Japango rolls out all-veggie sushi

In some circles, sushi is synonymous with "raw fish" -- and clearly not on the menu for vegan or vegetarian diners. Thankfully, even in landlocked Colorado most sushi houses offer at least one or two veggie rolls -- and Japango, 1136 Pearl Street in Boulder, offers a multi-course veggie spread sure to satisfy anyone's sushi cravings.

Set slightly off the Pearl Street Mall, this is a popular place for diners and starts to fill up as soon as it opens at 5 p.m. The modern decor and muted acid jazz on the speakers give it an elegant feel, and the mirrors on the wall make the space seem much larger than it is.

Although Japango has several vegetarian lunch and happy-hour options, we were after the sushi dinner. Pictured above is the Sushi V8 plate -- nigiri with spinach, shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, asparagus, avocado, cucumber, inari (tofu) and kompyo (gourd strips). And that's not all you get with the sushi dinner; it's also served with miso soup and a house salad.

The white miso has chunks of tofu, green onion and seaweed floating in the cloudy, salty broth.

This is the seaweed salad, not the house salad, but the up-charge is minimal -- and those thin-sliced carrots, asparagus spears and sesame seeds mingle beautifully with the seaweed, vinegar and oil.

If the nigiri is too much for your tamer palate, the Sushi V3 is a great choice. Also served with miso soup and salad, it features a six-piece salad roll, six-piece cucumber roll and six-piece avocado roll.

All of these options are also vegan, and the nigiri and rolls are available on the a la carte menu, too.

For more information, call 303-938-0330 or visit www.boulderjapango.com.