REVIEW: Tchoupstix

69305 Hwy 21
Covington, LA

View the menu

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Overall:
Service:
Atmosphere:
Food:
Price:

Pros: Good service and appealing food presentation.
Cons: Sushi rolls were average at best.
Bottom Line: All that glitters isn’t gold.

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As part of our never-ending quest to find outstanding sushi in the Greater New Orleans area, we were excited to try a new sushi restaurant in Covington called Tchoupstix (pronounced chopsticks for all you non-Louisianans out there). Once inside, we were impressed by the décor and atmosphere – fun, but not too casual. The hostess asked us if we preferred a table, booth, or the sushi bar. This was very welcomed, as we generally prefer the intimacy of booths. We were waited on right after we were seated (though, in fairness, the restaurant wasn’t too full). Tchoupstix was off to a good start.

For an appetizer, we ordered gyoza, the pan-fried dumplings, served with a spicy sauce. While the sauce didn’t have much flavor except for the spice, the dumplings were one of the best dumplings we’ve had on the Northshore. We then decided to try three rolls from the very-tempting list of “Tchoupstix VIP Rolls” (mostly $10-12 each), along with some salmon sushi. We picked the King Neptune (lobster wrapped in rice paper with snow crab, fresh crisp lettuce, and rice), the Mount Fuji (Cali roll topped with baked scallop), and the Mai Tai (shrimp tempura and avocado topped with crunchy snow crab and served with a peanut sauce). Makes you hungry just reading that, huh? When the food arrived, we really started salivating. We just knew we had finally found the sushi restaurant we had been looking for. The presentation was gorgeous, though the camera on our phone doesn’t do it much justice.

We started with the Mount Fuji. (When eating sushi rolls, we always start by tasting a piece of each roll at the same time so we can discuss our opinions together.) As scallop lovers, we were anxiously waiting to try this roll – it is the first sushi roll we’ve seen with scallops around here. Unfortunately, we were extremely disappointed. The scallop was chopped up with some crab stick and covered in a mayonnaise-y “creamy” sauce. This topping completely overpowered the roll, and the scallop went unnoticed. Next was the King Neptune. Though a nice-sized piece of lobster was included in the roll, it was overcooked and tough. With nothing in this roll but bland seafood and rice, it lacked flavor. It seemed like it was missing a piece of fruit or vegetable to tie the elements together. Our final roll was the Mai Tai. When we ordered, we were very excited about the peanut sauce on this roll, as we had been debating whether to eat Pad Thai or sushi for dinner. However, we were disappointed again. The drizzle of sauce over the roll was so tiny that we actually forgot that the roll was supposed to come with a sauce at all. Accordingly, the "peanut" flavor made no impact at all. While the crunchy snow crab was nice in texture and flavor, again, this roll was absent of anything distinctive. Even the avocado was small in the roll, missing an opportunity to give this roll some clear flavor. Finally, we tried the salmon sushi. The salmon was fresh and had a nice consistency. With the least amount of ingredients (and by far the cheapest choice on the plate), the raw salmon and rice was the most impressive aspect of the meal. Overall, the sushi was not bad but certainly nothing memorable. What high hopes the beautiful presentation and interesting ingredients gave us were quickly dashed by the mediocre and unimpressive sushi.

While it certainly wasn’t worse than much of the sushi we’ve tasted around the New Orleans area, that isn’t saying too much. Tchoupstix was extremely disappointing when it came to its sushi rolls. Though the price of the rolls was on par with most sushi places, it wasn’t worth the money in our opinion. It’s doubtful we’ll be traveling there again, but if we do, we’ll be sure to try something off of their entrée menu instead. And so our quest to find amazing (or even just really good) local sushi continues…