Sushi Muramoto is quite well known and popular for their sushi and Japanese food. Located in the Hilldale Mall in Madison Sushi Muramoto becomes a great option for a quick meal or even a take out on way home.

We suggested this as an option to one of our vegetarian friends and they were surprised that we were recommending a sushi restaurant to her. In face there are some good options here. Since so much is already said and known about sushi here we will provide some experience on our vegetable focused experience here.

Lot of restaurants serve vegetable tempura. The one at sushi muramoto is fantastic. It is so because of the assortment of vegetables used and also for the cold tempura batter used to churn out these amazingly crispy knock on wood tempura when you get them hot off the fryer. They are served in restaurant with a mayo based dip which is quite a popular thing in japan but we feel these are just really good on their own or would prefer a lighter dressing as a dip. The vegetables used range from carrots, sweet potatoes, onions, potatoes, eggplants, zucchini and red pepper, lotus roots, cauliflower and asparagus. The red pepper one is both our chopsticks go for because they taste phenomenal when they are given the tempura treatment.

But our most loved way of enjoying tempura is with their lovely sushi rice. Cooking quality rice is paid lot of attention to in japanese restaurants and here they do a really good job. It is seasoned perfectly with vinegar and using a dried seasoning made from purple shiso leaves called shiso yukari/furikake giving it a minty sour hints. We love to eat tempura with a little bit of this short grain rice that is sticky and easy to eat with chopsticks.

For rolls we love to order one each of the vegetarian options and it is good for the two of us.  All roll come wrapped in nori which adds a lot of umami. The avocado one is creamy and buttery and melts when you eat it. To contrast these there are two rolls made with plum and radish pickles respectively. These add an acidity to alternate with the avocado rolls. Japanese make fantastic pickles with their tsukemono pickling tradition and we always love picking on one of these rolls. The cucumber and the asparagus rolls are more vegetal, the cucumber is cooling and asparagus is bursting with its flavors and encrusted with nutty white sesame seeds. Overall our own little vegetarian rolls tray makes a great combination. The pickled ginger between every other roll to cleanse the palate and the wasabi to add some kick does a perfect job.

There is also a vegetable tempura roll which kind of combines all of the above and that is a good option as well. They also feature a tofu entree as well as agedashi fried tofu. They used to have a fantastic papaya salad with tofu and we wish it comes back. If you are vegetarian with very specific restrictions you should always check with them on use of eggs or fish sauce and use of bonito flakes in dashi’s etc. We hope there are more vegetable focused dishes however the ones that are here already are quite good. The place is almost always packed with people and wait times for both dining in and take out can be close to 45 minutes, so get your name or order in before you start to shop is a tip we can offer.