By Denise Ortuno
Indio’s premier sushi spot, Dragon Sushi, has now opened a new location in central Palm Desert.
Halloween brought more than ghouls and trick-r-treaters this year, it brought the opening of Dragon Sushi Palm Desert. Their first location opened four years ago in Indio. Dragon Sushi gained rapid popularity in the Coachella Valley sushi scene, known for their delicious creations and reasonable prices. The concept for a sushi restaurant came from entrepreneur and owner Eduardo Sanchez, who saw a need to bring sushi to the East valley, noticing the vacancy for the delicacy there. His nephew, and manager of the new Palm Desert location, Enrique Palencia, explained to me that his uncle tested the sushi idea at his Mexican restaurant in Cathedral City, La Tablita, which Sanchez still owns. The business at La Tablita was declining, so to shake things up a bit, he turned half of it into a sushi spot, and the result was amazing.
Sanchez took the que from his experiment and opened Dragon Sushi in Indio. His goal was to offer quality sushi at reasonable prices, a combination that is usually not the norm in sushi restaurants, as sushi can be on the pricey side. But not at Dragon Sushi, where guests can indulge in the foodie fish craze, without seeing their wallets washed out to sea.
Sanchez has expanded his vision with the new Dragon Sushi location which sits smack dab in the middle of Palm Desert. It is right across the street from the Desert Crossing Shopping Plaza, and next to high traffic restaurants such as Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Fat Burger.
The new spot is abundant with Red and Black decor, flat screens TV’s, comfortable booths and an out of the ordinary, horseshoe shaped, high top sushi bar. The design of the sushi bar is quite comfortable, as most sushi bars have their guests sit low, Dragon Sushi perches their guests up high. They also have a regular bar for guests to have a drink or two, however, for the moment, they only serve wine and beer until the full-fledged liquor license is poured into action in about a month or so.
On my visit to Dragon Sushi, I stopped by during lunch and was greeted by their friendly staff (my sever Jose was great). I took a seat at the sushi bar, scanned the menu and landed on…a Spicy Tuna Roll. The roll came out with a perfect ratio of rice to tuna…more tuna than rice, perfect! What’s nice about the rolls at Dragon Sushi is that they are not too big that you can’t enjoy them in one bite.
Besides classic rolls such as the Spicy Tuna Roll, Dragon Sushi offers others including and not limited to the Caterpillar Roll, Spider Roll, California Roll and other staple rolls. But it is stand out inventions of their own that guests clamor for. Rolls like the Mango Tango (imitation crab, rice, cream cheese, avocado, cucumber, shrimp tempura, serrano peppers, sliced mango and soy paper), the Ex-Girlfriend (spicy tuna, imitation crab, salmon, tuna, avocado, eel sauce, spicy mayo, radish sprouts and soy paper…no rice) and the Lobster Hand Roll (baked small lobster, cucumber, radish sprouts and avocado) just to name a few. But according to Palencia, the real attraction is all about their specials. These specials are not on any board or menu, you only need ask the sushi chef about them, kind of like a password at an old school speak easy, “The password is, I want to know the specials,” of which Palencia says, there are 15 of…all special rolls.
Dragon Sushi offers other menu items for those who desire more than sushi…whoever they are. An array of diverse appetizers, Ramen Noodles and much, much more. But regardless of what you order at Dragon Sushi, their prices won’t leave you wanting to consume large quantities of Sake to forget the pain. With rolls starting at only $4.95 for an Avocado Roll, and the highest at $14.95 for their Passion Roll.….their prices our outstanding!
With welcoming service, quality sushi and reasonable prices, having Dragon Sushi in Palm Desert is a fabulous addition to the City’s sushi restaurants. Tanoshinde!
For more information visit www.dragonsushi.com
