Restaurant Review: Sono

This afternoon, I had lunch at Sono in Downtown Raleigh. Sono is a Japanese Sushi place right on Fayetteville Street in the heart of Downtown. I have been to Sono in the past before going Gluten Free but have not been back since.

I paid the folks at Sono a quick visit last week to see if they could handle Gluten Free patrons. They told me that they do stock Gluten Free soy sauce and can make special requests as needed and have done so for Gluten Free diners before without any issues. I felt pretty good about coming back for lunch.

When I arrived, I asked my waiter what Gluten Free options they had. They do not have a GF menu and the waiter was not really sure what they could offer but did mention that they do have GF soy sauce. At that point, I got a little nervous and asked for either a manager or chef to speak with. The waiter quickly got a chef for me to talk to. The chef was very confident he could make me a safe GF meal and asked me what I would like to eat. I told him that before going GF, I had eaten their Grilled Salmon lunch entree and really liked it. He noted that the dish was made with wheat based soy sauce so he'd have to make me a special order and redo everything with GF soy sauce but that it would not be a problem. In addition, he mentioned that the house fried rice also contained wheat based soy sauce so he would make me a GF version of that as well. The dish also comes with steamed veggies which did not need any modifications. I requested that he pan sear/fry my salmon instead of grilling it and he said that would not be an issue.

My order was a slight modification of the lunch shokado bentos - grilled salmon (spicy teriyaki) and it was delicious. You can see their menu here - I have a feeling they could have easily modified other menu items to be GF as well. The portion size was great for lunch and included GF fried rice, GF steamed veggies (2 servings to replace the tempura roll) and of course the salmon. I will definitely go back to this spot for lunch or dinner in the future. FYI - I have been emailed by a few readers letting me know they also had a good experience at Sono.

Information
Sono
319 Fayetteville Street, Suite 101
Raleigh, NC
Phone - 521-5328
Web site - sonoraleigh.com
Email - info@sonoraleigh.com
Lunch: Mon ~ Fri 11:00am-2:00pm
Dinner: Sun ~ Thur 5:00pm-10:00pm
Fri & Sat 5:00pm-11:00pm


View Larger Map