Ingredients: Rice, seaweed, lobster tempura, onion, orange tobiko (fish eggs), mayonnaise

Preparation: Cooked, inside-out

Popularity: Feh.

Not an item found in many sushi bars, the lobster roll tends to be made using lobster tempura rather than raw lobster, simply because raw shellfish is often a bad idea.

The roll is made inside-out style, and though our default lobster roll recipe uses onions and mayo on the inside and orange flying fish roe on the outside (to give that orange cooked lobster look), there’s no hard and fast rules about what might make a good lobster roll.

Cucumber? Avocado? Nothing but meat?

Really, it’s going to come down to the ingenuity of the sushi chef at hand, but don’t be fooled by the presence of lobster into paying a ridiculous amount for the dish – you’re really only going to get a thin strip of lobby meat worth maybe $4 beyond the standard sushi roll price.

Ingredients: Rice, seaweed, barbecued eel, avocado, tempura shrimp, burdock root, cucumber, flying fish roe

Preparation: Inside-out

Popularity: Moderate in the US

Another in the long line of sushi rolls in which decoration on a theme is almost as important as taste, the Dragon Roll tends to come with a slightly higher price tag, but if it’s done right, it’s worth every penny.

The avocado is usually draped across the top of the roll to give a ‘dragon scales’ effect, with the bright orange roe going on top of that to give contrast.

Inside, it’s all good stuff – BBQ eel, crunchy tempura shrimp, and the burdock root/cucumber combo to fill things out.

The Dragon Roll is a bit of a fatty dish, due to the deep-fried tempura, and while some variations might include hot sauce, or chili, to give it a fire-kick, generally at most sushi houses it’s a very mild menu item.

Ingredients: Rice, seaweed, prawn tempura, crab, cucumber, avocado, mayonnaise

Preparation: Inside-out

Popularity: High in the US, not so much in Japan

The Dynamite Roll sounds like it would give you a big hot kick, and that’s a mistake some less educated sushi first timers sometimes make.

In reality, this is a nice variation on the California-family of sushi menu items – think of it as one step beyond the Spider Roll, which is a step beyond the California Roll.

Generally, when dynamite Roll is served, the last piece of sushi on the roll features a prawn tail sticking out the end. Just so you know, it’s not offensive to leave the tail uneaten.

As one of the ingredients in this dish is deep-fried, be aware that it’s just a little more calorific than many other dishes.

Ingredients: Rice, seaweed, crab meat, avocado, cucumber, daikon sprouts, mayonnaise

Prepared: Inside-out

Popularity: Huge

The spider roll, though not exactly named for those with a queazy stomach, is essentially a california roll with the addition of daikon sprouts (sometimes) and with the crab meat deep-fried before preparation.

The crab, cucumber, avocado, mayonnaise combo goes down well with a Western tongue that is perhaps unfamiliar with more exotic types of sushi, but the crunchiness of the fried crab makes for a more ’substantial’ meal for those who feel rice and a piece of crab isn’t a ‘real’ menu item.

Because it involves frying, a spider roll has about 15% more calories than a Cali Roll, but so be it – we love it!