NATICK — Outside the Apple Store, plates of salmon nigiri and seaweed salad glide by.

The sushi has nothing to do with the newest product from Apple but rather the latest food trend at the mall. Shoppers, loaded with bags, pause and line up for a table at conveyor-belt sushi hotspot Wasabi. For over a year, the restaurant in the middle of the Natick Mall has been an “absolute madhouse,” said general manager Jeffrey Miller, who sells 5,000 plates of sushi on a typical Saturday.