Small colored plates glide into view, bringing with them carefully created rounds of sushi and sashimi; ruby red slices of tuna with a Turkish delight-like firmness, rolls coated in black and white sesame seeds and oblongs of white rice with snug salmon blankets.

Before I can make my decision, the steady speed of the conveyor belt transports them out of reach. Next come rolls stuffed with tempura salmon, topped with avocado and tobiko fish roe. Not wanting to miss out, I grab the plate before it has chance to escape. It’s delicious. And so begins my first experience at Daruma Sushi, the Japanese restaurant chain which first opened in Rome 13 years ago.

These days, there’s a whole bunch of oriental restaurants around the city and some are better than others, it has to be said. Then again, we weren’t always this spoilt for choice.

Dennis Tesciuba, co-owner of Daruma tells me how his two older brothers, Alessio and Daniel, started the company. “In Rome, there was no sushi that was available to all the people. There were only three major restaurants and even then people wouldn’t go that much, maybe only once every two months. Meanwhile, in Europe and the US there were already sushi chains, including restaurants that delivered to your home.”

At this point, Tesciuba was still finishing high school but his big brothers spotteda gap in the market and decided to leave their careers in finance and real estate to set up an online home delivery service. You’d be forgiven for thinking that these three siblings are Japanese with a surname like Tesciuba, but they are in fact very much Italian: “100% Roman” I’m informed.

It was their shared passion for Japanese culture and their desire to bring it to Rome that brought the brothers together in business. Although they’d seen first hand just how popular sushi was internationally, at the time this was very much a new idea for the Italian market.

“We found one of the best sushi chefs in Italy for the start up. All our income went to his salary but it was very important because it was such a new thing. People didn’t know what we were talking about: sushi in a tray? It was like science fiction!” Tesciuba remembers.

Nevertheless, the people of Rome soon got the taste for Japanese cuisine and within a year and a half Daruma was able to expand and open their first takeaway store. More sites followed and today the brand has five restaurants and three takeaway points dotted around the city.

Since those early days, Daruma has developed its menu and expanded into hot dishes such as rice, noodles, and dumplings. Tesciuba tells me however, that the philosophy of the business still remains the same.

“The aim is to give premium rate sushi, a really, really great product. It’s now a big deal that we’ve got certification to show this, which is very difficult to achieve, especially in Italy.” Daruma boasts the CE (Comunità Europea) stamp of approval and the ISO 9001 customer satisfaction certification. From a diner’s point of view this doesn’t mean much, but Tesciuba explains how this relates to the day to day running of the business.

“Our laboratory facilities and restaurants are checked so people know they’re dealing with the real stuff. From the fish to the seaweed, we use premium rate materials, and [the quality] is always getting better. We’re the first in Italy to have [this certification] and we’re proud of it. We want to give the best product possible.”

Visiting the Prati restaurant, a chic modern space with an easygoing atmosphere, the efforts of the Daruma team are evident. All the fish I try tastes fresh (a real must when eating it raw) and there’s a wide number of different ways to try it.

The tataki rolls were a pleasure to eat; the delicately flavored tuna was paired simply with crunchy cucumber and an outside crust of pepper and sesame. Topped with raw salmon, tempura courgette flower and salmon roe, the fried aspect of the Daruma Star Roll offered a contrasting taste, very rich and moreish. My new favorite though, came when ordering the vegetable dumplings. The garnish, thin strips of seaweed seasoned with sesame oil, was so good that I ordered a separate portion. Look out for Hiyashi Wakame on the menu.

By the end of the meal, we’d accumulated a moderate stack of empty colored plates from the conveyor belt, not to the mention the extra dishes I’d ordered from the menu. With the pay by plate system, it’s easy to pile on extras to your meal. That said, we tasted a wide selection of sushi, passed an enjoyable lunch hour in a pleasant locale and spent just over €40 for two people.

Daruma Sushi

Via Pietro Cossa 51

tel. 800.022.800

http://www.darumasushi.com