Conveyor Belt Sushi: What a Concept

This past Saturday, Muffinheadedboy turned 22 years of age (which doesn’t seem possible but then you can’t argue with a calendar). To help celebrate this event, he and his girlfriend took a break from Fall Quarter at Western Washington University in Bellingham to spend some time with us in the greater Marysville-Smokey Point area.

First, we met them at one of BowlingWidow and my favorite Saturday afternoon haunts, Skookum Brewery (previously blogged about in July, 2008). Much to the young man’s (and our) delight Skookum offers a free pint of ale on your birthday. We all had a nice conversation as we savored the hoppy moments.

We asked him where he wanted to go to dinner. Unfortunately, his girlfriend wouldn’t be able to join us but he picked out a fairly new place that they have been to a few times in the past. Unlike his parents, Muffinheadedboy is a fan of sushi. We headed toward Belt Sushi and Roll. My first thought was that this is a strange name for a restaurant. What do they mean by “belt”?

Upon entering the establishment, that question was answered immediately. The room is fairly small as restaurants go, and there’s a long U-shaped counter that customers are seated at. Just above the eating area are two conveyor belts providing slow-train transportation to small dishes of various types including sushi, shrimp rolls, squid, dumplings, and so on. I counted around 30 different items, including fruit and desserts.

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Scene from a Conveyor Belt Sushi Restaurant

It’s kind of like dim sum at a Chinese restaurant only without servers and carts. Plates are color coded by price and run anywhere from $1 to $5 each. And if the conveyor concept doesn’t thrill you there’s a small menu to be ordered from as well. Combine all of this with the optional soy sauce, wasabi paste, hot chili sauce, and pickled ginger, and there’s something for everyone waiting to be plucked off the belt.

Is conveyor belt sushi new? Although it’s new to us, it’s hardly new in Japan, where there are more than 3000 of these places, and most large cities around the world. The first one can be traced back to 1958, according to Wikipedia. Apparently (and I have no idea since I don’t know jack-diddley about sushi) the quality of the product is a few notches below fancier sushi restaurants and is given the fast food label by those in the know.

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Scene from another Conveyor Belt Sushi Restaurant

But fast food or not, the food was good and the experience was well worth an hour of being hypnotized by watching the conveyor belts go round and round, spotting new dishes every now and again. And at 40 bucks for three of us, we got our money’s worth. We left Belt Sushi and Roll happy that Muffinheadedboy chose this place to celebrate his birthday. My birthday is coming up in three months. We just may have to go back.