I have been a massive fan of Sushi ever since I became gluten intolerant. I think I would have regardless. But there are loads of delicious Gluten Free Sushi dishes. Yo! Sushi is my favourite place to go.
So recently we have been had quite a few trips down to London and up to Norwich to see various bands play or just to mong out, and of course any day trip out isn’t complete without some good food! I am an absolute food lover and when out and about, lunch and dinner times really excite me, probably more than they should do! Of course having to make sure there are dishes without gluten present and the fact that IBS restricts my diet in so many other ways makes it a much bigger deal as we can’t just pop in anywhere; deciding on a restaurant takes a lot more thought than it once did! On top of the actual foods that I cannot eat anymore, my IBS has been really angry recently and has reduced the amount I can eat in one go immensely. Therefore a place where I don’t get just a massive plate of food in front of me is a huge bonus (I have a total lack of control if a huge pile of food is placed before my eyes!). Yo! Sushi as the name suggests is a sushi restaurant which has a large amount of restaurants across the UK. Here the food comes either round a conveyor belt or you can order it fresh; either way the dishes are really small and you can have as many or as few as your stomach can take!
I started going to it back in 2009 when I first started university in Manchester and have been going ever since. Initially of course I was eating the full menu, however when I gave up eating gluten that had to change considerably. Gone were the days of ‘Hairy Prawns’ and of course gone were the days of dipping my sushi in soy sauce. For months I ate sushi like this without any soy sauce until one day we had the genius plan to bring a bottle of gluten free soy sauce in my handbag and use that. It worked really well but of course there were times where we forgot and living so far from a Yo! Sushi these days, it meant lugging a bottle of soy sauce round with me all day..
So when last year we discovered that Yo! Sushi will provide gluten free soy sauce on request we were really really happy! Every time we venture to a Yo! Sushi they are very friendly and never hesitate or look puzzled when you ask for the gluten free soy sauce which is great – I hate being made to feel like I’m a ‘problem’.
Yo! Sushi have a very comprehensive online nutritional PDF booklet which I have as well which gives you clear guidelines on which dishes contain gluten and a variety of other different foods that people might be intolerant/allergic to. You can check it out if you click here.
The menu is still really extensive and actually if I’m honest it’s much better! Well.. for healthy eating purposes anyway! Most of the dishes that cannot be eaten are the deep fried Gyozas and a lot of the battered dishes; whereas nearly all the sashimi, nigiri, maki, iso rolls and of course my favourite the hand rolls do not contain gluten. Of course there are a few that do, but it doesn’t take anything away from the restaurant as there is so much choice available; its definitely a restaurant where I once again feel normal… never a bad thing!
Oh and of course the food itself is delicious! I’ve never been to Japan before so for those who want to know its authenticity I cannot comment, but who cares if its tasty! (1000 times better than any sushi I’ve ever eaten from Tesco!) There is always plenty of fish and big chunks of avocado in the dishes I choose, which is great as it could be so easy for them to just go top heavy on the rice and give measly portions of the true flavours.
Oh, and if I had to recommend one dish to you it would definitely be the salmon and avocado hand roll, its delicious. I even picked one up at the Yo! Sushi at Stansted Airport once and took it onto the plane with me, best plane journey ever!
In terms of price Yo! Sushi never seems like too much of a bad deal to me, the dishes are priced based on the colour of them ranging from £1.80 to £6.00 though I always find on average we tend to have more £3.00 and £3.50 dishes than anything else. On Mondays they have ‘Blue Mondays’ where all dishes going round are only £2.40 instead of their regular prices which is really good value. AND if you’re super lucky like I am for the next couple of months… students get 25% discount! This makes it super cheap but without its still definitely a good deal.
So yeah there you have it, a restaurant I totally recommend if you fancy something light, a bit different and is understanding of the gluten free necessities of some stomachs! I have been to many different chains of it across the country from London, Reading, Manchester, Brighton and Norwich to name a few and have always had a really enjoyable relatively quick meal. Just ask for that gluten free soy sauce and you’re away!
Overall I would give the restaurant as a whole: 8/10, I can’t warrant higher as I can’t eat literally everything on the menu! But what I can eat is pretty epic.
Let me know your thoughts on Yo! Sushi as well, I love sushi and that whole cuisine in general, so if anybody has any tips of places to go please let me know!
I listed Yo! Sushi on my Gluten Free Brighton Post… feel free to check it out here: http://glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/2015/05/24/16-of-the-best-gluten-free-destinations-in-brighton/
Thanks for reading,
Becky xxx
