Cyros Sushi and Sake Bar

The Food Baby bottom line:

• Cyros is apparently a very hip Southpark spot, with a 45 minute wait on a Thursday.
• Glacial-speed service leaves something to be desired.
• However....the sushi rocked pretty hard (hello Avant Garde Roll) resulting in a Houdini Food Baby.

The Food Baby is BACK! We have been traveling to New Orleans, amongst other taxing adventures, and took a brief hiatus from blogging. We are (just now) fully recovered and ready to get back into it!

The day after returning from our 4-day stint at Mardi Gras (more on that later in Traveling Food Baby) my younger sister came into town. Our first stop was a much-needed sushi binge, and Brianna recommended that I take her to Cyros Sushi and Sake Bar in the South Park area. While I had never been to the restaurant, Brianna commissioned Cyros to set up the most fabulous sushi bar at her wedding reception last October, and it was ridiculously posh, and the biggest hit of her cocktail hour!

I thought it was very cool how Cyros was connected by an indoor courtyard to Rooster's Restaurant as well as Rooster's Wine Bar. Cyros has a very small and cozy dining room, and there was a 45 minute wait for a table - though we could have taken a seat outside of the dining room in the shared courtyard space. I preferred to sit in the dining room so we decided to wait and pop over to Rooster's for a glass of wine in the meantime.

Upon being seated, we immediately ordered pinor noir and hot green tea, along with some edamamme and tuna tataki appetizer. The edamamme had a thick shell and large crystals of sea salt...much better quality than the Steamfresh frozen edamamme I've been picking up at the Teeter lately. Don't judge. This was my first tuna tataki experience - and it was simply a serving of fresh seared tuna. I appreciated the freshness but noticed it was cooked through more than I expected, and would have benefited from a tasty sauce.

For our main sushi binge course, we decided to order the Spicy Tuna Roll, the Shrimp Tempura Roll, and the Cyros Avante Garde Roll. I also ordered two pieces of Toro nigiri, but they were out. Wah!

I have to let you know that between the time we ordered this dank spread and the time it arrived, 45 minutes elapsed. It's a good thing I was pleasantly tipsy and having such a fabulous time with my sister, otherwise I probably would have caused a scene. Our server stopped by (at which time I ordered a frosty Sapporo) but never mentioned that our food was coming soon, or apologized for the wait. That said, I'm more salty about it now in retrospect than I actually was during the evening.

Finally, our sushi binge arrived! Behold:



Back to Front: Shrimp Tempura, Avant Garde, and Spicy Tuna

Spicy Tuna Roll: This was a really great version - a tad more "deconstructed" than other versions I've had. The spicy sauce was on top of the roll in a cute little dab, rather than mixed in the roll with the tuna as I've seen in other STR's. This allowed the flavor of the tuna to shine through.

Shrimp Tempura Roll: In stark contrast to my usual eating habits (see Fried Baby), I usually steer clear of fried things in my sushi. It seems counterproductive. But my sis ordered this one, and I have to say it was delish! Cold and somehow refreshing, it contained a sizable shrimp which was not overly fried, crab, and cucumber. I may be a tempura convert after this.

Cyros Avant Garde Roll: This was far and away my fave. The Avant Garde roll is Cyros' flagship roll (per the website) and I get it. Tuna, crab and avocado, rolled up with not one, but two spicy sauces, topped with fried shallots and garlic. Yes, I am a "fried-stuff-on-sushi" convert now. Then, this whole nugget of joy is "flash baked" to bring out the flavors in the sauce. Admittedly I don't know what "flash baked" means but it did cause the roll to come out warm, which freaked my sister out a bit. I however, didn't mind it one bit because it was indeed pleasantly spicy and intensely flavored. This is in the top two best sushi rolls I've had in Charlotte.

So there you have it folks: if you are the patient type, this sushi is worth waiting for.

-Lauren