Sogo Asian Bistro

Sogo Asian Bistro is a modern sushi joint in Grove City on Stringtown Road. The menu is mostly a list of the usual suspects for vegetarians that is expected from a place focused on sushi.

Sogo has seating for nearly 100. There is a sushi bar that seats about 10 as well as seating at the booze bar.

The menu offers Chinese and Japanese fare which includes a vegetarian starter, three vegetarian entrees and a couple of vegetarian sushi rolls.

The edamame was a nice portion. The soybeans were unevenly salted, and the dish suffered greatly from this flaw.

The home style tofu is a traditional preparation with broccoli, carrots, white onions, baby corn, green peppers and water chestnuts in a brown sauce. This dish might have benefited from more spice, but was otherwise well constructed.

Sushi options for vegetarians include an avocado roll, a cucumber roll, a mixed veggie roll with avocado, burdock root, cucumber, pickled oshinko, kanpyo squash and sesame seeds in a soy wrapper, and yubuchobap, which are seasoned tofu skins stuffed with rice.

The sushi was prepared to a much higher standard than the hot dishes. The veggie rolls had a great crunch, and the flavor was bright with underlying earthy contrasts. The bright color of the rolls was appealing. The tofu pockets were also excellent.

Service at Sogo was even. Overall, it is a restaurant geared towards seafood eaters that makes vegetarian fare that is hardly worth going out of the way to eat.