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• Food + Drink
• Raw Fish, Yum

Have you ever easten raw fish? Didn’t think there were many options for you in land-locked Illinois? Well, wrong you are because KoFusion, located at One East Main in downtown Champaign, has an array of sushi for the sampling especially on Monday nights, when they feature their sushi sampler plate.

Being new to the sushi world, I wasn’t really sure what to expect as I entered the neon-lit, super-trendy eatery that looked like it was plucked right out of NYC rather than CU, but nonetheless, I was ready to embark on my raw fish challenge.

My date and I knew what we were there for, so when the waitress approached us we ordered the special, which included 10 sushi rolls — the futo maki, mango roll, Scottish salmon roll, organic teriyaki chicken roll, lobster salad roll, the volcano, organic beef roll, Philly shrimp roll, Alaskan halibut roll and last but certainly not least, the big roll. The plate was also garnished with a dollop of wasabi sauce and a fresh ginger slice for cleansing the palate. Each roll was $1, so the entire plate came to $10.

The winners were the Philly shrimp, tempura shrimp mixed with cream cheese and wrapped with rice. Next, was the beef roll. It was sweet and savory and almost took on the taste of Jack Daniels sauce served at TGI Fridays. The Scottish salmon, rolled with avocado, crabmeat and cucumber, came in third. A slice of salmon topped the roll, which didn’t deter me as much as I thought it would when I first saw the platter.

My least favorite was the mango roll, which had avocado, fennel and cucumber. It had a bitter, almost minty taste that I did not enjoy with raw fish. Likewise the volcano, a California roll with crabmeat and scallions, was nothing special and was similar to the sushi often served at all-you-can-eat Asian buffets.

To accompany the sampler, we also tried the cold sake sampler. I had never tried the rice wine before, but the three samples we got were all very delicious. Nigori, unfiltered, full flavored sake was the best. It was sweet and didn’t take on an acidic taste like to many wines do. It was a cloudy white color, but went down smoothly. Poochi Poochi, a light, sparkling low alcohol sake, didn’t have much taste to it and didn’t sparkle too much. I thought it would be the champagne of sakes, but it seemed a little flat. Finally, the Ginzo about blew my socks off. This was the strongest tasting sake and had the richest flavor and tasted the most like alcohol. However, it did definitely cleanse my palate after the mango roll. The sake sampler cost $5.95.

If you like good sushi or are into experiencing something new, then KoFusion is the place to be. Try good, appropriately priced sushi in a restaurant unlike any other in CU.