attentive since we’re usually the only ones at the counter. But in traditional food hall fashion, we always get our orders to-go, so we can create our own multi-course fest with other vendors around the market. Also, because a six-to eight-piece spicy tuna roll is nearly $20, we need to find other ways to get full without burning through our pockets. But when we’re with a date who can't commit to one food genre, this stall problem-solves with quality takes on the usual rolls and nigiri hits while leaving room for other vendors.
photo credit: Tabia S. Lisenbee-Parker
Located in a shopping center on Collier Road, Yoi Yoi satisfies when you want a quiet working lunch. You’ll be joined by other solo professionals and maybe a couple on a day date. But since it’s never busy (with dine-in orders, anyway), the food comes quickly to the table, so you can immediately get to work clamping chopsticks in one hand while thumbing through tasks on your phone with the other. The biggest time suck is getting through the lengthy menu. So head straight to the lunch specials, which is where you can score four maki roll orders under $20. The sushi offerings—just like the casual space, which hangs lights and fake vines from the ceiling—do well to meet the moment when you just want a quick, pleasing meal.
