How to play Sushi Go Party!

Sushi Go Party! is a card-drafting game by Phil Walker-Harding in which you assemble the best meal on the table over three rounds, picking one card from your hand and passing the rest to your neighbor. The Party edition expands the original with a customizable menu — before each game you choose which rolls, appetizers, specials, and dessert are in play — and a scoreboard that keeps things smooth with up to eight players.

Turns are simultaneous and brisk, but the drafting tension is real. Every card you keep is a card your neighbor never sees again, and because the hands travel around the table, you're constantly reading what your rivals collect and deciding whether to race them or starve them.

Never drafted before? It's the simplest mechanism in gaming: look at a hand of cards, keep exactly one, pass the rest left. The hands shrink as they circle the table, so every pick is also a prediction — what will still be there when this hand comes back to you?

What's in the box, and what each piece does at the table — 181 cards, 22 menu tiles, 8 pawns, 1 game board:

• 1 game board + 8 pawns — the score track, with slots across the middle where the menu tiles sit so everyone can see at a glance which cards are in play and how they score.
• 22 menu tiles — one per card type. Building the menu = slotting tiles into the board; the maki tile even flips to show different scoring for 6–8 players.
• 12 Nigiri cards — the reliable point cards (egg 1, salmon 2, squid 3), in every game. Their best friend is Wasabi, which triples the next nigiri you play.
• 36 roll cards (12 each: Maki, Temaki, Uramaki — pick 1 type per game) — the majority race: Maki rewards the most icons at round end, Temaki punishes the fewest, Uramaki pays out mid-round to the first players reaching 10 icons.
• 64 appetizer cards (8 each: Tempura, Sashimi, Dumpling, Eel, Tofu, Onigiri, Edamame, Miso Soup — pick 3 types) — the set collections: pairs (Tempura), triples (Sashimi), escalating sets (Dumpling, Onigiri), and trap dishes that punish overeating (Tofu, Eel).
• 24 special cards (3 each: Chopsticks, Soy Sauce, Tea, Menu, Spoon, Special Order, Takeout Box, Wasabi — pick 2 types) — the trick plays: take two cards in one turn, steal from a rival's hand, copy your own best card, or convert dead cards into flat points.
• 45 dessert cards (15 each: Pudding, Green Tea Ice Cream, Fruit — pick 1 type) — the slow burn: desserts stay in front of you all game and only score at the very end.

The game is three rounds of pick-and-pass. Starting a round: shuffle the scheduled dessert cards into the deck, then deal hands — 10 cards with 2–3 players, 9 with 4–5, 8 with 6–7, 7 with 8.

1. Pick. Everyone simultaneously chooses 1 card to keep and places it face down in front of themselves.
2. Reveal. Flip the chosen cards face up at the same time, adding them to your spread. Group same-colored cards in columns so the table can read your collections. This reveal moment is also when bonus cards trigger — call "chopsticks!" or "spoon!" to use one you played earlier: chopsticks lets you play a 2nd card from your current hand; spoon steals a card you name from another player's hand.
3. Pass left. Hand your remaining cards face down to the player on your left — every round, always left, so hands travel clockwise. Pick up the hand arriving from your right; it's one card smaller than the last.
4. Repeat until the hands are empty. Then set dessert cards aside (they wait until game end), score everything else on the board's menu tiles, move pawns, and reshuffle all non-dessert cards into the deck for the next round.

A pick, played out (classic Sushi Go! menu). Ana opens her 9-card hand and sees Wasabi, a Squid Nigiri, and two Tempura. She keeps the Wasabi — it's worthless alone, but she's betting the squid comes back around to land on it for 9 points. Beto, next door, reveals his second Tempura: the pair banks a clean 5. Carla calls "chopsticks!", grabbing both a Sashimi (her third — 10 points!) and a Maki, and slips the chopsticks card back into the hand she's about to pass. Diego watches Ana's wasabi sitting hungry… and when the hand with the Squid Nigiri reaches him, he eats it himself.

Highest total on the score track after three rounds wins; ties go to whoever has the most dessert cards.

Each card type scores as its menu tile shows. The classics: Maki — most icons at round end scores 6, second most 3. Tempura — each pair is 5. Sashimi — each triple is 10. Dumplings — 1/3/6/10/15 for 1–5+. Nigiri — egg 1, salmon 2, squid 3; on a Wasabi they triple to 3/6/9. And the desserts, scored only at game end: Pudding pays +6 to whoever collected the most and −6 to whoever collected the fewest; Green Tea Ice Cream pays 12 per complete set of 4; Fruit rewards spreading across its three fruit types — and fines you 2 per type you ignored completely.

Three habits win games: count what's gone (if both other Sashimi are already on the table, your second one is a dead card); watch your neighbors' spreads — the player you pass to eats your leftovers, so don't hand them their third Sashimi; and respect the desserts' clock — with Pudding on the menu, that −6 lands on someone every game, and the players who grabbed one early are never the ones crying at the end.