Finding good sushi on land is hard enough, discovering a really good sushi on a cruise ship can be nearly impossible. Quite honestly, I question the freshness of sushi in most places, much less a large floating hotel that’s been at sea for a week!

With that in mind, if there’s a sushi restaurant on a cruise, I usually try it out within the first couple of days of a cruise. After all, it’s not like they’re catching the ingredients off the side of the ship every day 🙂

Unfortunately, with the latest cruise on Celebrity, I wasn’t able to book Sushi on 5 until day 6 of a 7-day cruise. Being the daring person I am, I accepted the reservation time and arrived to find a shockingly high-quality experience.

The sushi on Celebrity Cruises is actually really good!

For sushi lovers, the Sushi on 5 onboard most Celebrity Cruise Ships is a real treat, and a relative bargain compared to the other well-known specialty restaurants like Le Petit Chef or the Tuscan Grille.

Expect to spend about $12 for a typical sushi roll and $5 for a couple of pieces of Nigiri or Sashimi.

For Sushi connoisseurs, the basics are available and are incredibly fresh. The quality of the sashimi and nigiri rivals that of some of the better land-based sushi restaurants I’ve experienced. The rolls are relatively simple but well done. I believe the key to the quality of one of these ship-based sushi restaurants is keeping it simple. Making incredibly complex rolls is just asking for problems.

For people who aren’t fans of raw fish, there are a number of cooked dishes including Ramen, Udon, and some tempura items. We tried a couple of tempura-battered shrimp selections and all were fried to perfection and not too greasy. A real treat!

Cocktails at Sushi on 5

As for the cocktails and sake, unfortunately, the ship had run out of many of the sake types leaving on the very basic. It does the job, but also reminds me of one of my dear friends from Japan telling me that her grandmother wouldn’t even clean the counters with the basic sake they serve in America 🙂 – That aside, it was fine for consumption that evening.

You CAN use the dining package on Celebrity at Sushi on 5, even though the Celebrity Website doesn’t specifically mention it when purchasing the dining packages. There are limits, though. On our visit, we were informed that we could pick any 9 items (per person) from the menu. I’ve learned that this can change based on the ship (some ships say you can order 5 items, some say 8 some say 9). That inconsistency is mildly infuriating. There is really only value using the dining package if you get the 8 or 9 choices, and you’re picking from the higher-end menu items. Otherwise, just go a la carte and get a few items if your craving for sushi hits.