Budget Bites: A Good Lunch Deal (for Raw Fish) Is at O Sushi

Our Budget Bites feature normally has a limit of around $10, but I applied for and received an exemption to write about slightly more expensive sushi. My grandmother is fond of saying “never buy the cheapest weenies.” If you don't want to pay $16 for a complete lunch, sushi isn’t the right choice to begin with.

I normally send people to sushi joints at the more expensive end of the Dallas spectrum because, again, saving money isn’t the first thing that crosses my mind when I want to eat raw fish caught thousands of miles away.

But O Sushi downtown is just too good for you to miss. This hidden gem at St. Paul Station will serve you a pile of beautiful sashimi, salad, soup, edamame and green tea ice cream for $15.95.

Their nigiri — also lovely — is even cheaper. Daily specials highlight whatever deals they’re getting from their distributors. There is no plate-o-shrimp listed on the menu, but I’m sure the chef could improvise something.

Service is fast and friendly. The expanded dinner menu is available during the day. The store is currently BYOB, but I am told they have applied for a liquor license. So if you want to pull off a cheap-but-elegant date, hurry in there with your sweetie and a bottle of Otokoyama daiginjo for a sushi feast that’d set you back more than double in the city’s fancier sushi joints.

I’m sure the owners of O are counting, at least partly, on their restaurant’s proximity to light rail to drive traffic. I have no idea how well that works as a strategy in Dallas, but my guess is not well enough.

Let’s change that.

We all need to drive less. We get into too many tense situations as it is, five or six a day. Most of us could stand to have more seafood in our diets. Let’s all ride DART to eat delicious sushi and not go broke.

O Sushi, 400 N. St. Paul St., Suite 105.