How Many Sushi Rolls per Person For Dinner
Even if you have zero knowledge of Japanese food and culture, it’s highly likely that you know about the existence of sushi.
Most sushi recipes choose raw fish as the key ingredient which is why people have reservations regarding eating it. Once they realize the umami goodness sushi provides, they can never get enough!
Sushi is made up of vinegared rice, also known as sushi, and combined with other ingredients such as seafood, vegetables, meat, and even fruit.
Just make sure your sushi rolls are not left out too long, from the food safety perspective.
Sushi rolls, on the other hand, are made with the same ingredients but are neatly wrapped in nori seaweed then rolled.
When you want to serve sushi rolls for dinner with family or friends but you don’t know how much to serve, the golden rule is that you serve 1 roll per person consisting of 6 to 8 pieces of sushi.
How Much is a Serving of Sushi Rolls?
Before anything else, you have to do a quick survey of your guest list and determine which of them eat sushi and which aren’t exactly enthusiastic about eating them. It’s important to get a head count so you won’t be cooking too much or too little.
A typical order of sushi rolls per person should generally consist of:
- 1 roll of your choice consisting of about 6 to 8 pieces of sushi
- 1 piece of nigiri, and
- 1 piece of sashimi per person for the best sushi experience.
Refer to the table below for the calculations of sushi roll servings depending on the amount of people present invite to your dinner:
| People | Total Order of Sushi Roll |
| 1 | 6 to 8 pieces of sushi, 1 piece of nigiri, 1 piece of sashimi |
| 2 | 12 to 16 pieces of sushi, 2 pieces of nigiri, 2 pieces of sashimi |
| 5 | 30 to 40 pieces of sushi, 5 pieces of nigiri, 5 pieces of sashimi |
| 10 | 60 to 80 pieces of sushi, 10 pieces of nigiri, 10 pieces of sashimi |
| 15 | 90 to 120 pieces of sushi, 15 pieces of nigiri, 15 pieces of sashimi |
| 20 | 120 to 160 pieces of sushi, 20 pieces of nigiri, 20 pieces of sashimi |
| 50 | 300 to 400 pieces of sushi, 50 pieces of nigiri, 50 pieces of sashimi |
What Types of Sushi Can I Serve For Dinner?
There are a lot of different sushi other than the typical California roll that’s widely popular across sushi restaurants in the United States. You have to serve at least 3 different types of sushi for a successful dinner party everyone can enjoy. Generally, this would be sashimi, nigiri, and maki or uramaki rolls.
Here are a variety of sushi rolls you can serve for your guests:
1. Sashimi
This consists of fresh and raw fish or seafood that is sliced thinly and served with no rice. It is typically served on a plate, sometimes on top of ice and a garnish such as shiso perilla or daikon radish.
Popular sashimi types are katsuo (skipjack tuna), maguro (bluefin tuna), sake (salmon), hotate (scallops), ebi (prawns), engawa (halibut), ahi (yellowfin and bigeye tuna), aji (horse mackerel), ika (squid), saba (japanese mackerel), and tako (octopus).
2. Nigiri
Can either be made of tamago (sweet egg omelet), a slice of fresh, often raw fish, or other kinds of seafood laid over seasoned rice. Minced scallions are commonly used as a garnish with nigiri. Salmon, salmon roe, tuna, shrimp, amberjack, squid, flounder, and eel are popular toppings used in nigiri sushi.
3. Maki
Composed of the standard sushi rice with a piece of seafood, fresh fish, or vegetable all wrapped in nori seaweed paper then rolled. There are also specialty maki rolls that have seasonings or sprinkled bits on the outside such as mayo, cream cheese, sesame seeds, fish roe, or tempura bits.
4. Uramaki
Essentially a maki roll but instead of the contents of the sushi wrapped inside the nori, the seaweed is rolled inside out.
Popular varieties would be the california roll (kani, avocado, and cucumber), rainbow roll (fresh slices of different types of fish), dragon roll (cucumber, eel, shrimp tempura, and avocado), and spicy tuna roll (tuna with sriracha and sesame oil).
Can you use imitation crab when you were making a sushi roll. In some cheaper sushi restaurants, it has been reported that imitation crab has been used.
What is the Proper Way of Eating Sushi?
There’s no strict way of eating sushi that you must follow—just eat it in a way that’s comfortable for you. However, if you want the authentic Japanese cuisine experience, it won’t hurt to learn the proper way of eating sushi. You can either use chopsticks or your bare, clean hands to eat sushi.
Proper chopstick etiquette is to never rub the chopsticks with your hands together since this can be considered a disrespect to the chef. Simply remove the splinters by splitting them apart. Avoid stabbing the sushi with one chopstick.
To eat sushi, follow these simple steps:
- Grab a piece using your chopsticks or hand then rotate the sushi. Make sure the fish or the topping part is faced down because if you dip the rice, it will absorb the sauce thoroughly and make the sushi mushy in texture.
- Dip the sushi lightly onto soy sauce and eat it in one bite.
- Eat a bit of ginger if you’re planning to eat between different types of sushi since it acts as a palate cleanser.
What to Serve With Sushi Rolls?
Must haves for every dinner, party, and any other celebrations serving sushi rolls: miso soup to bring warmth while eating sushi and pickled ginger for a readily available palate cleanser.
You can also try tempura (shrimp or vegetable), edamame, gyoza (japanese dumplings), salads (preferably kani, seaweed, or cucumber sesame), dango (dumplings made out of rice flour), yakitori (grilled chicken skewers), green tea for kids, sake for an alcoholic beverage, and matcha ice cream.
How To Safely Store Sushi Roll Leftovers?
No matter what type of sushi you have left, put them inside a plastic or freezer bag, place inside a sealed, air-tight container then refrigerate or freeze. It can last for 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator or 1 to 2 months in the freezer. Storing at room temperature will have a shelf life of only 2 hours.
Occasionally check for signs of spoilage such as an unpleasant odor, bland appearance, and presence of slime. This is important as ingesting spoiled sushi will give you bacterial and parasitic infections and even food poisoning.