Vick Aroon and
Nathan Tech

Owners of Octo Sushi
1621 12th Ave, Suite 102, 805-8998

So you’re the owners of Octo Sushi. I hear you previously ran a sushi restaurant in Houston. What brought you to Seattle?

NT: We decided to move to Seattle because we’d never been here. So far, so good.

VA: The summers are so pretty.

There’s so much sushi in Seattle you can hardly walk out of a sushi place without finding yourself in another sushi place. It’s kind of like an M. C. Escher drawing. But Octo Sushi uses certain ingredients I haven’t seen anywhere else. What inspired you to put things like jalapeños and mayonnaise in sushi?

NT: The jalapeños are a Texan thing. Fresh and spicy is a good combination.

VA: We have a spicy sauce made from mayonnaise, chili oil, and fresh jalapeños.

Speaking of things I haven’t seen anywhere else, what is a “soy bag”?

VA: It’s the wrapping we use for the Lucky Bags. Lucky Bags are snow crab and tobiko in a white, flexible soy-paper wrapping.

You offer mashed potatoes as a side dish. Do you prefer your mashed potatoes peeled, or do you leave the skins on?

VA: We peel them. We also add wasabi. You’ll notice the kick.

You serve a dish called “Deep Fried Madness,” as well as one called “Crazy Rolls.” The vegetarian dinner menu is labeled “Veggie Mania.” Should I be concerned about my mental health after dining at Octo Sushi?

VA: No—after you dine here, you should have sweet dreams about the delicious veggies we serve.

As a person who makes sushi professionally, what would you say makes prepackaged grocery-store sushi so awful?

VA: Oh, I don’t want to say grocery-store sushi is awful…

NT: Traditionally, you don’t put sushi rice in a cooler. It changes its texture and flavor.

Internet reviews mention you serve a dish that includes fried shrimp heads. Is it the whole shrimp or just the heads?

VA: Yes, the Sweet Shrimp. The bodies of the shrimp are raw, but the heads are fried. You can order the shrimp with or without heads.

Sarah Galvin—The Stranger’s Chow Bio columnist—will eat almost anything once, but dreams of retiring to a cottage made entirely of pizza. Her blog, The Pedestretarian, is devoted to reviews of food...