Kyle Nabilcy
The fried chicken katsu at Hers Sushi.
Terrific fried chicken katsu in the rice bowl.
Restaurants have a lot of obstacles to viability that aren’t on the plate; there’s a reason the industry joke goes “The best way to make a million dollars in a restaurant is to start with $2 million.” Location, expectations, staffing, even the name can all influence a restaurant’s success. So to find a stylish sushi joint with a grammatically odd name, improbably well-staffed, located in a small town without much of a restaurant scene — and face a line out the door? Inconceivable. Welcome to Hers Sushi Bar & Ramen.
Hers (stylized in all-caps by the restaurant and they’re probably earning the holler) has taken over the space in downtown Oregon’s historic Netherwood Building that had been Señor Peppers for more than a decade. I was one of about a dozen people waiting for the doors to open for dinner on a sunny Mother’s Day Sunday. Some of those folks were fellow Madisonians, I’d later overhear, so the hype is certainly reaching our shores.
But hype only works for so long, and the food on the plate does matter the most. The menu at Hers is long, with three pages of sushi in both bite-sized nigiri and standard maki roll forms, helpfully noting vegetarian, gluten-free, and raw items. What I found was a restaurant still dialing in the polish, but clearly making good, thoughtful decisions.
For example, if you’re puzzled to see a California roll listed as “raw” on the menu, note that Hers takes raw seriously, and includes the tiny masago fish roe as a raw component. Technically true, but atypical for the usual sushi menu disclosure for a California roll.
I did enjoy that California roll, as well as other classic maki, like shrimp tempura and a spicy tuna that mixed the usual spicy salad with a chunk of tender fish at the center, a nice visual element. The sushi rice was consistently a touch underseasoned, creating a bit of a flavor drop-off with each bite, but the construction was solid.
An unagi and cucumber roll was a standout, with a rich, slender stripe of lightly crisped eel down the middle. Crispier still was the ‘O’regon, with salty salmon skin as its primary component. Both brown and black rice are an upgrade option, coming standard on some rolls like the vegetarian Rollin’ Green — one of a number highlighting asparagus, a vegetable made for sushi rolls if there ever was one.
It’s a very light-meal-friendly kitchen, with a whole page of the menu dedicated to little bites. There’s perfectly tasty gyoza, and pork buns that are a little underwhelming and chewy. I was fully charmed by the avocado and mango “tartare,” a vegetarian riff on chopped raw meat that gets a savory boost from citrus soy sauce, which you eat with fried wonton skin “chips.” There’s also a roll with the same flavor combo if you don’t need the irony.
Kyle Nabilcy
The Three Musketeers poke bowl at Hers Sushi.
The Three Musketeers poke bowl is also pretty good!
The menu slides from sushi toward ramen by way of a number of rice bowls in the style of both Japanese donburi and Hawaiian poke. A chicken katsu bowl featured some terrific fried chicken, simply plated with salad greens (I’d prefer the shredded cabbage typically found with katsu) and quite a lot of rice. Hers does great work with its fryers; the combo tempura plate is a fun way to zhuzh up a stack of mixed veggies, with a shrimp or two thrown in for good, crunchy measure.
The Three Musketeers poke bowl was a modest portion — maybe a little too modest, but I’d rather finish wanting more than have more than I want to finish. Add an order of some cheesy wontons, which are basically Japanese rangoon, for a meal full of pan-Pacific culinary references. The twist on the concept made me smile.
Ramen can be hit or miss on a menu that covers a lot of other ground, and Hers doesn’t exactly defy conventions with its noodly offerings; there’s a lot of chashu pork, sliced awkwardly thick but cooked well with good rendering on the fat. The tonkotsu broth was smooth and rich, and a spicy miso broth delivered lighter notes with an appreciable bite of heat. I’d go back for either, but I’d love to see the jammy egg get a little more soy marination.
Hers has an adept staff and it’s hard to get too hung up on bumps in the road (like a matcha tiramisu still frozen in the middle) when you’re being so well cared for across the board.
Hers is quietly a sister restaurant to the Hungry Sumo in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood, so perhaps some tips and tricks were passed west when Hers opened. However they’re doing it, Hers is delivering a class on how to turn small town hype into genuine success.
Hers Sushi Bar & Ramen
108 Janesville St., Oregon
608-982-4999
$10-$30
