Snappy Sushi

I have always put sushi in Boston into three categories:

• High-end places like Oya and Oishii with ingredients like truffles, fois gras, and caviar

• The next level down/typical Back Bay sushi restaurant – I used to consider these over-priced, trendy, and all the same but have recently started to rethink this

• The smaller places with good quality sushi at a reasonable price

     

Snappy Sushi is one of my favorites in the third category. They have two locations (Newbury Street and Davis Square), and serve exclusively brown rice sushi. The Newbury Street location used to offer sushi by the piece for $1, and although the prices have increased, they are still very affordable.

The menu includes all of the basics (maki, nigiri, and sashimi) as well as some specialty rolls and appetizers. Some of my favorites include the tuna tartare (spicy tuna layered on top of fresh avocado and tempura flakes), avocado salad (mixed with crab, cucumber, fish roe, and spicy mayo), and the tuna gone wild roll (torched white tuna on top of an avocado / cucumber roll with flying fish roe and sauce similar to eel sauce). They will also torch any of their standard sushi on request, a preparation I had previously only seen at very high-end places. 

The Newbury Street location has been one of my regular spots for sushi for several years now (especially since they’ve expanded), but I just recently tried the Davis location for the first time. The menu seemed to be the same and I ordered some basic rolls along with the usual tuna tartare and was not disappointed. 

Tuna Tartare

Spicy Scallop Tempura and Tuna Avocado Rolls