The Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar

The Cowfish publishes exactly one thing about dogs, and it isn’t on the restaurant’s website. It’s a June 2020 post on the Charlotte location’s own Facebook page: “Is our patio dog friendly? Yes indeedy.” Six years old, still up, and nothing published since extends it or walks it back.

Patio, then. Not inside. Every other detail is unpublished, starting with leashes — no restaurant rule exists, so Mecklenburg County’s ordinance is the operative one, and Sec. 3-71 requires physical restraint anywhere off your own property. Water bowls go unmentioned either way. North Carolina’s food code is what permits the patio at all: 15A NCAC 18A .2656 allows dogs in outdoor dining areas “provided that dogs and cats are physically restrained, and do not pass through any indoor areas of the food establishment.”

The address is 4310 Sharon Road, Suite X05, on the SouthPark Mall property. Locally owned, open since 2010.

The kitchen runs two menus at once and then splices them. Burgers on one side, sushi on the other, burgushi in the middle: the All-American Bacon Double Cheeseburgooshi wraps seasoned beef, two cheddars and applewood bacon in rice, soy paper and potato strings, then flash-fries the whole thing and serves it over Cowfish sauce with fries.

Six taps, half of them Charlotte. A rotating Olde Mecklenburg handle, Wooden Robot’s Good Morning Vietnam, and a slot the menu calls QC Choice. Birdsong’s Lazy Bird Brown Ale and Rewind Lager come in cans, alongside two from Legion and a non-alcoholic Athletic Upside Dawn.

Hours run 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 to 10 Friday and Saturday. The restaurant closes on New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Reservations go through Resy, takeout through Toast. Kid’s bento boxes are capped at ten and under.