Be our boba: Bonsai Sushi offers tasty fun
The Bonsai Roll is pictured Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, at Bonsai Sushi in Provo. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
From left to right, the Avocado, Mango and Taro Boba Smoothies are pictured Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, at Bonsai Sushi in Provo. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
The Firecracker Roll is pictured Tuesday at Bonsai Sushi in Provo. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
The Ceviche Roll is pictured Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, at Bonsai Sushi in Provo. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
The Bonsai Roll is pictured Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, at Bonsai Sushi in Provo. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
From left to right, the Avocado, Mango and Taro Boba Smoothies are pictured Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, at Bonsai Sushi in Provo. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
The Firecracker Roll is pictured Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, at Bonsai Sushi in Provo. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
The Ceviche Roll is pictured Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, at Bonsai Sushi in Provo. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
From front to back, the Bonsai, Ceviche and Firecracker Rolls are pictured Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, at Bonsai Sushi in Provo. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
Sushi is a food that has been called many things — it has more haters than Taylor Swift — but to me, there’s one best word to describe the raw wraps of small seafood: fun.
It’s one of the more polarizing menu items, the controversy mainly springing from the texture and ingredients that make some hungry diners squeamish. Personally, I consider my somewhat recent growing into a taste for sushi as a sign of maturation: Around the time my taste buds adopted sushi, they also adopted oatmeal and lost as their obsession with Fruity Pebbles cereal.
But aside from the taste — just throwing that completely aside right now — one thing about sushi that is absolutely impossible to refute is the level of fun. What other kinds of foods come in tiny bite sizes, each decorated beautifully with more colors than Joseph’s coat? What other kinds of foods have names like Dragon?
Only other fun kinds of foods, that’s what.
For example, boba smoothies are equally as fun as sushi. They are yummy drinks that also have chewy spheres that are so fun they require a totally different size of straw.
Well, all of this is to say, there’s a new fun place in Provo, because Bonsai Sushi, which opened earlier this summer, sells both sushi and boba smoothies, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
We ordered several rolls of sushi. The first two rolls — the Godzilla and the Mango special — were large. The second two rolls — the Dragon and the Bonsai — were enormous.
Our favorite was the mango roll, which had cream cheese, crab, and jalapeno: a combo so genius and complementary to each other, the levels of deliciousness begin to rival the levels of fun.
The Dragon also has crab, as well as cucumber, avocado and eel, as well as eel sauce and sesame seeds. Being topped with eel, it might visually scare off the sushi skeptics who might find it a bit fishy, but it was tasty.
The Bonsai has tempura shrimp, avocado and cucumber, as well as — speaking of fun — tobiko (eggs), salmon, tuna, yellowtail, green onions, eel sauce, ponzu sauce, spicy mayo and sesame seeds. No wonder it was so big.
The Godzilla was probably my second favorite. It’s a simple roll, tuna-based, deep-fried with green onions, sriracha sauce and sesame seeds.
The meal also came with a free appetizer of edamame, which was presented perfectly, because it was piping hot. (Warm and lukewarm edamame, you are not welcome in this mouth.)
Now for the bobas. We tried the strawberry, mango and avocado flavors. All three were refreshing and tasty.
Let me just put a good word in for avocado-flavored sweet things, especially drinks. They sound weird to people who haven’t had them before, but they are not. Avocado, it turns out, doesn’t just turn a sandwich or a salad into a winner, but it provides a solid base for a thick, filling sweet drink.
That said, the best of the three drinks for us was the strawberry. Of the three, it had the strongest flavor. The mango and avocado could have had a stronger bite to them.
But Bonsai Sushi, in general, is a great place to go for strong bites. With a variety of flavors and a focus on, you guessed it, fun foods, there really is no argument. If you’re a fan of sushi, you have to go try Bonsai Sushi.
BONSAI SUSHI
Where: 672 N. Freedom Blvd., Provo
Prices: $1-$12
Hours: Opens at noon daily, closing at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 6 p.m. Sunday.
Info: (801) 373-0833
