Gluten Free Sushi Options: How to Order at the Dojo
· By the Sus Hi Team
Here's the thing nobody tells you: sushi looks like the safest gluten free food on the planet. Rice, fish, seaweed, veggies. Easy, right?
Then you find out soy sauce is basically wheat soup. Cool. Cool cool cool.
We get this question a lot at the Dojos — especially at UCF and Lake Nona — so let's actually break it down. Not with a disclaimer paragraph, but with real ordering advice you can use next time you're standing at the line trying to decide.
The Sneaky Gluten Hiding in Your Sushi
Before we get into what you can eat, here's what trips people up almost every time:
- Soy sauce. Traditional soy sauce is brewed with wheat. It's in a lot of marinades and glazes, not just the little packet.
- Tempura. Anything crunchy and battered — shrimp tempura, tempura flakes, our crunchy toppings — that's wheat flour. Sorry.
- Imitation krab. Surimi usually has wheat starch as a binder. This one shocks people.
- Teriyaki and eel sauce. Soy sauce base again.
- Anything mac & cheese. Our Steak Mac & Cheese Crunch Burrito is elite, but pasta is pasta. And burrito wraps are flour.
So yeah, that narrows things. But it doesn't close the door — it just means you build smarter.
How We'd Build It (If We Were You)
Honestly, the bowl is the move. Skip the burrito shell entirely and you've already dodged the biggest offender. This is exactly why building your own is the best path to solid gluten free sushi options — you're in control of every single layer.
Start with the base
White rice, brown rice, or go greens if you want to keep it light. All good starting points.
Pick clean proteins
Salmon, tuna, and plain grilled or torched proteins are your friends. Just skip anything fried or pre-glazed and ask us what's marinated in what — our Ninjas will tell you straight.
Load the veggies
Cucumber, avocado, carrots, edamame, seaweed salad, kimchi. Pile it. This is where a bowl gets actually good instead of just "technically safe."
Sauce carefully
This is the make-or-break step. Ask before you commit — some of our house sauces have soy or wheat-based ingredients and some don't. A little sesame oil, sriracha, or just extra citrus goes a long way. Some folks bring their own tamari packet, and honestly? Smart.
The Honest Part
We're a fast-casual Dojo. We're making bowls, burritos, and rolls on shared surfaces with shared tools all day long, so we can't promise a zero-cross-contact kitchen. If you've got celiac, please tell us at the counter — we'll swap gloves, grab fresh scoops, and do what we can. We'd rather over-communicate than have you feeling terrible later.
If you're gluten sensitive or just avoiding it? You've got plenty of room to play here. The Hi-Ya! Waska Bowl is a great starting template to riff off of, and a Create Your Own Poke Bowl with salmon, avocado, cucumber, and seaweed salad is genuinely one of my favorite orders on the whole menu. Not "good for a restriction" — just good.
Come see us and just say the word gluten. We'll build it with you, step by step. Order ahead at order.incentivio.com/c/sushieatstation or roll into any of our 7 Dojos — some of us are open till 2am, so late-night bowls are absolutely on the table. 🥷