Chop Chop Wok has introduced sushi on a budget. We find out if it's any good

Are you sick of having to dress up for Sakura every time you're craving good sushi?

High five, us too. While Chairman Mao sushi gets a B+ for effort and delivery, there aren't too many dine-in joints in Karachi that serve up, well, raw fish if you're looking for a fuss-free quick bite.

Chop Chop Wok's vibe has always been just that, fast and casual. But while they're a Pan Asian eatery, they're known for their famous rice bowls, not sushi. When we heard they were adding the Japanese dish to the menu, we were intrigued.

Since it's supposed to be relatively easier on the pocket than other eateries, we were really hoping for their sushi to hit the right notes. Did it?

Here's some of what we tried and what we thought:

Lava Roll

We kicked off with this and it was innovative enough to get us excited for what was to follow.

The plating on black looked Instagram worthy and the taste did not disappoint. With prawn, avocado, crab stick and spicy mayo, the lava maki had texture and a little bit of a kick thanks to the spicy kimchi slaw and hot sauce (though we're purists, we preferred it without too much of that). We'll be going back for this one.

Price: Rs950

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Crispy California Roll

Walk into any sushi restaurant and you are sure to find the California roll on the menu, the most popular of makizushi rolls. And while it's considered basic, it's actually pretty hard to get it right; often, we find that the ratio of avocado and cucumber to the crabstick is off so you can only taste the veggies and mayo.

Thankfully, CCW got it and served up a mean crispy California roll! And for Rs890, it is cheaper than its competition and very, very good value for money.

Price: Rs890

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Osaka Roll

The salmon was succulent, the prawn and avocados were fresh. Just one thing we'd omit from the plate and that's the plum sauce. Or maybe there was too much of it but we just felt like the sauce had a slightly desi touch to it.

That said, CCW is always very receptive to feedback and we told them that we weren't fans of the sauce. Let's see if they tweak it or next time, we'll just ask our server to not add it. It's not a deal breaker.

Price: Rs1,190

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Salmon selection

The beauty of this platter is in its simplicity.

If you're a fan of the red fish like us, we highly recommend this sinful selection which includes salmon sashimi, nigiri and maki. The rice in the nigiri and maki was seasoned just right, with a bit of tang and the sashimi just melted in our mouth.

Price: Rs1,850

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Explosion Roll

Crispy infused rice with prawn tempura, avocado, cucumber, a generous topping of tobiko and wasabi all came together in the aptly named explosion roll.

A lot of people don't like the pop of tobiko but we for one really enjoyed it. As a whole, this one's a unique offering that you don't really get anywhere else in the city.

Price: Rs890

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Tokyo Skyroll

This was one of our favourites, so much so that we forgot to take a picture before digging in!

The tuna was precisely cut and had its quintessential delicate flavour. You could taste every single component well, from the crabstick to the mayo. The lotus crisp on top added just enough crunch and we could honestly eat those like a bag of chips.

Price: Rs890

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★