Tower Sushi Home of the Tommy Lee

After my Cosmopolitan adventures in Sin City, I had dinner with some friends who live nearby at Sushi Tower in Summerlin. The big draw here is a specialty roll called the Tommy Lee which is a very suggestive roll built to resemble the infamous rock star's private parts. Warning: The third picture in this post contains very graphic ADULT Food Porn!

I am always wary of sushi places in strip malls, but always interested when locals go to a place off the beaten path (pun intended) for a specific item.

Along with the usual assortment of sushi and sashimi, they offer teppanaki grills and unusual rolls, so there is something here for everyone. We started with seared albacore topping shaved radishes and sprouts in a "yum yum" sauce; the dish is named the "screaming orgasm". It was a decent variation of a seared albacore and quite generously portioned.

This is the famous Tommy Lee roll ($17.50), made with tuna slices wrapped around chopped up fried softshell crab, drizzled with a mayonnaise sauce, and adorned with a seaweed garnish. (It was a good 10" long and 3" wide for those of you who are wondering about the actual measurements.) As much fun as it was to order and watch people eat, it was tastier than I had imagined. The rich filling made it too much to eat more than a few bites, but this is a nice conversation piece for a party and although some men might not want to take the first bite, everyone will enjoy at least saying they had Tommy Lee.

I wanted to try their regular sushi, so I ordered the Spanish mackerel and it was fabulous, fresh, well cut, and firm.

The next order of a spicy shrimp special with jalapenos & onions, arrived on a huge plate nearly as long as the table. The deep fried shrimp was topped with grilled onions and a few slices of jalapenos, then drizzled with a mayonnaise sauce. This was ok, but I didn't care for the large onion pieces, nor the mayonnaise dressing on top of the already rich fried shrimp.

This lighter cucumber roll of tuna, yellowtail, crab, salmon & avocado was much more to my taste, with light flavors that were complimentary both to the eyes and palate.

We finished with a Monkey Roll, a combination of BANANAS with tuna. Yes, it sounds absolutely disgusting, and no it was not. The fried banana underneath the tuna gave each bite a crunchy slightly sweet contrast to the savory tuna topping that somehow worked. If you are brave enough to try it, you will probably like it.

So would I go back? Maybe. This is a fun place to go with a group of friends and the food is decent. Would it be my first choice, no, but you could do much worse in many places that are twice as expensive in Las Vegas.