Naked Tchopstix - Revisit

Recently we went back to Naked Tchopstix with a bunch of friends.  We were upstairs in a party room (in Broad Ripple) that I didn’t even know they had. It was a strangely seemingly slightly unfinished-looking room (someone described it as “early frat house”), but we didn’t care because we were all chatting and celebrating a friend’s birthday.

We were all kind of ordering appetizers to share and I had some crab Rangoon ($5.99) as well as the tuna tataki ($10.99). I have to say, it was possibly my least favorite crab Rangoon I have had. They were big triangles that were stuffed with the slightly crabby cream cheese mixture and deep-fried. There was just a little too much of the filling for me, making it taste more like cream cheese than anything, and the crust of the fried pocket wasn’t very crisp because of it.  I definitely liked the tuna better—it was just lightly seared on the outside and laid atop shredded lettuce and some shredded radish. It was drizzled with a ponzu dressing. The tuna was good quality and wasn’t overwhelmed by the sauce. The lettuce was apparently meant as more of a garnish as far as I could tell though, because it was completely unseasoned.

We had several rolls as well. We ordered the corona roll ($10.99), which was one that had been our favorite in a past visit (always good to get one that you know you’ll like). It’s filled with avocado, spicy tuna and tempura bits and topped with thin white tuna, lime and wasabi mayo. Their spicy tuna isn’t the best I’ve had, but this roll is a nice combo of things that I like (the fish as well as the crunch and acid) and I would certainly get it again.  We also had a straightforward salmon avocado roll (with some tempura flakes added). It was also tasty. The salmon was fresh and I liked the little added crunch. Both of these rolls fulfilled my sushi craving for sure and I was happy with both.

We also ordered the playboy roll ($14.99) because so many people had recommended it.  It had tempura shrimp, asparagus, spicy tuna and tempura chips inside and shrimp and sweet and spicy sauce outside, which in theory are all things I like. The big sell on this roll is that it comes in foil and set on fire. Here’s the thing, for me this should be called the “lighter fluid roll” because that is all I could taste. Whatever flavor nuances there might have been in the actual sushi roll were lost. Hubby and I each had like one or two pieces and left it. I have realized, I don’t like my sushi deep-fried and I don’t like it on fire.  Both treatments just kill any other flavor, at least for me. 

I think you can get a pretty good meal of straightforward sushi here if you want to—but it seems like a lot of people like the whole lit on fire thing because these things were going off all over the restaurant. I don’t know, I wasn’t a fan.  In my opinion, there are also quite a few places where you can get better straightforward sushi than this. I think if I were to go back, I might try some of the other types of food offered and see what it’s all about. The place does a very good business though regardless of what I think—the place was jammed. Our servers were very friendly, even if the orders got kind of confusing with so many people ordering so many different things. They did a pretty good job of staying on top of it, as well as getting us drinks.

Can’t really figure this place out…it’s always busy, but I’ve never had anything really exceptional…unless I am just missing something

Naked Tchopstix

6253 N. College Ave.

Indy 46220

317/252-5555

www.tchopstix.com