Q. What is the bracha on sushi?

A. The popular kosher Sushi we most commonly consume consists of cooked vinegared rice sushi-meshi combined with other ingredients, usually raw or partially raw fish, as tuna or salmon or occasionally avocado or other vegetables as center fillings.

Contemporary Poiskim maintain different opinions as to what brocho we should recite.

Divrei Pinchos (Horav Pinchas Mayers, siman 22) rules the brocho to be Shehakol.

Horav Heinemann Shlit”a maintains that one should recite Mezonos on the rice, as well as the appropriate Brocho on the filling. The nori (the edible seaweed is secondary to the rice and other ingredients, and does not require a brocho (Rabbi Mordechai Frankel, Director – Star K Institue of Halacha).

A similar opinion is to be found on Din – Beis Hora’ah (dinonline.org): “If the fish is clearly recognizable, it a piece of fish should be separated from the mixture, and two berachos should be made – mezonos for the rice, and shehakol for the fish. However, if the fish cannot be clearly discerned, it is sufficient to recite mezonos on the mixture”.

Quoted in the name of Horav Mandelbaum author of Vezos Habracha, is that the bracha should be dictated by the largest ingredient by volume, usually the rice which is Mezonos. (berachot.org).

Rabbi J. Blass (Rabbi of Neve Tzuf and Rosh Kollel “Ratzon Yehuda”) also agrees to Mezonos” (Yeshiva.org)

The brocho of Mezonos is also mentioned in the name of Reb Simcha Bunim Cohen Shlit”a of Lakewood.(TLS, Feb 2010).

Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit”a opinion is that the correct brocho is Shehakol.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a.