Restaurant review: Southpaw Sushi worth a short trip for inventive, flavorful dishes

Sushi chef Lou Valente has been a beloved and sometimes controversial figure on the Sacramento sushi scene for close to two decades — about as long as the location of his latest restaurant, Southpaw Sushi, has been touted as ripe for redevelopment.

Opened in September, Southpaw features Valente’s trademark mix of creative rolls and more classical sushi, plus appetizers, all-day happy hour on Sundays and Tuesdays, and a lineup of kitchen specials that play a bit faster and looser with tradition than the sushi offerings. The restaurant seems to have gained a strong following and on our visits was hopping on weeknights (it’s open only for dinner) — perhaps in part thanks to the generous happy hour.

Valente left his last venture, the former Lou’s Sushi (now called Midtown Sushi), in an ownership dispute, as The Bee reported in September. In opening Southpaw — the name is a tribute to his left-handedness — with new partners, he looked to north Sacramento. The seemingly perennially up-and-coming neighborhood has gained buzz from such ventures as Woodlake Tavern, King Cong Brewing, and Shift Coffee, which is directly across a breezeway from Southpaw.

I remember similar buzz in the neighborhood around Del Paso Boulevard, now known as Old North Sacramento, when I first moved to Sacramento more than 15 years ago. At the time, the location now occupied by Southpaw Sushi was Matt and Yvette Woolston’s prix-fixe venture Supper Club (memorable to me as I reviewed it when nine months pregnant). Since then, it’s also been occupied by Mama Kim Cooks, which closed in early 2018.

Predicting whether Valente will make a long-term success of the location — or the neighborhood will finally, fully up and come (whatever that means) — is above my pay grade, but in the short term, things are looking good. The restaurant, with a cheerful and sleek vibe, is full of diners with the same qualities, most of whom look happy over their rolls and apps.

They have reason to be. There’s a strong selection of appetizers, such as pleasingly light tempura of shishito peppers and a brilliantly simple, geometrically precise square of char-blistered grilled asparagus. Deep-fried Brussels sprouts were a bit oily, but nicely caramelized and salty, giving them the compulsive snackability of French fries. These small veggie apps were perhaps a bit pricey, but pleasing. Extremely tender, porky ribs had a good simple, sticky soy-sauce glaze, and a meatball dish came with lashings of mushroom-thick gravy, enough to warrant a side of rice to soak it up.

There are plenty more appetizers, too, enough to make an entire meal without ever getting to the sushi list: red curry chicken wings, BBQ albacore, golden blocks of fried tofu, “interestingly sliced” cucumbers.

In addition to the strong appetizer list there’s also a separate menu of kitchen specials as well as a happy hour menu that’s passed out, but in my experience not always to everyone in the party. It would have been easy to miss items, though that’s no great tragedy, as I found the offerings on the regular menu the strongest.

From the specials menu, an appetizer of Kurobuta corn dogs also suffered from slight greasiness, but the dogs inside were richly savory and the corn batter toasty in flavor. An inventive dish of “Roman ramen” was basically an ultra-creamy, ultra-buttery and garlicky chicken alfredo dish, but with ramen instead of fettucine and fine shreds of nori on top. It was a fun idea, but it didn’t quite come together, thanks to the extreme heaviness of the sauce.

Sushi rolls vary from the simple (a straightforward, well-constructed California roll) to the medium wild. Yes, there are some torched and tempura-fried rolls, but these are constructed with restraint. I’m not a fan of the heavily sauced and sometimes gloppy sushi style that has dominated Sacramento; at Southpaw, even the wilder rolls have a modicum of balance, so you can still taste the fish and other elements.

The Electric Eel, for instance, combined tempura shrimp, spicy tofu, and unagi with a few different sauces, leaving a sweet-spicy impression. The Santa Cruz, with crab, avocado and eel, comes rolled in “stroozy” (an unexplained menu term that seemed to mean a blizzard of light, crispy fried panko) and topped with other sauces. The feathery crunch of the panko balanced the fish nicely, but I preferred a few of the more restrained rolls.

One big winner was the Sunshine: tuna and cucumber, with whitefish on top, a sour-spicy smear of yuzu kosho paste, and a bracing, vegetal topping of celery sprouts. I also liked the Roy G. Biv, a modestly sized and cutely named twist on the typical rainbow roll.

The Christa, one of several vegetarian rolls, was another winner, bright and tart with lemon, tempura tofu and asparagus, plus a light topping of crunchy, not-too-pungent onions tossed in spicy mayo. There are also a few vegan rolls, including a spider roll made with panko-crusted oyster mushrooms and the “Woodlake” with yam and avocado, plus eggplant and Brussels sprouts, meaning fish lovers and vegetarians can happily coexist here, especially if vegetarians look to the many suitable choices on the appetizer menu.

Sashimi and nigiri offerings change frequently, and it’s well worth asking servers about them, or sitting at the sushi bar to get steered to what’s freshest and most interesting. I was glad I’d asked and got offered the chutoro (fatty bluefin) and silky slices of hamachi sashimi. On another visit, kanpachi and black snapper nigiri were other excellent choices. The fish quality was high; if I had a quibble about the nigiri, it would be that it had just the slightest hint of too heavy a hand with wasabi, which could overpower the fish.

That, as I said, is a quibble. Overall, Southpaw is offering a solid, enjoyable lineup of sushi dishes, and is drawing fans accordingly. Only time will tell how its success will fit into the ongoing shift in its neighborhood, but for sushi fans who haven’t made it there yet, it’s worth the short trip north over the river.

Email Kate Washington: beediningcritic@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter: @washingtonkate. For an archive of all her reviews: kwsacdiningreviews.com

Southpaw Sushi

1616 Del Paso Blvd. 916-550-2600. southpawsushi.com

Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday, 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday

Cuisine type: Japanese, with a focus on sushi

Price range: Appetizers $7 to 13, sushi rolls $8 to 15, sashimi and nigiri prices vary.

Rating: ☆☆☆

Food: The combination of creative but not over-the-top sushi rolls and a good selection of sushi and nigiri should please both sushi purists and freewheelers who’ve followed chef Lou Valente to his new Old North Sacramento spot. Several appetizers (ribs, ultra-simple grilled asparagus) are winners as well.

Service: Smooth and enthusiastic; servers know the menu well and have good recommendations for nigiri and sashimi specials, and meals mostly run efficiently.

Ambiance: Bright and stylish, with an open, attractive sushi bar and a friendly air.

Accessibility considerations: Parking in the neighborhood is fairly plentiful, with diagonal street parking. The restaurant, entered through a breezeway, has a couple of tight corners to navigate and the restroom (accessible via a code and shared with other building tenants) is across the breezeway.

Noise levels: Moderate.

Drinks: Beer, limited wine list and sake.

Vegetarian options: A solid list of interesting vegetarian and vegan sushi, plus a number of veggie-based appetizers, makes this a good pick for plant-based diners.

Allergy and dietary considerations: Menu does a good job of disclosing ingredients and there are many apparently no-gluten options, though those with a severe reaction should ask, as always. Those who avoid soy may be challenged here.