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Sushi Heidelberg

Top 10 Restaurants

Sushi in Heidelberg: A delec­ta­ble and authen­tic experience

If you’re a sushi lover, you’ll be happy to hear that Heidelberg has some excel­lent sushi restau­rants. From tra­di­tio­nal Japa­nese sushi to fusion crea­ti­ons and all you can eat restau­rants, there is some­thing for ever­yone. In Heidelberg, you can really live out your pas­sion for sushi and the fun of eating Japa­nese food.

Top 10 Sushi Restau­rants in Heidelberg

Sear­ching for the per­fect sushi restau­rant, it’s easy to get con­fu­sed. How high is the qua­lity? How beau­tiful is the ambi­ence or the view? How crea­tive are the dishes? Or how fri­endly is the team? With so much to choose from, it can be over­whel­ming to find the right infor­ma­tion and sift through hundreds of reviews. This list of the 10 best sushi restau­rants will help you find the per­fect cui­sine, with the best menu to make your sushi night unfor­gettable. From a beau­tiful restau­rant with char­ming tables to a small tra­di­tio­nal sushi bar.

Yami Sushi

Hein­rich-Fuchs-Straße 100
69126 Heidelberg
0162 9135151

Taumi Heidelberg Sushi & Grill

Grüne Meile 20
69115 Heidelberg
06221 3538836

Sushi Bar SameSame

Stein­gasse 3
69117 Heidelberg
06221 7291737

Shil­ling Roofbar

Alte Glo­cken­gie­ße­rei 9
69115 Heidelberg
06221 7333003

Sakura

Berg­hei­mer Str. 7
69115 Heidelberg
06221 4531872

Kicho

Hebel­straße 3
69115 Heidelberg
06221 160337

KAORU

Langer Anger 42
69115 Heidelberg
06221 6740060

iKoi

Haupt­straße 105
69117 Heidelberg
06221 7256999

Gour­met City

Im Breit­spiel 5
69126 Heidelberg
06221 3383590

Choa Restau­rant

Zwin­ger­straße 20
69117 Heidelberg
06221 7288106

Salmon avocado maki on a table

What is sushi?

Sushi is a clas­sic Japa­nese dish. It is a small rice roll that is com­bi­ned with raw fish, sea­weed, tofu and vege­ta­bles or even egg. It’s served in bite-sized pieces. The name, which is deri­ved from the Japa­nese “sour”, comes from the fact that the rice used, among other things, is mixed with vin­egar and thus recei­ves its unique taste.

What makes the per­fect sushi?

Sushi is just rice and raw fish, so it should be easy to prepare, right? Not quite, anyone who has ever tried to make it them­sel­ves knows how dif­fi­cult the pro­cess can be. In fact, it can take deca­des to master the skills of sushi pre­pa­ra­tion down to the last detail. It is espe­ci­ally the details, that make sushi pre­pa­ra­tion an art.

Sushi rice uncooked

 

Rice

The sushi rice or “Shari” is a spe­cial rice that is par­ti­cu­larly sticky after coo­king. The addi­tion of vin­egar, sugar and salt gives it its unique flavor. It is par­ti­cu­larly important that the rice is at room tem­pe­ra­ture when eaten and does not break when gras­ped with chop­sticks or the hand. Only in mouth the rice roll should dis­solve and deve­lop its flavor.

 

Neta

The so-called neta is the fil­ling or top­ping of the sushi. In addi­tion to fish and vege­ta­bles, other ingre­di­ents such as tofu or egg can also be used as sushi top­ping. There are count­less ways to fill or top the sushi. Howe­ver, the most important thing is that the amount of top­pings fits the amount of rice and is always fresh.

Colorful selection of different sushi variations for several people
Fresh raw salmon in the kitchen

 

fish

Even if the amount of fish in a piece of sushi is small, it should be of high qua­lity. The fish should be firm and shiny and not wet or greasy. The term “sushi-grade fish” descri­bes such fish that is of per­fect qua­lity and can be eaten raw wit­hout hesi­ta­tion. Alt­hough there are no stan­dards for the use of this term, it means that the fish is of the hig­hest quality.

Dif­fe­rent types of sushi

For the pro­duc­tion of high qua­lity sushi, the pre­pa­ra­tion is as important as the ingre­di­ents and the pro­por­ti­ons. The­r­e­fore, some methods of pre­pa­ra­tion of sushi are pre­sen­ted here. Basi­cally, a dif­fe­rence is made bet­ween 2 basic forms of sushi: The Maki and the Nigiri. There are many more varia­ti­ons, but they are all based on these two basic forms.

Maki between two chopsticks

Maki

In maki, rice and neta are rolled into a nori sheet. Whe­ther it’s salmon, avo­cado, tofu or all tog­e­ther. Maki can be filled with any­thing, as long as it is deli­cious. Also from Maki there are most diverse varia­ti­ons their big­gest common fea­ture being the form of a roll.

Nigiri

A rice roll, or a small rice ball, on which fish or other ingre­di­ents are placed is called nigiri. There are many dif­fe­rent types of nigiri. With some the fish is simply loo­sely put on it, with others the top­ping is fas­tened with a strip of the nori leaf (sea­weed leaf) and again others are even wrap­ped with it and filled like a bag.

8 pieces of different nigiri on one plate
Classic nigiri and gunkan freshly served in a beautiful ambience

Gunkan

Gunkan means war­ship and is a spe­cial form of nigiri sushi. Gunkan are ship-shaped cubes of sushi rice wrap­ped by a long strip of sea­weed to form a shell that can be filled with a topping.

Uramaki

Uramaki is a varia­tion of the clas­sic maki where the rice is on the out­side of the roll. This type of sushi is often called inside-out sushi because the rice is on the out­side and the ingre­di­ents, as well as the nori sheet, are on the inside.

Maki in a different way: The nori leaf inside, the rice outside. This is Ura Maki
Sashimi served on a wooden board like in traditional Japanese sushi bars

Sas­himi

Sas­himi is a Japa­nese deli­cacy, made from fresh, raw fish cut into thin slices. The raw fish is usually eaten with soy sauce and/or wasabi.

The best sushi side dishes

In addi­tion to the clas­sic gar­nis­hes such as soy sauce, wasabi or pick­led ginger, there are many others that com­ple­ment your sushi menu perfectly.

Eda­mame

Edamame freshly cooked, unsalted

One of the most popu­lar side dishes is eda­mame. The unripe har­ve­s­ted soy­be­ans are cooked and sea­so­ned before they are per­fect as a snack or even as a side dish to some deli­cious salmon nigiri.

Miso­suppe

Japanese dish: Miso soup in a sushi bar

Whe­ther as an appe­ti­zer, des­sert or simply in bet­ween. The miso soup is an abso­lute clas­sic in Japa­nese cui­sine and is offe­red in every sushi restau­rant. Com­bi­ned with a sushi plat­ter and a drink, it makes the per­fect menu for one person.

Goma Wakame

One of the classic Japanese dishes: Goma wakame or algae/seaweed salad.

Goma Wakame or sea­weed salad is ano­ther very well-known sushi addi­tion. The Japa­nese salad fits because of the slightly salty, spicy flavor excel­lent to quite a few Japa­nese dishes.

Is sushi healthy?

In terms of health, the Japa­nese food has con­tri­bu­ted signi­fi­cantly to longer life expec­tancy. This is in some part due to the fish that the Japa­nese eat. Many of the varie­ties found in sushi are high in EPA and DHA fatty acids.

For those who want their dish to be espe­ci­ally healthy, it is best to order healt­hier types of fish, such as salmon and tuna, which are low in mer­cury. Low-sodium soy sauce is also a good choice, and if the restau­rant doesn’t have it, other healthy flavor enhan­cers such as wasabi or pick­led ginger should be the pri­mary choices.

The various com­bi­na­ti­ons of dif­fe­rent vege­ta­bles and fish have a very health-pro­mo­ting effect on the body. For exam­ple, it can help improve intesti­nal health and streng­then the immune system. It also helps improve heart health and pro­mo­tes thy­roid function.

So ver­sa­tile and incre­di­bly deli­cious, you simply can’t go wrong with these little rice bites.

And what about this sushi?!

For­t­u­na­tely only stop motion 😀

Heidelberg Sushi FAQ

Is there vegan sushi?

Sur­pri­sin­gly, sushi can be vegan. Alt­hough the term “sushi” is often used as a syn­onym for raw fish, sushi is in fact cold rice dres­sed with vin­egar, moul­ded into any shape and gar­nis­hed with raw sea­food or vege­ta­bles. It is the­r­e­fore pos­si­ble to order vegan sushi wit­hout fish. The usual vegan ingre­di­ents include avo­cado, cucum­ber or tofu and takuan (pick­led daikon radish).

If you are inte­res­ted in other vegan dishes, take a look at our article on vegan restau­rants in Heidelberg.

Is sushi gluten-free?

Yes, sushi is basi­cally gluten-free. The main ingre­di­ents rice, fish, vege­ta­bles and nori leaves are gluten-free and can be eaten by people with gluten into­le­rance or celiac dise­ase. Howe­ver, you should be careful if brea­ded or trea­ted ingre­di­ents are included. In this case, it is always sui­ta­ble to ask the staff for advice.

Is Heidelberg known for sushi restaurants?

In fact, Heidelberg is not par­ti­cu­larly known for sushi, but this does not mean that there are not out­stan­ding sushi restau­rants in Heidelberg. With over 15 sushi restau­rants in the city of 160,000 inha­bi­tants, there is more than one sushi restau­rant for every 10,000 inha­bi­tants, which very cle­arly shows the love of the people of Heidelberg for sushi.