Kingdom Sushi

FOOD

Guava jelly has a seat at this sushi dinner, and it isn’t waiting for dessert. Kingdom Sushi’s Japanese-Brazilian character comes through in the combinations: seafood with fruit preserves, greens tucked into chef rolls, and a generous affection for cream cheese. Regular AYCE includes the sashimi, hand rolls, fried snacks and desserts that build that identity; Premium takes a few of those ideas further.

Start with the fish in its simpler forms. Salmon and tuna sashimi sit alongside white fish, shrimp and octopus, while tuna tataki brings a seared preparation into the selection. Salmon carpaccio takes another approach: thin slices with a choice of Basil Ponzu or Dijon sauce. Nigiri keeps salmon, tuna and shrimp on rice, and the salmon has a suggested finish of truffle oil, sea salt and wasabi. This is the quieter end of a menu with plenty to say.

Then the Bento Roll brings guava jelly together with salmon, avocado, spicy mayo and crispy onions. That sweet-savory idea recurs around the menu, but the chef rolls have a greener streak. Chef Jacquin’s uses grilled salmon skin with arugula and microgreens; Chef Maninho’s combines salmon and arugula with truffle oil. Both include cream cheese and eel sauce.

The fried side is particularly expressive. Shrimp Coxinha puts seafood and cream cheese into a panko-coated Brazilian-style snack. Gunga by Kingdom adds strips of salmon around shrimp and cream cheese before breading and deep-frying. For a roll-shaped version of that enthusiasm, Hot Sushi is a panko-breaded, fried hosomaki topped with cream cheese. The fryer has clearly been invited to participate, and it brought ideas.

Temaki carries the combinations into nori hand rolls. Grilled Salmon Temaki includes scallions, while Hot Temaki breads and fries its salmon-filled roll and finishes it with eel sauce. Doritos Temaki takes salmon and cream cheese into snack-cupboard territory. Yes, Doritos. Elsewhere, the Crispy Shrimp Roll keeps to tempura shrimp and sesame; Shrimp Kanikama adds a spicy kanikama topping. Those two shrimp rolls come in four-piece orders on Regular AYCE.

Between seafood plates, sautéed shimeji mushrooms with scallions and cucumber sunomono with lychee give the meal a vegetable interlude. For something hot from the kitchen, yakisoba brings stir-fried noodles, vegetables and a choice of beef, chicken or shrimp.

Premium expands that conversation with Gunga Ebi Crispy, wrapping tempura shrimp in torched salmon with pepper jelly and collard greens. Teppan Salmon Supreme arrives on a hot plate, its fillet stuffed with shrimp, cream cheese and scallions. Dragon Roll adds eel over shrimp tempura and avocado. These are reasons to consider the upgrade on their own terms; Regular already supplies the core sushi-and-snacks feast.

Dessert keeps the Brazilian thread intact. Regular’s Romeo & Juliet Roll wraps guava paste and cheese in harumaki dough, while the dulce de leche version fills the same style of wrapper with caramelized-milk sweetness. Fried banana comes with Nutella or dulce de leche. Premium adds cinnamon-sugar churros filled and drizzled with dulce de leche. Apparently one helping of it inside the churro was only the beginning.