Mizu brings sushi to Main Street in Newark

Only a decade ago, most of us here at Spark weren't eating sushi. We were either in, just out of, or about to attend college, and if you're about the same age, odds are that sushi probably wasn't on your culinary radar either.

Maybe it was because our young palates weren't ready to move from pizza and burgers to raw fish and seaweed. Maybe it was because the cuisine was a bit too expensive for our college meal plan to handle.

Or maybe it was because Main Street in Newark, where a few of us wandered about for the better part of four or five years, didn't have a reputable sushi restaurant where we could go and try something new.

Well 10 years later, my friends, that has finally changed. Enter Mizu Sushi Bar, the Philadelphia-based fish-and-rice bar that's made its way to 132 E. Main Street, taking over for the fried chicken joints that have dominated that address for years.

Somehow, the new owners managed to rid the restaurant of that overpowering fried chicken smell, and replaced it with the fresher smell of soy and rice. The walls are painted an olive green and six nice tables of four have replaced the old, clunky booths.

We left the Spark offices one day at the start of the fall semester with a mission to grab takeout for lunch back at the office, and luckily we caught them right before the lunch rush.

First out of the bag upon our return were the appetizers: a large order of vegetable gyoza (eight pieces for $8.95) and a small order of the shrimp shumai (five pieces for $3.75), along with a pedestrian but tasty bowl of miso soup ($1.75) and seaweed salad ($3.95).

The gyoza dumplings were folded over and filled with carrots and cabbage, while the shumai dumplings were smaller, more circular in shape, and filled with chopped shrimp. Both had decent flavor, but were a little bit limp after the trip back to the office.

But the sauce served with each saved the dumpling dishes. A sweet and spicy mix of soy, vinegar and red pepper flakes, it upped the ante on flavor. We dipped the simple cucumber maki roll that came with our sushi combo ($8.95) into that sauce to mix things up.

As for the specialty rolls, we decided on the house maki, the Mizu Roll ($8.95), a vibrant swirl of sweet, white rice, ruby tuna, pale yellowtail, pink salmon and cucumber, with flying fish roe spread across the top.

The second roll was something we'd never encountered before. Called the Downtown Roll ($9.95), this hearty maki featured no rice, but rather tempura tuna, salmon, yellowtail, snapper and kani wrapped in seaweed, which the chef then dipped into a light batter, sprinkled with panko breadcrumbs, and deep fried. The result was a sweet and crunchy roll that had more crisp than even the heartiest of soft shell crab rolls.

From their rice bowl menu, we thought the hwe dup bap ($10.95) sounded interesting. According to our Internet research, the dish typically comes with three or more raw fish, mixed veggies and a spicy pepper sauce.

Mizu's version came with tuna, salmon, snapper and kani, as well as daikon radish and masago (fish eggs), with apples, cucumbers and lettuce drizzled with sesame oil and lemon juice.

The pepper sauce was missing (and management assured us it would not happen again), so we'll definitely be stopping again soon for another shot, as well as another round of Mizu's big sushi rolls at not-so-big prices.

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