I have another trip to Southern California coming up, so for my last nice meal in Las Vegas before heading out, I decided to go to Naked Fish’s Sushi & Grill in Spring Valley, an unincorporated town in Clark County, Nevada.

They didn’t have any all-you-can-eat options, but upon browsing their menu, I found a seven-course dinner that I thought would be nice to try out. I expected the dishes to arrive omakase style, but they delivered five of the courses all at once and fairly quickly after ordering.

First was yuzu salmon. This was prepared as rolls of salmon belly sashimi topped with some garnish. The fish quality was incredible, the salmon fat had a powerful flavor, and the texture was some of the smoothest salmon belly I’ve ever had. The cuts of salmon were fairly thin, but because they were rolled into cylinders, it gave the effect of falling apart in your mouth but still having enough depth to it that it was satisfying.

Next was my choice of sushi roll. I picked a tiger roll, but my other options were a Lisa Lisa roll and Japanese lasagna. The tiger roll I received was a little bit different than what I’m used to getting at other sushi restaurants, but it was for the better—it had plenty of fish and a good balance of all ingredients such that no single flavor was overpowering.

Following the roll was six pieces of nigiri: bluefin tuna belly, tuna, salmon belly, yellowtail, scallop, and eel. Every single piece of nigiri was made with very high quality cuts of fish, and the ratio of fish to rice was perfect.

For sushi of this grade, I am used to the chef having already added a small smear of wasabi between the fish and rice so that they can control the potency; these pieces of nigiri did not have that, so I added in the wasabi myself (which obviously is not an issue, but I think is still worth mentioning, considering that the restaurant might want to raise the class of service and account for small luxuries to match the quality of the fish).

After having a lot of rich, fatty sushi, I was able to balance out my taste buds with some miso soup and tempura.

There were seven pieces of tempura: three shrimp, two different kinds of potato, one mushroom, and one onion.

For my final dish, which came out after I was close to finishing the prior five courses, I received grilled salmon collar. I usually think collar is overrated because of how difficult it is to eat and how little meat you get relative to the pricepoint at most restaurants, but this was the best salmon collar I’ve ever had. There was basically an entire salmon filet still attached to it that was perfectly cooked rare with a nice, crispy sear on the outside. This was also an extremely fatty cut, which made me happy that I was eating plenty of omega-3 fatty acids and improving my heart health.

For dessert, I got two pieces of mochi, one mango and one strawberry. This was very generic mochi and tasted about the same as the mochi you get from pretty much every other sushi restaurant.

There were a few other parties seated while I was eating, but I managed to snap a photo of the vibe of the restaurant between guests. Unfortunately, because of how dim it was, all of them ended up somewhat blurry, so this is the best shot I have.

The table to the right shows how much I paid.

High-end, multi-course dinners usually have portion sizes designed for the average person. I eat a lot, and this was actually my first meal of the day, so I was pretty hungry. Even then, after getting through all seven courses, I was pretty full up to the point where I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish the salmon collar if it wasn’t so delicious.

The tiger roll was pretty big and packed, there was a lot of tempura, and the filet attached to the salmon collar was large enough that someone with a small stomach might be able to eat just the salmon col­lar with a side of rice and call it a meal. Someone who only eats a normal and reasonable amount of food per meal will almost certainly take some of this to-go.

The service I received was very good. When I finished each course and pushed the empty dish to the edge of the table, it was always removed within a few minutes. When I set my empty water glass by the edge of the table, it was refilled within a few minutes or less. Occasionally throughout the meal, I had various different people checking in on me and making sure I didn’t want to order anything else or put in any special requests.

If you plan on going to this restaurant and trying out the seven-course dinner, I highly recommend letting your server know first so you can be seated at the bar to better emulate an omakase experience. I was fine seated alone at a booth because I had my laptop and I was getting some work done while eating, but this could absolutely act as an entry-level omakase for beginners or for budget-conscious diners who don’t want to spend over $120 for a single dinner.

For my next all-you-can-eat sushi adventure, I decided to try out Sushi-Mon on West Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas. I like going to restaurants by myself with my laptop so I can eat at a leisurely pace while I get some work done. Upon arrival, because I was alone, I agreed to be seated at the bar so I wouldn’t take up a table that could be used by a group, and so I could watch the chefs prepare sushi.

All-you-can-eat menus usually have a set of premium items that are limited to one order per person. These are usually the better sashimi items that are more expensive with bigger portions of fish and less rice. I put in my first round of dishes by picking their tuna poke salad, spicy seafood salad, and scream­ing orgasm. All of these were great—the cuts of fish were nice and thick, so the texture was very satisfying to bite through.

Next up were two appetizers, soft shell crab and two fresh oysters. The soft shell crab was about average and what you’d expect from soft shell crab. I’d say the oysters were a little above average; they were nice and refreshing, and the garnishments weren’t overpowering so they complemented the flavor of the oysters well.

The third round consisted of three different types of carpaccio: yellowtail, salmon, and seared pepper tuna. The yellowtail carpaccio was my favorite—the fish quality was good, and it had a nice smooth zest to it from the yuzu.

With the premium sashimi dishes done, I went on to order some nigiri. Each order comes with two pieces; I ordered one each of yellowtail, salmon, sweet shrimp, scallop, and escolar. The ratio of rice to fish was a little on the high side, but still within reason. Again, like the sashimi, the fish quality was great. The scallop was particularly noticeably more tender than average.

The grand finale was sea urchin gunkan. Sea urchin is my favorite type of sushi, so if a restaurant has it, I will almost always order it. The sea urchin at Sushi-Mon was decent, but unfortunately, the seaweed that wrapped the sea urchin and rice was unusually pungent and detracted from the flavor of the sea urchin.

To close out my meal, I got two desserts—one mango mochi and one scoop of green tea ice cream. The mochi tasted the same as the mochi you get from pretty much every sushi restaurant, but the green tea ice cream was better (though “better” is subjective here—I think it might have just been extra sweet, so it blocked a lot of the subtle bitter undertones you usually get from tea-flavored ice cream).

The table to the right shows how much I paid.

Compared to other all-you-can-eat spots I’ve been to in the Las Vegas Valley at this price point, I’d say Sushi-Mon is the winner so far.

The service was stellar. Both the server and the chef regularly checked in on me to ask if there was any­thing else I wanted to order. Many all-you-can-eat restaurants will intentionally delay checking in on you in hopes that you get full while waiting and order less, but Sushi-Mon did not do that. I usually only see this level of service at AYCE spots if it was almost empty, but Sushi-Mon maintained that level of ser­vice even though there were a bunch of other parties at the tables.

The fish quality was comparable to a more high-end sushi restaurant. The fish tasted fresher, the flavors were stronger, and the sauces and garnishments were made in a way that they let the fish speak for itself (as opposed to making it stronger as to cover up any flavor imperfections in the fish).

The environment was also pleasant. There were TVs playing in the background, the vibe was cozy, and all the staff members were friendly. I was doing some corporate law work while I was eating, and my waitress asked me about it, mentioning that she had previously studied law—a much more mean­ing­ful and interesting conversation than the usual small talk with other servers. Even the background music was to my preference—they were play­ing pop and pop-punk hits from a decade or two ago.

Usually I will recommend restaurants on an if-then basis, i.e., if you like a specific thing or don’t mind about a certain thing, then then restaurant is worth a visit. However, if you like sushi in general and want an all-you-can-eat sushi experience, Sushi-Mon is an unconditional recommendation for everyone from me.

To be clear, you can obviously get better sushi from a high-end omakase experience. However, for under $50, I think you’re going to have a very tough time finding something better.