Jennifer McClellan, The Republic | azcentral.com

Given the choice between restaurant sushi and grocery-store sushi, few would choose fish from the deli case over its freshly prepared equivalent.

But sometimes, restaurant sushi isn’t in the cards.

Like lunchtime on a workday when you can neither stomach another sandwich nor take the time to sit down. Or when you’re craving a salmon roll for a quick dinner and your spouse refuses raw fish. You get the sushi, he can eat fried chicken. Everyone is happy.

That’s where grocery-store sushi shines.

"I would rather have sushi than no sushi, even if it’s from a grocery store," said Evan Roberts, a digital marketing consultant in Phoenix.

An increasing number of consumers feel the same way.

Sales of packaged sushi have increased more than $500 million in the past two years, making it one of the fastest-growing foods across the entire grocery store, according to the Nielsen Fresh Foods team.

If you’re worried about grocery-store sushi being safe, you probably shouldn’t be. You’re more likely to get sick from eating raw cucumber than frozen raw tuna. In the most recent salmonella outbreaks tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 907 reported cases and six deaths linked to contaminated cucumbers. Frozen raw tuna was attributed to 65 cases and no deaths.

So, given the choice between grocery stores, the Food & Dining team at The Republic wondered which had the best sushi. We recruited five people to give us their opinions.

THE GROCERY STORES

Each of our contenders are serious enough about their sushi to have dedicated sushi areas where you can see it being made fresh (enough). We think this is important. Beware the stores that sell their sushi in the same case as the deli sandwiches, salads and other prepared foods.

Safeway: This national grocer had a number of chef’s selection sushi plates, which featured sushi with a little flair (like a tuna roll with a layer of thin avocado) or combined rolls and/or nigiri.

Sprouts Farmers Market: On Sushi Wednesday, this Phoenix-based specialty grocer offers select rolls for $4.99.

AJ’s Fine Foods: This locally owned upscale grocer offers two types of California rolls: one with imitation crab salad and one with an imitation crab meat stick.

THE TASTING PANEL

From left to right above, these tasters represent the family table, the fine-tuned palate and the generational tastes.

Connor Thurston, 4, of Scottsdale, a fan of sushi from an early age.

Kai Torcuato, 33, of Anthem, head sushi chef of Roka Akor in Scottsdale.

Dianna Náñez, 44, of Tempe, reporter at The Arizona Republicand azcentral.com.

Evan Roberts, 29, of Phoenix, a digital marketing consultant.

Kerry Lengel, 44, of Tempe, theater critic at The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com.

MORE AZCENTRAL ON SOCIAL: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

THE TASTING

We asked tasters to judge a California roll and a tuna roll from each store. The California roll represents basic or beginner sushi while the tuna is a bit more advanced.

While this was not a scientific taste test using hundreds of participants, we did our best to ensure a fair playing field:

This was a blind taste test. Tasters were asked to rate the store’s offerings based on appearance and taste on a scale of 1 ("disgusting") to 4 ("great"). We bought the sushi on a weekday around lunchtime, the same day we tasted it. We kept the sushi cool during transportation and covered during the taste test.

MORE SUSHI? 9 best restaurants for it in Phoenix

THE RESULTS

Best California roll: AJ’s Fine Foods. Interestingly, AJ's also was the cheapest option. Safeway and Sprouts tied on looks, but Safeway edged into second place with a slightly higher rating for taste.

AJ’s Fine Foods. Interestingly, AJ's also was the cheapest option. Safeway and Sprouts tied on looks, but Safeway edged into second place with a slightly higher rating for taste. Best tuna roll: There was a three-way tie on looks and taste.

THE BREAKDOWN

Here are snippets of what our tasters had to say about each sushi roll.

California roll

Safeway

Connor: "Good."

Kai: "The rice actually had good flavor but it was mushy."

Dianna: "This one was better because the rice was better. But overall, still wasn’t great."

Evan: "There’s something not right there. It’s dry. The main thing on my palate was the cucumber."

Kerry: "A little more sourness in rice than I initially prefer. I couldn’t say that I tasted crab at all."

Sprouts Farmers Market

Connor: "The avocado, I like."

Kai: "That’s gross. The crab kinda has a weird flavor. Sake would help."

Dianna: "The rice isn’t very good but it does taste fresh. I would probably say not the best because I think your rice should be good."

Evan: "The meat is better in that one. The rice is fresher."

Kerry: "Subtler on the rice, almost not enough vinegar. This one was very clean-tasting but I would say boring."

AJ’s Fine Foods

Connor: "Good! I like that one best."

Kai: "That’s probably the best one. It would be a lot better if the rice was warm. The rice should be room temperature and everything inside should be a different temperature."

Dianna: "Texture was good. Rice was good. Flavor was good."

Evan: "It’s gummy on the back of the teeth."

Kerry: "Happy medium on the vinegar (in the rice). Maybe a little mushy on the rice."

Tuna roll

Safeway

Connor: "Yuck."

Kai: "There’s sesame oil in that one. There was a lot of rice on there too. It was a big bite."

Dianna: "It was too mushy, so you can’t really taste the sushi because all you taste is the mush."

Evan: "Hallelujah. It’s just so nicely done. If I’m going to a grocery store, just care a little, ya know? That one is good. I just licked my chopsticks."

Kerry: "You can taste the sesame in this one more than the others, which adds dimension. It’s the more vinegary rice but it works in this one."

Sprouts Farmers Market

Connor: "My favorite."

Kai: "This one looks horrible…that one was gross. There was no flavor in the rice. The inside was really mushy."

Dianna: "That doesn’t even taste like sushi. Don’t get that."

Evan: "I like the color on the fish a lot more. I think the tuna was definitely fresher in this one."

Kerry: "Basically. there are three different kinds of tuna. There’s, 'I don’t want to eat that tuna.' There’s 'That’s fine tuna.' And then there’s 'Oh, wow, this is tuna!' And definitely, these are in the middle range."

AJ’s Fine Foods

Connor: "I like it."

Kai: "This is frozen tuna, see how it’s red along the rice? That one is mushy too, but the rice has good flavor. That’s the best one."

Dianna: "The tuna itself has good flavor."

Evan: "It’s a little nutty, which is weird. I don’t know if I am into nutty tuna."

Kerry: "It’s about the right balance for vinegar. The tuna is fine. Not bad."