Sushi Rolls, Decoded
What's really in each roll — ingredients, rough calories, raw-or-cooked, and where it came from. No filler.
Boston Roll
Poached shrimp, crisp lettuce, cucumber and mayo — a cooked, seafood-salad-style roll with no raw fish. Mild, crunchy and beginner-proof.
California Roll
The roll that taught the West to eat sushi: imitation crab, avocado and cucumber, rolled inside-out. No raw fish — which is exactly why it caught on.
Caterpillar Roll
Eel and cucumber inside, overlapping avocado 'segments' on top to look like a caterpillar, finished with eel sauce. A close cousin of the dragon roll — and cooked.
Dragon Roll
A showpiece: eel and cucumber inside, fanned avocado 'scales' on top, sweet eel sauce over. Lots of drama, and — despite the looks — no raw fish.
Dynamite Roll
A roll whose name means 'heat and richness,' not a fixed recipe — usually spicy yellowtail or shrimp tempura with spicy mayo and masago. Always ask what's in it.
Philadelphia Roll
Salmon, cream cheese and cucumber — named for the cream cheese brand, not the city. The roll that put dairy in sushi and made a lot of people happy.
Rainbow Roll
A California roll cloaked in a rainbow of sashimi — tuna, salmon, yellowtail, shrimp — draped across the top. A whole sushi sampler in one roll.
Shrimp Tempura Roll
Crunchy battered shrimp, avocado and cucumber, usually with sweet eel sauce — cooked, crowd-pleasing, and one of the more calorie-heavy rolls on the menu.
Spicy Tuna Roll
Chopped raw tuna bound with spicy mayo and a little heat — the American sushi bar's other gateway roll, and a smart use of tuna trimmings.
Spider Roll
Crispy soft-shell crab tempura with avocado, cucumber and spicy mayo — named for the legs that splay out like a spider. Fried, not raw.
Tiger Roll
Shrimp tempura inside, cooked shrimp lined up on top like tiger stripes, eel sauce over. A shrimp-lover's take on the dragon roll — fully cooked.
Vegetable Roll
The all-vegetable roll — avocado, cucumber, carrot, asparagus, pickled gourd — and the lightest thing on the menu. The go-to for vegetarians and rice-watchers alike.