We won’t lie. We miss YogaFish. When that tiny California-style sushi joint stopped deliver cheap, quality bento boxes to our doorstep, we shed a tear. With the recent opening of Sushi O and its promise of affordable maki rolls, our ears perked up and our heart skipped a beat as we clicked through the Sherpa’s site to place our lunch order.

The deals are scandalously cheap; a bowl of miso, two seasonal sides and a main will run you between RMB 32 – 45. At Sushi O, you get what you pay for. The miso wasn’t bad, but a little less salt wouldn’t hurt the soup, and the potato salad was characteristically Japanese – heavy on the kewpie. The eel rice bowl came with almost as many bones and fins as it did grains of rice, and the sashimi was a bit warm (possibly the result of the delivery time – the food took over an hour to arrive). The Japanese chicken proved to be the best choice of the trio, but it could have used a dipping sauce and a little less meat filler.

While the lunch deals were mostly a miss, we decided that it was only fair to give Sushi O another go – this time for the sushi they named themselves after. Sherpa’s handy mouseover picture feature helped make our decisions for us (i.e. avoiding the more mayo-ey of the selection), and the guys in orange delivered our order to us in record time – less than 30 minutes for our office in the far reaches of Puxi!

The grilled salmon sushi was a hit, and at only RMB 18 for two well-crafted rice beds and salmon slices, it’s a steal as well. The Yoga Veggie Roll (RMB 35) was decked out in a layer of mango and avocado wrapped around a mouthful of rice and veggies. While we enjoyed the California-ness of the roll, we still have to ask: lettuce in sushi? Too far, sirs. On the other hand, the Jumbo Shrimp Roll (RMB 45) nailed it. Bedazzled with brilliantly orange roe and laden with a layer of something unidentifiably deep fried and delicious, the signature roll had a lot going for it – and that’s without even trying the tempura shrimp with its tail stick defiantly out one end of the rice!

We hope Sushi O continues putting as much time into their menu development as they did the puntastic naming (Achilles’ Eel, anyone?). They have a lot of potential, and we’d like to see them make it. There’s never enough cheap sushi options in town!

34 Yanqing Lu, near Donghu Lu. Tel: 150 0082 0420, 6209-6209. Web: www.sushi-o.com, www.sherpa.com.cn