Enso CHARLOTTE 88

I was very excited to try out Enso, the new sushi place at the Epicenter. It definitely lived up to its hype. The decor was well thought out and sleek, and the whole place managed to give off a hip vibe. The bf and I decided to sit right away at the sushi bar instead of waiting 15 minutes for a table (a little odd because the restaurant was only half full). We went at 8:00 pm planning to catch a 9:30 movie, but the service was so slow that it was impossible. Plan on spending your time and some money if you come here, you won't be disappointed. The restaurant is designed to be the kind of place where you can order as you eat. The menu is pretty big and ranges from dim sum to specialty rolls to asian fusion entrees such as a duo of king crab. Everything on the menu sounded good, but the bf and I had our hearts set on trying out the sushi-and some appetizers of course. We started with the "New style sashimi" (pictured above left) which was a beautiful presentation of salmon, yellow tail, and tuna thinly sliced and stacked on each other to make the perfect bite size. We also tried the Wagyu beef carpaccio which was simple but fantastic. We tried four different specialty rolls, but two really stole the show. The king crab roll (pictured on the top to the right) consisted of mostly king crab on top with more crab and some avocado inside. It was probably my favorite roll, the flavor was really concise with a slight sweetness. The shrimp mania roll (pictured at the top on the left)was interesting and pretty good, but the other roll that really won us over was the fire roll. It had sliced scallop on top and had the perfect amount of spice. There was a nice size saki menu, unfortunately they were out of almost everything due to their grand opening this past weekend. All of the cocktails were very sweet and uninspired. Another cool thing worth mentioning is that Enso serves off their sushi menu late on weeknights (I believe until 12:30 or 1:00 am) which makes it the only late night sushi place I've found thus far. I will definitely be going back to Enso to try some of their unique entrees and more of their fantastic sushi! Overall an 88.