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 thoughts on “Sushi-go-round

  1. 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

  2. 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.

  3. there’s a restaurant like that her in sherman oaks. the first time i went it was kind of confusing.

  4. 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!

  5. 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?

  6. 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.

  7. @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.

  8. 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”。

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

Comments are closed.