Barchi Sushi

About

Good sushi at happy hour prices in downtown Austin is harder to find than it should be. Barchi Sushi runs theirs Monday through Saturday from 4 to 6:30 p.m., with the happy hour menu landing between $2.50 and $13.50: $4 edamame and $5.50 gyoza on the low end, nigiri, robata skewers, and specialty rolls up top. House chardonnay and cab pour at $6, and the sake list gets its own markdowns. Sunday opens the whole thing up, 3 to 10 p.m.

The real move is the reverse happy hour on Friday and Saturday, 10 p.m. to midnight. Food pricing runs to close; drink specials cut off at 11 because Texas law says they have to. Late-night sushi that's actually fresh and properly made, not the corner-cutting stuff from places clearing inventory.

Barchi happy hour pulls a crowd that came specifically for sushi, not people bar-hopping who stumbled in. Rolls come out tight, rice has texture, and the fish tastes clean. The Colorado Street location makes it easy to pair with other plans, but the sushi happy hour Austin crowd knows this is a destination, not a pit stop.