Primavera has become the latest restaurant to offer the Japanese delicacy.

The Italian eatery on Pitts Bay Road has been offering sushi for the past four weeks and general manager/owner Odilio Angeli said the move to open a sushi bar upstairs in the restaurant had paid off already.

"We saw a change in revenue just from opening the sushi bar,'' he said. "It has created more volume in clientele.'' He said offering sushi -- raw, cooked or marinated seafood with vinegar flavoured rice -- and sashimi, which mixes the seafood with vegetables, offered diners an alternative.

"We have Italian food downstairs and the sushi upstairs,'' he pointed out.

"You do not have to have sushi if you are sitting upstairs though, you can have pasta or anything else from downstairs if you like.'' In the highly competitive restaurant world locally, continued Mr. Angeli, you had to be prepared to try something new and do it well to compete.

"There is a lot of competition in Bermuda and that competition makes you good. Look at how many Italian restaurants there are alone.'' And sushi is no stranger to the restaurant, pointed out Mr. Angeli. "We had sushi here ten years ago. We did it to use our upstairs room. I thought it was a good idea at the time.'' When two former sushi offerers -- Mikado at the Marriott Castle Harbour and the Surf Club on Front Street in Hamilton -- closed down, Mr. Angeli said he decided to bring the Oriental dishes back to his restaurant.

"Right now, sushi is much more in demand,'' he said. " I thought it would be a good idea to bring it back to life.'' The sushi craze has swept the Island with the Harbourfront on Front Street joining the above mentioned restaurants in offering sushi and supermarkets such as the MarketPlace in Hamilton and Miles Market on Pitts Bay making it available for take out.

The reason for the boom? It is hard to put your finger on one reason, said Mr. Angeli, who offered two suggestions.

"Sushi is like an art form,'' he said. "When you watch the chef creating the dishes, you can feel that it is more involved than, say, shucking an oyster.

Sushi is very presentable. When you look at it it is very appealing and I think people are attracted to that.'' Then there is the fact that Bermudians often followed trends that start elsewhere, continued Mr. Angeli.

"People in Bermuda tend to follow trends, particularly if they come from the United States,'' he said. "Sushi is booming over there. You can't go into a hotel lobby or even a shopping mall, without finding a sushi bar.'' People also like trying a new thing and sushi wins many converts through this, added Mr. Angeli. He noted that there were clients who came to the restaurant and did not think they would like sushi but still gave it a try.

"People say they are trying sushi for the first time and perhaps have one piece. They then end up eating it for the night.

"People are reluctant at first because they think sushi is just raw fish.

When they learn they can eat sushi which is 100 percent cooked or marinated they tend to take a new approach to it.'' Head chef for the sushi operation at Ristorante Primavera is former Mikado sushi chef Marvin Abadicio who brings six years total experience to the brand new sushi bar the restaurant has installed on its second floor.