LAKELAND — Tidy and compact, Scream’n Tuna Sushi is off to a good start, filling a void in downtown Lakeland with fresh, no-frills sushi, sashimi and sake-based cocktails.
Situated on the ground floor of the newish NoBay Village residential complex on Bay Street, Scream’n Tuna caters to people who prefer their seafood raw, or lightly torched.
For the rest of us, the restaurant serves up a decent selection of tempura appetizers and sushi rolls stuffed with shrimp or fish that has been cooked, smoked or fried in tempura batter for a nice, satisfying crunch.
The kitchen is especially adept at the latter. A small plate of tempura shrimp, $6.95, featured four brawny crustaceans cooked just right, the light, lacy coating free of oil and ready for a dip in the accompanying sauce, dark and slightly sweet.
Right on the heels of Scream’n Tuna is the yet-to-open Tsunami Sushi, a much larger, more ambitious enterprise that will take up ground-floor space at downtown Lakeland’s BB&T building. With two older siblings in Winter Haven, Tsunami Sushi promises a full liquor bar along with an array of Japanese dishes, including various kinds of teriyaki, tempura and udon.
Scream’n Tuna is lighter on its feet, a tiny café adorned sparingly and featuring a marble bar where one can get an up-close look at some of the finny, house selections encased in glass.
The slim menu does have a few salads and the ubiquitous miso soup, along with appetizers like plush, seared salmon draped atop a thumb-sized mound of sushi rice and adorned with a sliver of jalapeno and cherry-red salmon roe.
Much of the menu is devoted to all manner of sushi rolls and sashimi, the rolls downsized to keep prices low. I thoroughly enjoyed a roll filled with tempura lobster and topped in raw tuna and a smidge of lobster salad and flying fish roe, $14.95. It’s one of the higher-priced items on the menu, which is chockful of less expensive fare.
For the modest price of $8.95 you can select any three of the tiny “house favorite” rolls, along with a steaming cup of miso soup and salad. It’s a good deal, and allows you to sample the many options, things you’ve seen before but all fresh-tasting and handsomely adorned.
A lunch-time companion was especially impressed with the Cherry Blossom roll, $11.50, featuring salmon, tuna, avocado and flying fish roe. In his words: “This was a thinner roll that led with the fish, which tasted fresh. My preference is for rolls with nothing fried and very little in the way of sauces. Beautifully presented. Mild flavor. I would order again.”
The restaurant is owned by Mike Crivello, who splits time between homes in Sarasota and Wisconsin. He told me earlier this year that he had gotten out of the restaurant business but was intrigued by Lakeland’s growing, dynamic restaurant scene.
During several recent visits, Crivello’s restaurant had a steady stream of customers that skewed to the 30-and-under crowd, no doubt mindful of their waistlines and under the assumption that sushi is healthy. Which is true, as long as you don’t go overboard on the rice, and go easy on the rolls loaded with cream cheese, mayo and things that are fried.
So far the dessert options are limited, but you can get a dish of chocolate mochi filled with chocolate ice cream, a light, sweet touch that’s in tune with the restaurant’s mostly healthful vibe.
Eric Pera can be reached at eric.pera@theledger.com or 863-802-7528.