Spokane, WA

It was a weekday evening and my husband and I wanted to go get some dinner that wasn’t the same old fast food joint. A friend at work had told me about this sushi restaurant she had gotten a to-go order from a few days before. She raved about the food so we decided to try it out. The restaurant is on the South Hill (57th & Regal) and it is called Okane on the Hill.

Since it is summer time, it was really nice out and every time we go to the South Hill, we like to take our dog for a walk in Manito Park, so we decided to get our sushi to go and eat it at the park. I went into the restaurant to order our sushi while my husband stayed outside with our dog. Now when I say I ordered our sushi, I actually ordered the two items on the menu that didn’t contain any raw fish, since my husband and I are not fond of it. Some may accuse us of not getting the full sushi experience, but we were fine with that. For others out there who are also leery of ordering raw fish, the California Roll and the Tempura Shrimp Roll were both very good. I felt a little awkward going into a sushi restaurant and telling the waitress that I didn’t want anything raw, but if you’re in the same boat, you can now go in and know what to order.

It took them about 15 minutes to assemble (and cook) our sushi rolls. The inside of the restaurant is very quaint and a little small, but it’s a very intimate place. It’s a perfect place for a date. There are tables to sit at on one side and a bar area that is up against the place where they assemble the rolls.

We got our to-go package and headed over to Manito Park. There are quite a few areas to eat there, including picnic benches in the shade and covered seating. We broke out our sushi rolls at a picnic table and tried our best to eat them with the provided chop sticks. I must admit that my husband was better at it than I was and by the last few rolls, I was grabbing them with my fingers. I figured it just wasn’t worth it when my food starting falling on the table.

Originally we couldn’t decide which roll we wanted to get (California or Tempura Shrimp) so we got both so we could split them and each eat half. They were both very good, but my husband and I favored the Tempura Shrimp roll because it had a sweet sauce in it that was delicious!

I’m really glad my friend recommended Okane to us and that we actually stepped out of our regular routine and tried it. It cost us about $15 for 2 rolls cut into 8 pieces each. Even if you are not a sushi (or California roll) fan, they also have other menu items like teriyaki chicken bowls. In addition to this restaurant, the same owner runs 3 other similar restaurants downtown and they also offer catering. For more information on their restaurants you can go to www.spokanesushi.com. If you want to get out of the box and try something new (that’s not too scary) you should go to Okane on the Hill.