Every once in a while, I go to a restaurant where the food and value are very good and it’s just a real pleasure to write about it. Some places lately have been just OK or worse, so my enthusiasm for writing this piece may seem to border on “irrational exuberance”.
The happy hour at Stix Sushi and Seafood (Stix) is very good. As of this writing, the restaurant has been open for a bit less than two months.
Their happy hour serves snippets of their regular Menu in addition to discounted selections from the bar. Although the kitchen part of the happy hour was discounted up to 55%, what struck me here was their sushi roll (Maki) offerings.
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| Happy hour menu, Stix Sushi and Seafood |
Their classic rolls were about 25% off but their specialty rolls were discounted almost by half. That really got my attention.
Happy Hour is served at the bar and adjacent high tops from 4-5:30 PM Monday, Wednesday and Thursday as Stix is closed Tuesdays.
The bar area is rather commodious and (as of now) has plenty of room for seating.
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| Bar area, Stix |
It was Juneteenth and luckily the employer of my dining companion (DC) had observed the holiday, allowing DC to join me that day. Before ordering we were brought an Amuse Bouche, or a small, complementary appetizer. This was a taste of the appetizer item, Spoonfuls of Stix, which was avocado and spicy crab wrapped in seared salmon.
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| Spoonful of Stix |
The appetizer was ok, and a nice gesture from the kitchen. The presentation was the highlight here. I was really looking forward to our other orders.
The next three orders were from the “kitchen” portion of the Stix happy hour menu.
We sampled one of my favorites, Asian jalapeno poppers. These were very good.
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| Jalapeno poppers |
Jalapeno peppers are stuffed with an interpretation of Spicy Tuna and cream cheese, then coated with Tempura Batter and fried. The jalapenos are halved and topped with flying fish roe, Spicy Mayo and Eel Sauce, the latter bringing a tsunami of umami. I was told by one of the owners that the happy hour portions were identical to those from the regular menu. Yes sir!
We then tried one of DC’s favorites, bang bang shrimp. This is a very popular dish over the years originating from Bonefish Grill owned by the restaurant group, Bloomin’ Brands.
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| Bang bang shrimp |
This classic recipe is cornstarch-coated shrimp that is fried and coated with mayo spiked with Thai sweet chili/sriracha sauce. It was good. I think I ate most of this.
We finished with their tempura offering of shrimp and vegetables.
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| Shrimp and vegetable tempura |
We were served battered and fried shrimp, onion rings, broccoli, sweet potato and other vegetables. Tempura is not my favorite, but DC loved dipping her portions into Tentsuyu. This is a classic tempura dipping sauce made from Dashi (kelp with smoked and fermented tuna flakes), soy sauce and sweetened rice wine. This, in my opinion, is the saving grace of tempura. I thought it was ok but DC loved it.
The best part of our happy hour meal was the discounted sushi rolls. A spider roll, a specialty roll, was the first order.
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| Spider roll |
This roll features fried soft-shell crab, cucumber and avocado. I love soft-shell crab, one of my favorite kinds of seafood. The maki here was rolled a bit loose as you can see from the photo, falling apart after dipping in wasabi/soy sauce. It didn’t matter, I gobbled it down like a seal eats herring. Delicious and highly recommended.
We opted for three other rolls. From top to bottom, there were two specialty rolls, the Princeton (top) and Batman (middle) rolls, and a classic roll, a California roll.
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| Princeton, Batman and California rolls |
The Batman roll was filled with crab meat and avocado, then topped with salmon, tuna and Tobiko. Tobiko is flying fish roe which was colored here with various natural ingredients to enhance its appearance and flavor. Besides its natural orange/red color, squid ink was used to color the roe black and wasabi to make it green and spicy. This will really please sashimi fans due to the tuna and salmon in this roll. It was as pleasant to look at as it was to eat.
The California roll was also very good, filled, of course, with Crab Stick, cucumber and avocado.
As a whole, the food at Stix is quite good. The real stars of the happy hour menu here were the discounted sushi rolls. They were delicious, full-sized and very gently priced. When I go to a happy hour, it’s all about the food for me and not so much beverages. I did notice very generous pours given to other diners ordering happy hour wine offerings.
Stix has one of the best happy hours in town at the moment, one people will really enjoy. If you go, I would try to get there early. It will undoubtedly become one of the most popular.
It’s a wrap (pun very much intended) for another post on Forks.
Stix Sushi and Seafood
4221 Tamiami Trail E.
Naples, FL 34112
(239) 331-3058
Stix Sushi and Seafood Facebook Page
Open 4-5:30 PM for happy hour Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; All major credit cards accepted.
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This article originally appeared here and was republished with permission.
