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Raw fish has replaced pizza as a birthday party staple, prompting plenty of regret; ‘They are like savages.’

Chavie LieberJan. 2, 2026 at 5:30 am

Grace Embury said her children, Elliott and Charlotte, would eat sushi every day if they could.

She’s half joking, but Embury sighed when she listed the foods Elliott and Charlotte, 8 and 6, regularly request. “Salmon rolls, tuna rolls, tamago,” said the stay-at-home mom in Calgary. “They are like savages, they just want to eat it all.”

Elliott and Charlotte would have sushi every day if they could, but Embury has limited their intake to weekly outings, where bills can reach $150. Embury, 43, started them on sushi because it was quick and convenient, but now she regrets turning them into tiny food snobs.

“Sometimes I’m like, ‘How about chicken nuggets or grilled cheese?’” she said.

“I love sushi, I don’t like it,” Elliott said when asked what he likes about sushi. He enjoys the flavor, he said, but he’s especially impressed that his food at sushi restaurants travels on conveyor belts.

Gen Alpha has acquired a taste for shrimp tempura and salmon nigiri—and parents are paying a heavy price.

“I see omakase customers as young as 6 years old,” says David Seo, the chef and owner of Shumi, a sushi restaurant with two New Jersey locations. Seo said his restaurants are packed during the hours of 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. with families paying $95 a head to eat 15 sushi pieces. “The parents say it’s a reward for finishing homework,” Seo said.

Ashley Baptiste said her 5- and 3-year-old daughters “will choose sushi over pizza any day.” She recalled leaving the girls with her father so she could attend an engagement party. He called Baptiste later that night to report an ambush.

“I thought they were calling about toothbrushes and diapers, but, no, they were asking to order sushi at 9 p.m.,” said Baptiste, a 32-year-old singer in Norwalk, CT.

Sushi restaurants came to the U.S. in the late 1960s, and were initially popular with American businessmen and their Japanese colleagues, said Trevor Corson, author of the 2008 book “The Story of Sushi.” The food took off with celebrities in the ‘70s, but it was a few more decades before it went mass with regular Americans, thanks to super freezing technology that brought raw fish to grocery chains and mass restaurants, Corson said.

Because of its ubiquity, Gen Alpha doesn’t have the “cultural baggage” of eating raw fish, Corson said. Corson also believes sushi has become more popular with kids because it’s loaded with sugar, noting sushi chefs told him they discovered “the more sugar we put in the rice, the more people eat of it.”

Sales of sushi at retail locations like grocery stores hit $2.9 billion for the 12 months through November 2025, according to consumer analytics firm Circana, up 7% from the same period a year earlier.

“It gives them a sense of maturity,” said Isaac Bernstein, culinary director of kosher restaurant group Reserve Cut Hospitality, where $30 crispy rice tuna squares are frequently sold to young diners. “It’s an adult food so maybe it makes them feel grown up.”

Laureano Escobar gasped at the bill the first time he and his daughter Mimi split a few rolls.

Laureano Escobar gasped at the bill the first time he and his daughter Mimi split a few rolls. Laureano Escobar

Laureano Escobar is convinced the aesthetics hooked his 6-year-old daughter, Mimi. “She saw the presentation and was fascinated,” said Escobar, a 40-year-old chef in Dallas.

“She doesn’t want fries and chicken nuggets; she wants tropical shrimp tempura,” Escobar said. He recalled gasping at the bill the first time they split a few rolls. “It was $120 and I thought, ‘Oh my God.’ We need to get her into something else.”

So why not just cut them off? Parents say they are trying to strike a balance between financial considerations and the benefits of indulging their kids’ sushi obsession. It might be expensive, but then again, it’s more nutritious than other kid foods. Escobar said he is proud of his daughter’s culinary adventures.

Levon White, a third-grader in Newman Lake, Wash., said he orders sushi once a month when he visits his best friend’s grandmother, who happily foots the bill. “I like it because it’s tasty, and mostly because it’s good,” the 8-year-old said, though he rated a new roll with spicy tuna he recently tried a “negative million.”

Kim White, Levon’s mother, said she didn’t try sushi until she was an adult, and is amazed by her kids’ taste buds. “I think we probably spend more money on food than our parents did,” said White, a 40-year-old chiropractor.

Dylan Ennis regularly takes his sushi-loving son out to restaurants and said he enjoys people’s reactions to the 4-year-old using chopsticks like a pro.

“I grew up with home cooked meals, where getting the Happy Meal at McDonald’s was like the happiest day of my life,” said Ennis, a 33-year-old professional basketball player living in Spain. “My wife and I joke that we’re raising kids with a life we did not even know existed.”

Dylan Ennis said he enjoys people’s reactions to his son Chance using chopsticks like a pro.

Dylan Ennis said he enjoys people’s reactions to his son Chance using chopsticks like a pro. Dylan Ennis

Michelle Shuey said she’s seen more parents hiring sushi chefs for their tweens’ birthdays. The luxury party planner recently threw a “K-pop Demon Hunters” birthday party for an 8-year-old in a New Jersey Country club where they served platters of sushi.

“It’s become like a chicken finger,” said Shuey.

Erica Prier’s daughter Izzy became so enamored with sushi that the Upper West Side mom hired a private chef to teach her daughter and friends how to make sushi for Izzy’s 8th birthday in April. Some kids were scared to try their creations, but overall the party went well. “Everyone was engaged,” said Prier. “No one was throwing up.”

Caitlin Murray has three kids who love sushi, and the content creator in Westchester, N.Y., said she doesn’t mind paying for peace of mind.

“Thinking about what everyone is going to eat all day, every day, is soul-crushing,” Murray, 43, said. “Finding something they’ll eat and not complain about? Yes, that’s a win.”

The quirkier side of life

The A-Hed, named for a headline shaped like a capital A, has run on the front page of The Wall Street Journal since 1941.

SEE MORE A-HEDS

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5836068&forum_id=2\u0026show=posted#49678644)

sometimes they just ask for seaweed to munch on as a snack

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5836068&forum_id=2\u0026show=posted#49678656)

kids love tiny food, or food-on-a-stick. she needs to buy some of those bento box serving trays and start giving her kids little food plates. PS: human children are retards

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5836068&forum_id=2\u0026show=posted#49678660)