ATLGuide
The 10 Best Sushi Restaurants On The Westside
The Westside is the unofficial sushi center of the city thanks to its collection of omakases and other restaurants where you can fill a table with nigiri and maki rolls for less than $20.
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 followed by drinks and entertainment. We still might need a revelio spell to get to the source of things, but here are the best places to grab great sushi on the Westside.
THE SPOTS
This 12-seat omakase table on the Westside feels like you got invited to a friend’s dinner party inside a fancy minimalist studio apartment that’s lit well enough to double as a retail showroom. Your friend, of course, just happens to be an expert sushi maker who enthusiastically walks you through the background of all his dishes and gives you a coveted look at his prized handcrafted sushi knife collection. And you’re even invited to BYOB, which is a definite perk since the 20-course tasting will run you $235 per person. 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.
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 at the 15-seat 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.
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On Friday nights, Ginya Izakaya draws a big crowd, so finding a spot in the Northside Drive shopping center can feel like an intense round of musical chairs. Inside the Japanese pub, tables turn quickly since dishes are out the kitchen in less time than it took you to decide what you wanted from the book-length menu of sushi, ramen, noodles, and small plates. It's hard to name a standout because everything from the jalapeño hamachi to the takoyaki is something we'd order again. All we can suggest is to bring more friends, so you can order more things. Plus, if you land one of their corner rooms with hanging privacy drapes, a sunken floor, and a shoe cubby, you'll be comfortable enough to lounge around for another round of orders.
Kinjo Room in The Interlock makes us feel like we’re VIP’s fresh off a hot tip about an exclusive sushi spot. 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 seem like it would be played 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.
Eight Sushi Lounge is cool without even trying, not unlike your old high school frenemy who has 130K more social media followers than you (not jealous). 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 can serve 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.
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 we love this location is because of 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.
If you're balling on a budget, head to Satto Thai on Marietta Street for massive sushi rolls. Their soft psychedelic playlist will make you feel like you mixed up your multivitamin and melatonin gummies again as you eavesdrop on Tech students discussing their upcoming exam. You won’t feel rushed here and can easily hang out for a few hours without being bothered. The aesthetic isn’t the draw–the interior is so generic that we’ve already forgotten exactly what it looks like. But do you really need decor to enjoy the massive Optimistic roll with flash fried salmon, crab meat, jalapeños, and hot sauce? We didn’t think so.
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.
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.
