Fantastic, creative, affordable fare at Koi Sushi in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

This is about as incongruous as it gets. A sushi place in a fast-food court, beside a Walmart in the Mexican tourist mecca of Cabo San Lucas.

But *Koi Sushi is by no means generic. In fact, it may be the best, most inventive sushi I’ve ever had. And a growing number of folks agree, some flying in from Los Angeles just for a feed of chef-owner Jose Angel Huerta Ramirez’s fusion take on Japanese classics.

Jose Angel Huerta is the mad genius at Koi Sushi

There is a menu, but it’s best to let Jose come up with what the catches of the day and his imagination dictate. Just sit back and watch a succession of amazing dishes arrive. Like thin strips of wahoo (a fabulous local fish) encircling avocado slices and bits of serrano chile. Or tuna and crab wrapped in a shrimp tempura, providing a contrasting crispness to the raw goodness inside. Or a shrimp roll topped with salmon roe and floating on a cilantro-jalapeno sauce.

This wahoo sashimi plate was to die for

It’s a veritable feast of some six dishes that sets us back only $30 a person, drinks included. Actually, the only thing I’d forsake here is the sake.

An arranged masterpiece

You can sit inside at one of a handful of tables, close to where Jose is conjuring his magic. But there’s something wonderfully discordant about eating this fabulous fare in the mist-sprayed outdoor food court, where Chinese food is being served in styrofoam boxes and a lone, electrified musician is playing Guantanamera.

There’s the sushi spot, at the back of this fast-food court next to a Walmart

Jose was apparently a chef at the upscale Nick-San sushi joint in Cabo. He left to set up his own, affordable shop, where diners unconcerned about the mall surroundings wisely give him all the freedom he desires.

Koi Sushi
Plaza San Lucas, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Daily noon-9 pm