At a bleak moment for restaurants, sushi takeout is on a roll.

Customer appetites for to-go sushi are rising, from $10 grocery-store rolls to elaborate, exquisitely packaged meals costing hundreds of dollars. Japanese restaurants say the demand is helping them to stay afloat, and to reach new customers through delivery and to-go options. The number of sushi restaurants open in the U.S. grew by 5% last year as numbers for steakhouses and Italian restaurants fell, according to online-directory Yelp .

Kaho Lo, a 40-year-old software engineer from San Jose, Calif., used to get sushi weekly at his Adobe Inc. office cafeteria. During the pandemic, he tried making it himself but found it hard to find high-quality fish. Seasoning the rice and forming it into rolls proved challenging, too, and he hasn’t done it again.

“When there’s a spot that offers sushi for takeout, I’m all over it,” Mr. Lo said.

High demand for sushi comes at a dark time for restaurants overall. Sales at restaurants and bars of $659 billion last year were down by nearly a quarter from 2019, according to National Restaurant Association estimates, and more than 110,000 bars and restaurants closed at least temporarily. Employment at bars and restaurants is down by nearly 2.4 million, Labor Department estimates show.