Conveyor Belt Sushi Is Headed for the Seaport

Yo! Sushi restaurant at Selfridge’s in Manchester. / Photo via Flickr user Peter Morgan / Creative Commons

The sushi train is coming to Boston. Yo! Sushi is opening in the rapidly developing Seaport Square neighborhood in October, Eater Boston reports. It’s headed for the same building as the latest Shake Shack, and Better Bagels’ forthcoming brick-and-mortar.

Yo! Sushi has more than 90 locations worldwide that specialize in kaiten, or conveyor belt sushi. When its Boston expansion was first announced back in the fall, Eater noted the 2,500-square foot restaurant would be Yo! Sushi’s U.S. flagship, and its first outside a mall.

Popular in Japan and countries Down Under (where it’s known as “sushi train”), kaiten restaurants specialize in inexpensive sushi and other small plates steadily streaming along a constantly moving conveyor belt. Guests make their own selections, and the bill is calculated based on the number of plates chosen. The closest kaiten appears to be Wasabi, inside the Natick Mall, but Chinatown had a short-lived operation in Enso, and Fugakyu offered it for a few years in Brookline.

Yo! Sushi has a variety of maki rolls, like the Blossom, a nori roll with shrimp katsu and avocado topped with purple shiso and spicy tuna, as well as sashimi and nigiri. Japanese pub snacks like tempura, harumaki (spring rolls), pickled vegetables, and desserts like chocolate mochi also come down the line. Plates range from $3-$7, and the restaurant will also offer beer, wine, and sake.

The restaurant group, which started in London in 1997, promises “a more thrilling, more colorful, more ‘Tokyo’ world.”

Yo! Sushi, coming to 85 Seaport Blvd., Boston, October 2016, yosushiusa.com.