Sushi-go-round
Today I came across the term sushi-go-round for the first time. I’d been discussing Japanese restaurants with a Japanese friend and mentioned that I didn’t know what to call those sushi places where you sit a the counter and the dishes come round on a conveyor belt. He found the term sushi-go-round in a Japanese-English dictionary. The Japanese name for such restaurants is 回転ずし (kaiten zushi) - lit. ‘rotating/revolving sushi’.
Have you heard of the term sushi-go-round before?
In some Chinese restaurants the tables have a bit in the middle that rotates so that you can a reach dishes without stretching across the table. Sort of similar to the sushi-go-round, but on a smaller scale. I think this is called a lazy susan in English. Does anybody know what it’s called in Chinese? Or do you have any other names for it in English?
13 Responses to “Sushi-go-round”
urubu on 16 Apr 2007 at 9:27 pm #
The English wikipedia discusses ‘kaiten sushi’-type restaurants under the entry ‘conveyor belt sushi’. Here in Germany, such restaurants typically call themselves ‘Running Sushi’.
Michael
Mike on 17 Apr 2007 at 2:15 am #
I’ve never heard of a sushi-go-round, but then I’ve never been in that style of restaurant before.
Lazy Susans, on the other hand, I’m quite familiar with, more though with the type built in cabinets.
Evans Knight on 17 Apr 2007 at 6:58 am #
there’s a restaurant like that her in sherman oaks. the first time i went it was kind of confusing.
Ephrat on 18 Apr 2007 at 1:09 pm #
So THIS is how you call it??
I had such a hard time in Japan trying to explain this term to people in the street (during my fervent search for a decent ‘running sushi’)….
This is a very useful word!
Polly on 18 Apr 2007 at 7:17 pm #
In my town, I heard of a restaurant where the suhi is passed around the bar on boats floating on a little river. “A-float Sushi” Is this common in Japan or is it just an American gimmick?
Josh on 18 Apr 2007 at 7:34 pm #
We have those here… kind of. The ones where I live float around the bar in little boats.
Jerry on 19 Apr 2007 at 7:48 pm #
the lazy susan would be called a zhuan4 pan2 in mandarin, which means “turning plate.” i’m not sure what it would be in other chinese dialects, though.
Polly on 20 Apr 2007 at 3:38 am #
@Josh: That does indeed sound like the same concept.
I love sushi, but I have to admit the word “float” in the context of sushi doesn’t sound appetizing. It just reminds of … well,…dead fish.
Gerry on 10 Jun 2007 at 12:04 pm #
Jerry说的是对的，中国餐馆里餐桌上放菜并能转动的圆盘叫“转盘”。
epingchris on 02 Sep 2007 at 5:02 am #
This kind of shop is called “回轉壽司” (huei2 zhuan3 shou4 si1), at least in Taiwan, which is pretty equivalent to the Japanese term.
yuko on 22 Oct 2007 at 12:39 pm #
I noticed that in Australia, they called “回転寿司(kai-ten-sushi)” “sushi-train”, as it keeps going.
It’s funny many of 回転寿司 are run by Korean and Chinese people ,not Japanese in Australia.
It’s also popular in Japan because it’s cheap compared with sushi restaurant and we can choose the amount we want to have. It also serves sweets and salad with floating dishes.
Abengo on 31 Oct 2007 at 12:25 am #
Sushi go-round as a seen in Taiwan is also called “train sushi” or 火车寿司。
Yurtdisi Egitim on 12 Mar 2008 at 6:10 am #
it seems like e very good web site but my Chinese is not good. It would be great if it might be availible in English too. Thanks.