Doritos Flamin' Hot Limón Shrimp Tempura Sushi Roll Review: Fails To Bring The Heat

Doritos flavors, for better or worse, are historically pretty creative. The chip brand hasn't really crossed into the realm of sushi, though — until now. Kroger and Doritos have partnered to bring chip and sushi lovers a spicy mashup. Coming in hot after the Flamin' Hot Cheetos sushi hype, the new Doritos Flamin' Hot Limón tempura sushi roll is a late summer addition to the Kroger sushi station.

The Flamin' Hot Limón sushi roll certainly solves the Doritos finger dust problem, but is this collab one to light your fire? Full disclosure: My comfort zone finds itself on the lower end of the deadly Scoville scale. Nonetheless, I grabbed a pair of chopsticks to decide for myself, and found the pairing to be one that lacks the titular "flamin' hot" factor. My full review may bring more heat than the sushi roll itself, but let's get into all the details of this limited time sushi offer.

The biggest draw of something aptly named "Flamin' hot" is, well, the heat. Those picking up this sushi roll either are fans of the Doritos flavor, or are particularly looking for something spicy to sink their teeth into. On this front, the sushi roll will disappoint. I'm not someone who wants a meal overpowered by heat, so I was a little nervous about trying this roll. However, the Flamin' Hot Limón roll didn't have enough heat to satisfy even my spice requirements. In fact, I have found Kroger's mainstay spicy rolls to have much more spice than this "Flamin'" one.

The initial heat was lacking, but I found the staying power of the spice that was present to be a bare minimum. The addition of avocado and cucumber in the center may have counteracted some of the heat, but not nearly enough to warrant such a mild roll. When compared to Kroger's spicy tuna roll or one of the rolls with the spicy sauce drizzle, the aftertaste of the Doritos was overall unnoticeable. Considering the fluorescent, in-your-face red coloring of the roll, the lack of spice was glaringly obvious.

Kroger's sushi department is the landing place of the Doritos Flamin' Hot Limón tempura sushi roll, and it's the only place you'll be able to find it. It is currently available at over 1500 store locations throughout the United States, but will only be there for a limited time. With no announced end date, you may want to head into a Kroger sooner or later if you'd like to try the roll.

Kroger serves sushi from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, but availability will fluctuate throughout the day. I'd recommend going in early to snag this roll, as I checked one Kroger later in the day to find an empty space where the Flamin' Hot roll had been. I was able to find one the next day a bit earlier, but I snagged the last one. These rolls are either being made in a limited supply, or Doritos lovers are picking them up quickly.

Kroger offers pick-up and delivery orders on the Kroger app, and you can order them on DoorDash, Instacart, or Uber Eats for grocery delivery, as well. Sushi is available on these services, but you will need to order earlier in the day to meet the deadline for their sushi department. For the app, order before 4 p.m. to have sushi included in your pick-up order.

Let's be real here, you're probably not particularly worried about counting calories or eating clean if you're grabbing sushi coated in Doritos. To be fair, though, you'd be eating less actual chips when opting for the sushi roll and consuming some veggies, as well. The Flamin' Hot tempura roll contains cucumber, avocado, and seaweed along with the tempura shrimp, rice, and spicy imitation crab. At 250 calories per serving and 500 calories for the entire roll, the Doritos sushi is right on par with a lot of sushi rolls as far as calorie count goes.

It's really the toppings that set this sushi roll apart from other available sushi rolls. Powder made from crushed Flamin' Hot Limón Doritos coats the outside of the roll, followed by a drizzle of red hot sauce. The sauce is made from a mix of sweet sushi sauce and sriracha, making it a thicker, more dense sauce. After it's all put together, you're looking at nine grams of fat and 1,280 milligrams of sodium for just half the roll. That means that eating the entire roll will push you over the recommended amount of sodium for the day, so tread carefully if you're watching your salt intake.

You'll be able to grab the Doritos Flamin' Hot Limón tempura sushi roll for $9.99, which is pretty standard pricing for Kroger sushi. Kroger prices its sushi anywhere from around $5 to $15, depending on the ingredients of each roll. Most of the rolls fall around the $9 to $10 range, making the Doritos sushi roll just as affordable as the grocery store's usual selection of rolls.

If you tried the previously released Flamin' Hot Cheetos California roll at Kroger, you may notice a dollar increase in the newly released roll. This extra buck isn't due to a price hike, though. The Doritos tempura roll contains both shrimp and imitation crab, whereas the Flamin' California roll contained only the imitation crab.

The Shaggy Dog roll is the mainstay roll at Kroger that most closely compares to the Doritos tempura roll. Both have nearly the same base ingredients, with the only difference being the sauce and crunchy topping sprinkled atop the rolls. Both rolls are $9.99, solidifying that there is no up-charge for the novelty of the Doritos roll.

Kroger sells a lot of sushi and, as far as price, the Doritos Flamin' Hot tempura roll is bang on with its other rolls. This is, for the most part, where the similarities end. Thanks to its almost nuclear red color, I was able to spot the roll immediately in the sea of otherwise normal Kroger sushi. The roll sets itself apart despite the uniform packaging, which is a good thing considering the Doritos sushi seems to be a tad more limited than the other rolls Kroger offers.

When considering taste, the Flamin' Hot roll has much less heat than the other spicy Kroger rolls. I would like to note that the Doritos roll has a deeper, more smoky heat flavor than the other rolls. Another difference in the spicy sushi rolls is that the grocery store's typical rolls have a more balanced spice. The heat is distributed throughout these mainstay rolls, whereas the Doritos roll has concentrated heat on top. The center of the Doritos sushi roll is more comparable to a regular California or shrimp tempura roll.

I've already spoken on how disappointing the level of heat on this sushi roll was, and the "Limón" aspect of this Flamin' Hot Limón sushi roll was the same. The zesty lime flavor that the brand claims was nearly non-existent. Once you separate the roll from its "Flamin' Hot Limón" title, though, it is decent. The flavors of the fresh ingredients save it, and it tastes like an unnecessarily complicated version of a spicy California roll.

As far as texture goes, I would have liked more crunch. A crunch factor is one of the perks the roll should have had, being made from a chip brand. Instead, the powder/crushed Doritos on top made the roll a bit more soggy than it would have been without it. The tempura portion of the roll should have added a bit of crunch as well, but that too was soggy. Granted, I kind of expect the tempura of even the best grocery store sushi to fail the crunch test.

All in all, this grocery store sushi was not half bad. The freshness of the ingredients was there, and as a general sushi roll it had some good flavor. However, the entire point of the roll, as a novel Doritos sushi, was moot. Part of the untold truth of Doritos is that the chips are scientifically addictive, but the same can't quite be said about this spin-off product.

This taste test was relatively straight forward. I'm very familiar with Kroger sushi, as I probably eat a roll for dinner around once a week. This week I grabbed their Doritos collaboration roll in place of the spicy tuna roll I typically get.

Though the roll came with the standard ginger, wasabi, and soy sauce, I forewent the additions and tasted the roll as it was made by the in-house sushi chef. I made to sure start with a cleansed palate, and ate the first piece of sushi with care to take in all the flavors throughout. As I went through half of the roll, I noted how the spice level remained relatively the same throughout. For the last piece I tried, I ate it deconstructed to really get the effect of all the fresh ingredients. My process ended with scribbling down all my initial thoughts of the roll, as to not lose any details in the time it took for me to write this review.