One of the great aspects of a sushi bar is sitting and talking to the sushi chef as he or she is preparing a roll or nigiri. But what if the process was streamlined to serve “fast food” sushi?

That’s partially the idea behind u-sushi, a fast and casual restaurant offering up rolls created by customers, expected to open in San Francisco in late January.

The restaurant is the brainchild of Jeremy Umland, CEO and founder of Ozumo Concepts International, the parent company of the Ozumo franchises in San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Monica.

u-sushi, which opened its first location in Beverly Hills in late December, offers a selection of over 40 different ingredients for patrons to pick and choose from and customize their roll. And with the aid of state-of-the-art automated sushi machinery, the rolls are prepped, then rolled by sushi chefs in less than a minute. The automation includes a rice mixer, rice sheeter and rice cutter.

The sheeter machine shapes the sushi rice into a square sheet, as the customer selects the different options including seaweed or soy wrapper, brown or white rice, and a combination of fish and vegetables. The sushi is then rolled by hand, inserted into the cutter machine and cut into eight pieces, then dressed with sauce or toppings.  The rice is prepared by a machine as well.

The rolls are priced by the selection of ingredients (veggie-only: $6, one fish: $7.50, two fish: $9.50). The restaurant will also offer pre-designed rolls, salads, soup and hot sides.

An exact date has not been set yet but the restaurant is aiming for a late January opening. u-sushi will be located at 525 Market Street in San Francisco.

Photo Credit: u-sushi

• Tag: Casual, Fast, Machines, ozumo, Preparation, Restaurants, rolls, sushi, u-sushi