SANDESTIN – One of the area’s newest places for sushi isn’t a restaurant. It is Hadashi, and it is situated at one end of the Sandcastles Lounge in the main lobby area of the Sandestin Hilton.

You can sit at one of the tables in the lounge and enjoy a view of the pool area with the Gulf of Mexico in the distance. Or, sit at the sushi bar to feel like you are in a Japanese restaurant.

Hadashi’s sushi chef Sugi holds up a sushi and sashimi combination , on the counter is (left to right) baked lobster tail and the Beach Bum. Hadashi is in the lobby of the Sandestin Hilton. Photo was taken by Daily News photographer Debi Haussermann.

Service was excellent at each visit.

The sushi chef was friendly, and a server who brought us our drinks did an excellent job of making sure we had everything we needed. She also took care of orders for food from the menu of the adjacent Sandcastles restaurant.

While Hadashi’s menu is limited to sushi, sashimi, and a few Japanese starters, the full Sandcastles menu is available at the Hadashi sushi bar for those who don’t want sushi.

For those who do want sushi, Hadashi is sure to please.

We started one meal with the seafood salad. This substantial dish would have been enough for a light supper when teamed with a bowl of miso soup. Pieces of shrimp, octopus and crab were arranged with seaweed and squid salads to form an attractive mosaic on the plate. Spicy mayonnaise and Sambal chili sauce finished things off. On another visit, we had a similar starter in the Sunomono Salad. It featured crab, conch, octopus, cucumber and scallions. Beef tataki (tuna is also offered) proved to be an even more substantial starter. Tender beef had been seared and thinly sliced. It was placed atop cucumbers, drizzled with spicy sauce and served with tangy ponzu sauce alongside. Lighter options include edamame, cucumber salad and seaweed salad.

Sushi and sashimi can be ordered in combinations, or a la carte. One combination includes seven pieces of sushi and a California roll, while another has nine pieces of sushi and a shrimp tempura roll.

Sashimi combinations come in 12- and 15-piece orders, and a sushi and sashimi combo has seven pieces of sushi, nine of sashimi and a California roll.

All of the usual nigiri sushi options were available. Favorites include tobiko (bright red, tiny flying fish roe), raw scallop (I like mine with a squeeze of lemon) and conch. Uni (sea urchin) was on the menu, but unavailable.

Salmon, tuna, eel, octopus and mackerel were other good options.

There were more than a dozen rolls offered, ranging from the simple California roll (crab stick, avocado and cucumber), to the lobster tail roll (with cucumber, avocado, scallion, spicy tuna, asparagus, spicy mayonnaise and masago).

While some of the rolls are good teamed with other sushi items, a few are substantial enough to order alone. Of those, I liked the Beach Bum roll best.

A California roll serves as its base. It is then topped with cuts of tuna, salmon, Yellowtail and shredded crab mixed with spicy mayonnaise. This roll is rich, has great flavor and wonderful texture.

Another rich option is the Volcano roll. It also has a California roll base. It is topped with a mix of crab stick, masago (smelt roe) scallion and spicy mayonnaise, before being baked.

There are no desserts on the limited menu, but the sushi chef served each of us half of an orange at the end of the meal. As with all of the items on the menu, it was beautifully presented, and it was a perfect light finish.

All of the sushi at Hadashi was outstanding. It was visually appealing and had good fresh flavor.

The atmosphere was also most pleasant. Music was soft, and while there were many people in the lounge, it was never too loud.

Dinner at Hadashi was calm, relaxing and delicious. Not bad for a restaurant that isn’t really a restaurant.

Colleen Coffield Sachs is restaurant reviewer for the Daily News. She dines unannounced at area restaurants for this column. You may write to her in care of the newspaper at P.O. Box 2949, Fort Walton Beach, FL 32549