Omakase at Yasuda

Finally. After years of working just around the corner from Yasuda and looking longingly through the window on my lunch breaks, my dreams have come true. I've had sushi every which way -- in a goblet, on an oyster shell, with mousse, blow-torched, wrapped in cucumber, topped with yuzu -- and I was ready to just have it done RIGHT. Good sushi. Good rice. No extras. No filler. No room for creativity. Just sushi, simple and perfect.

I knew I was in for a treat (I mean, I'd been anticipating this meal for years) but I had no idea sushi could be this amazing. Every piece was clean, pristine, disappeared like a cloud in my mouth. Even the taste was so pure it needed a little something -- soy, wasabi, salt, whatever -- to make the flavors stand out just a tiny bit more. 

My only request in the omakase was to start with sashimi. Prime our palates a little. Our private sushi chef got right to work, slicing ultra thin pieces of tuna, yellowfish, Alaskan trout (I think?), with chewier bits of orange clam and squid. We had a little coarse sea salt for the clam and squid, making two of my lesser favorites something I couldn't get enough of. Wow. Now we were excited for sushi.

I didn't write down anything or take many pictures. I really just wanted to experience and enjoy. The sushi chef would plunk it down. We'd pick it up with bare fingers and toss it back. And so it went. There were playful pairings that really made you pay attention to the subtle flavors of each fish: there were three types of salmon, different types of tuna (including bluefin, which I guess I should have morally refused but instead indulged and unregrettably enjoyed), fresh and saltwater eel. There was scallop and just-cooked shrimp. Everything piece melted onto the perfect rice beneath it, slightly vinegared, a little salty, every grain distinguishable from every other while the fish dissolved into it. Amazing. 

Even the seaweed here was unlike any I'd had before. Not crunchy or jarring. It was soft and fresh and a little sticky between my teeth. It was filled with toro that again, melted into the rice around it. A nice, filling way to end the omakase. I was full and satisfied but not too stuffed to go out for a nice bottle of wine after.

When we were done, our sushi chef -- who started off a little standoffish but had really warmed up to us by then -- asked if there was anything we didn't have that we'd like to. We both asked for uni. He said it was out of season, but put something together for us that worked just as well, if not better, than uni. It was part of a scallop. He said it was only available in the summer and that people went crazy for it. It was really similar to uni but bigger, slick and creamy like a freshly shucked oyster. Our eyes popped open. We asked him to tell us more about it. And so he gave us a brief tutorial of the anatomy of a scallop. It appeared that the part he was indicating was the reproductive gland. "You had male. This part female." Hmm. It was hard to decide whether to be grossed out by what we just learned or happy that it was so amazing. We both had the same "hmmmm" reaction. I guess its just like a big roe. No one had ever told me about scallop roe.

We finished the sake and headed back out into Midtown. This is it, we said. That's the last sushi we can ever eat.

(I might have ruined it with that Karumazushi bit, but, for the blog's sake of food drama, I'm gonna go ahead and say that is that. Forever. Now I'm done.)

Unless you also plan on giving up sushi forever, I have to warn against going here. It really is just that good.

Sushi Yasuda

204 e. 43rd St.

Lunch Special at Karumazushi

I've wanted to go to Karumazushi since I read about it in Ruth Reichl's novel Garlic & Sapphires. Considering the place is so expensive, I went for a $20 lunch special the other day. Maybe I would have been happier with it if I went BEFORE Yasuda instead of after.

Anyway, here's the lunch special, which I admit is pretty good for the price. The sushi isn't top notch, some pieces are too chewy, some are a little discolored. The toro roll was pretty great though.

I don't know what the rest of it was, since they didn't tell me. It didn't really matter because my heart was elsewhere -- at Yasuda a few blocks away.

Stay tuned for a post on our omakase meal at Yasuda. It will probably be my last sushi post ever, because I have now officially been too spoiled to eat anything less than sweet pristine perfection ever again.

Karumazushi
7. E. 47th St.
2nd floor

Omakase at Neta

It's funny how most menu items cost about same across the board -- a good burger is about $18, a nice roasted chicken dish is $25, a filet's about $32 -- and tasting menus are completely all over the place. We had an awesome four-course meal at Cava in Portsmouth for $35 and 11 courses at Europea in Montreal for $70 -- not including the multiple courses of desserts. It's hard to go from getting so much bang for your buck to paying high end for omakase -- $135 at Neta -- and getting so much less. Yeah, you have to factor in where you are (West Village is not New Hampshire) and the quality of food you are receiving (high-end sushi is not Spanish tapas) but when the difference of two tasting menus are over $100 apart, its hard not to wonder where all that additional money is going.

Anyway, with that rambling cost analysis aside, I have to say that Neta's sushi is great, fresh, high-quality and all that, but it's not very memorable. It was funny going through Europea and Au Pied de Cochon pictures and remembering what every bite tasted like, and then looking through Neta pics -- literally taken the day we got back from Montreal -- and only having a few items stand out.

While I waited for my dining counterparts to show, I sipped on this Rangaku, a punch made from "merlow barrel aged birds eye chili mead" from South Africa (so... red spicy honey wine?) and rooibus ginger tea and yuzu sorbet. It was kind of like a sake -- clear, sweet, balanced.

I asked the difference between the $95 and $135 omakase. Like I expected, the higher priced omakase includes higher quality ingredients, and isn't necessarily larger save for a course or two.  

We started with this. I don't remember what it was. Was it fluke and shrimp? Maybe.

Then one of the dishes for fancy omakase only: toro tuna tartar with sturgeon caviar and toast. It was pretty decadent.

Then Spanish Mackerel Tataki topped with a myoga vegetable salad with ginger and soy. Not as memorable. But then back to the kickass...

Sea urchin with raw scallops! I mean, what more can I say. It's more about the freshness and the fact that they're my favorites than anything else. The preparation is an afterthought.

 

This next tempura dish was meant to flaunt their veggies, I think. The Times review said they had respectable vegetable sushi, and most people aren't going to ask for it by name, so here it is. Shisito peppers and tofu and a little bit of soft shell shrimp. The spiciness and crispiness was a nice counterpoint to the scallop and uni from before.

My absolute favorite of the evening: rice with spicy salmon tartar and bonito flakes, served on a hot plate. It reminded me of a decadent bibimbap, hot crispy rice with cool, wet fish on top and saltiness from the dancing bonito. Sooo gooood.
 

Now onto the sushi. My favorite kinds to start: salmon with Szechuan sauce, spanish mackerel and toro. As you can see, the fish was gleamingly fresh, and had that perfect bite to it. Is umami a texture thing, too?

Then orange clam, scallop and kanpachi (amberjack).

The cooked fish. Softshell crab and seared toro.

And rolls. Tuna and eel. None of which were as good as the rounds of raw sushi.

Finally, a palate cleanser of rice in shiso.I thought it meant more fish was coming but...

... we were cleansing for dessert. Which was this grapefruit sorbet.

Okay, so when I left I was pretty pleased and all, but as I thought about it I realized that as one of the more expensive tasting menus we've splurged for, not just in that past week but ever, and thus it should be one of the more memorable. The fish was fresh -- can't argue that -- and the creativity was there -- sure, to an extent -- but I feel like we should have been eating less shrimp and a little more types of toro, maybe some crab, maybe that duck & foie I saw on the menu (though after our weekend in Montreal it was probably the last thing we needed). And definitely dessert! Ice cream, chocolate, something. Grapefruit sorbet is more of a palate cleaner in and of itself!

I also think we missed out on something by sitting at a table. They say there are two types of people in a sushi restaurant -- those at the sushi bar and tourists.

I'm going to Yasuda in a few days and when making the reservation I said the word "counter" and "bar" at least five times. I'm excited to do more... uh... comparison research.

Anyway, I'd definitely recommend hitting Neta for a cocktail and some a la carte sushi. I think I'm getting stingy with my omakase recommendations.

Neta

61 W. 8th St.

Two Sides to Sushi of Gari's Omakase

Ok, so in short, I don't know what's up with Sushi of Gari. When four of us went for my birthday six months ago and ordered omakase, it was mind-blowing. When four of us went for omakase this past weekend, the only part that was memorable was the check. I can't figure out if it's a seasonal thing, or an off-night thing, or problem with my own too-high expectations. But the more I think about it, the more it really puzzles me.

Sushi of Gari is known for their innovative, decidedly anti-purist approach to sushi. Some signature combinations include common fish with nontraditional toppings, like tuna with a creamy tofu sauce (one of my favorites), red snapper with greens, pine nuts and lotus root (a perfectly respectable sushi blend), and salmon with tomato (not a fan of this one either time I went -- the tomato was too overpowering).  

On my first visit to Sushi of Gari, I didn't bring my camera. I just wanted to experience and enjoy. A wonderful parade of different types of raw fish arrived three at a time until we could stomach no more and had to say please, stop! We had the standard tuna and salmon, but there was also toro, and uni, and foie gras with daikon and balsamic. It was all so rich and decadent and heavenly. The rice was perfect, the fish was flawless, the freshness sang through. The service was wonderful. And it was Saturday night (though I admit, a little early on a Saturday night).

Fast forward to this past Sunday night. We arrive for our reservation on time but our table isn't ready yet. The hostess tells us we'll have to wait. Wait where? She gestures outside. Granted they have one of those winter areas around the door but still! This is a Michelin star rated restaurant, and we're cold and hungry and looking through the glass salivating at everyone's food like hungry orphanage children.

So we finally sit and -- of course -- order omakase for the table. Now when I order omakase and promise we all have no restrictions whatsoever, I expect to see a little bit of flair. A bit of imagination or adventurous sushi. Especially when the waitress asks, are you really okay with everything? Foie gras is okay? Yes, especially foie gras! Okay, and uni? Yes, we LOVE uni! And lobster and eel? Yes, bring all of it!

Friends, we didn't get to see any of these things. No foie, no uni, no lobster, no eel. Now I'd only be kinda peeved about this if she hadn't just spelled out all the things that they offer. But come on!

So not only are we getting a bunch of salmons and tunas and ho hum sushis, but in many cases the pieces we received were seared or cooked in some way. I want sushi, and I want it raw!

For the omakase this go-around we opted for a first course of sashimi. This included seared salmon, yellowtail with minced jalapeno, toro with daikon and ponzu, and an oyster. They were fine, but nothing really mind blowing. I liked the yellowtail best, and had to scrape half the ponzu sauce off the toro so it didn't overpower it too much. I'm not devout sushi purist, but I do need some balance.

Then the sushi. The first course was the aforementioned red snapper with taro, tuna with tofu, seared mackerel with mushrooms and something I don't remember with a plain glaze. Okay, game on. Time to get this omakase going.

Then a seared halibut with a quail egg. Again with the seared fish, but I'm not going to complain too much about this one because I actually really liked it.

Then the final course -- a seared toro, the salmon with tomato, and one or two others. 

 
The end.

I ordered a final round of uni for us all because I felt like I was still hungry and felt like we were just getting started. I had to twist some arms for the uni because everyone was generally unimpressed and ready to be done. We'd spent enough as it was.

The uni add-on arrives and it was okay, but it wasn't the sushi I was expecting, it was a roll. The jarring taste of hard seaweed doesn't set well with the wet, whisperlike uni. We were done.

The check knocked me back pretty hard, and we hadn't even ordered wine, because the list was not only terrible but incredibly overpriced.

I don't know what happened. Everyone says this is the best sushi in the city. Am I just a snob? Was my first experience just a dream? Am I being too hard on them? I don't know. But I do know that I'd head back to Sushi Azabu, Jewel Bako or Kanoyama before I come back to Sushi of Gari. It hurts me to say that, but there's too much out there. 

Maybe Karumazushi next year?


Sushi of Gari

402 E. 78th St

Double Omakase at Jewel Bako

We couldn't even remember the last time we had sushi before Rob's birthday dinner at Jewel Bako in late November. I think it was a combination of wariness from Japanese disasters, the turn-off from dining at lesser places after really good ones and not wanting to spend the money on top notch fish. 

Which made it really special to finish a long sushi dry spell at Jewel Bako. We sat at the bar at the recommendation of many, and that was definitely the way to go. The preparation is amazing to watch, and unlike most places, you get a clear view of everything they're doing. The fish cubby is tucked down towards the bottom instead of right in front of you. It's a small thing, but it really makes a difference not to have to stare at cloudy glass filled with slabs of raw fish the whole time. I think this clear view idea is something Sushi Azabu and Kanoyama could learn from.

To start: two complimentary glasses of champagne, a bottle of Ice Dome sake, miso soup and a delightful amuse.

Then the sashimi omakase, which is not exactly what we expected. Instead of small courses, we each got a combination platter. It was small, but everything here was eye-poppingly, melt-on-your tongue fresh. There were a few really unique presentations here, like an octopus suction cup filled with yuzu, and a scallop wrapped in cucumber. It was amazing watching the sushi chef use a giant knife to carve a super thin mat from a single small cucumber.

So the sashimi was good and all, but it really was just a starter. For part two, we decided to split a tasting of all nine Makimono rolls. We saw the chefs plate a few of them and were really impressed by their sizes, diversity of fish and precision that went into plating and perfecting each roll. I'm talkin' blowtorches, tweezers, giant carving knives, all that stuff.

To decide who got what, we went team captain style. I snagged the snow crab. He chose an eel. And so on. Then we went to town. We did each roll in one giant bite, and then chewed for five minutes or so. I'm not sure if this is exactly how you're supposed to do it or not.

 
Anyway, at $42 for nine bites, it's not something you can do every day. But its not that outrageous either.


To finish: green tea, and two complimentary green tea ice cream sandwich desserts. Candle for him. Between this and the champagne, I gotta say they were really great about remembering an occasion.

A pretty great re-introduction to high end sushi. I'd be glad to wait another year before having any again, to keep that wondrous sushi excitement alive. Maybe Kuruma Zushi, Yasuda or Gari? 

Jewel Bako

239 E 5th St
(between 2nd Ave & Cooper Sq)

Restaurant Week at Bondst

I'm not a very big fan of Restaurant Week. In fact, Restaurant Week really irritates me. Places that I'm used to walking right into have longer waits for a table. The separate menu is usually very limited. The portions are much smaller than they should be. And then you're left wondering, is this even sort of a deal at all? (Kefi, here's looking at you... even though I absolutely adore both the items and the prices of your normal-time menu).

That being said, every once in awhile I'll find a spot that might actually have a good deal on Restaurant Week. This year's place was Bondst. It's one of those super trendy, come-hang-out-in-the-downstairs-lounge-so-people-can-see-you, high-end Noho Japanese places. Not really my scene. So I took Restaurant Week as an excuse to go, and I was actually pretty impressed with how much you get for the $35 prix fixe.

To start, you get either a miso soup or a mixed greens salad. And then a complimentary bowl of edamame. And then I had a sweet saketini because it had been that kind of week.

For the entree, you get an entire bento box of stuff. The flavors may or may not match each other. You might have been happier receiving them as separate, fresh courses. But its Restaurant Week, and you make sacrifices.

The bento box comes with crispy shrimp, age dashi tofu and a steamed chicken dumpling. For the sushi portion, you can either get a sashimi sampler or spicy tuna/salmon avocado rolls. And then either the Chilean sea bass or New York strip. My dining companion and I ordered complete opposites so we could try everything. The sashimi was a little too cold for my liking. The bass was well-cooked but the glaze was a little too sweet.

Dessert was either a lychee panna cotta, which was sour in a poorly flavored yogurt kinda way, or a ricotta cup, which was the sweet and creamy highlight of the meal.

This place is more about beautiful people than good food, so I won't be back. But it was nice to vary it up a bit. And to spend some quality time with my first NYC friend!


Bondst
6 Bond St.

Recent Sushi Outings

I've been craving sushi lately. Big mouthfuls of rice-filled maki rolls, slippery raw scallops, melty wet uni. I think it's more a texture thing than a taste thing.

First on the list: Yama, near Union Square. This underground space is small but clean and comfortable, with a good a la carte menu and very decent prices. The sushi itself is not mind-blowing, but considering prices and location it's a good deal for solid fish.


A few of us went out for a pre-dinner dinner (a new dining concept in my life that begins with filling up on cheaper but good stuff so you can try more expensive stuff somewhere else later). We got one of their many combo platters. Maybe Sushi for Two? It was a well-diversified plate of roe, eel, sashimi (tuna, whitefish, salmon) and seaweed-wrapped rolls (crab, yellowtail, etc.). We also got a specialty roll (eel, avocado and flying fish roe rolled in cucumber) and a few of my favorite a la carte staples (toro, scallop, uni). Overall, a good pre-dinner dinner.

Yama
122 E. 17th St. (between Irving Pl & S Park Ave)
New York, NY (212) 475-0969

Next, a Brooklyn establishment I've been trying to visit for awhile -- Taro Sushi in Park Slope! It's an average looking spot from the outside, but their sushi is on par with some of the greater spots we've visited in the city. The rice is warm and risotto-y. I'm beginning to think you can judge the quality of a sushi place by its rice, kind of like how my mom always said you can judge an Italian restaurant by the croutons in their salad.
A lot of us squeezed into that tiny place one night and split more pieces of sushi that I can even count. The most noteworthy would have to be the uni on top of a scallop. We had a bunch of different types of toro. There was horse mackerel, there was amberjack, and there was even some royal-tasting spicy rolls. There was even sliced raw beef and ankimo.

This place is almost the exact opposite of Yama. The atmosphere isn't spotless or even much to look at (they have a messy desk pushed off to one side with a beer tap attached). It's not in the greatest location (you can almost see Target gleaming from across Flatbush Ave). The fish can get pricey if you come too hungry. On the plus side, they do have an amazing menu and everything is very fresh. Next time I'm up for some quality sushi, I'll probably head to the city for similarly priced but better quality of dining at Kanoyama.

Taro Sushi
446 Dean St. (between 5th Ave & Flatbush Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11217
(718) 398-0872

Last week I stumbled across a pretty impressive place in upper midtown. We needed a quickish place to get a sushi fix before a spa week massage, and I saw that Suzu Sushi had a pretty good menu with nice prices to boot. We were the only ones there at around 6, and the service was really fast and super friendly.

We had the sashimi appetizer, the Sumo roll (an 8-piece square roll with tuna, salmon, yellowtail and spicy tuna with a yuzu miso sauce) and one of the special rolls (lobster, shrimp, avocado and mango). Everything was really fresh and the rolls were impressive. The special roll was easily my favorite, even though the mango was so ripe we couldn't taste any other flavors. I didn't mind though; the different textures in this roll was divine. I liked the yuzu sauce on the Sumo roll, although it was a little sweet. Rob wasn't as crazy about it. I guess yuzu is getting a bit overused these days.

I'll probably be back to Suzu next time I'm shopping up near Lexington & 59th. I'd love to try their a la carte menu, maybe even the $3 live scallop if I work up the courage.

Suzu Sushi
1075 1st Ave
New York, NY 10022
(212) 310-0155

Omakase at Kanoyama

Well, it's that time of year again: Rob's birthday month. And by now I feel it is tradition to start looking for a suitable place to take Rob for an above-average place for sushi.

When I started doing my research earlier in the month, Kanoyama kept popping up. At first I didn't really want to go there, it seemed too obvious. It was reviewed in the same Frank Bruni article that inspired me to take Rob to Sushi Azabu last year. But then I started to realize what he meant when he called both these places "bargains." It's super difficult to find an omakase deal with fresh sushi, flown from Japan for under $200 a person. And in some cases, its nearly impossible to get reservations. Luckily, its easy to make a reservation at Kanoyama, and their lowest "omakase" starts at $32 (which really just means an assortment of fish on one plate). The price range beyond that is limitless. Just tell them how much you're willing to spend, and they'll bring you as many courses as that price range allows.

Since we're stressed out with hosting our first Thanksgiving this year -- and since Kanoyama is closed for renovations next week -- we did the birthday dinner early this year. The fish was great and very fresh, the sushi chefs were very skilled and fun to watch. It was a little hard not to compare this experience with Sushi Azabu, though. Last year we tried a bigger variety of food, we were given a good deal more, the service was nothing less than completely hospitable, and the ambiance was unbeatable. This year, the service was a little unsteady; our second course came before we were done with the first and then we waited a good while for #3. Most of what we ate this year was sushi, even though that's what we specified when they asked if we wanted more sushi or more kitchen appetizers. We shouldn't have to make decisions like that! I felt like after we said that, we limited ourselves in terms of variety.

Those slight complaints aside, here's an overview of the fantastic meal we shared:

1) Kaki GomaAe (Winter Persimmon with Sesame Tahini) -- The presentation of this was beautiful -- melonballs of persimmon lightly coated in tahini and served in its own core. I've never had persimmon, but I couldn't even distinguish its flavor from the tahini it melded together so well. It had a crunch kind of like a pear. I expected its flesh to taste softer since it looks so much like a tomato. This was a great starter.

2) Cod Roe with Ponzu -- I always think of tiny, bright, glasslike balls when I think of roe, but cod roe is different; its more like a chicken egg. This was lightly fried, like tempura, with runny whites in the middle. The ponzu definitely played a key role in the flavor here.

3) Sashimi -- Here we each were given a finely adorned selection of three things -- striped jackfish, white yellowtail and pike eel roe with dashi. The plate (and by "plate" I mean giant shell from a mollusk on ice) contained a small dish of dried kelp, and we were instructed to unroll the sushi, put the kelp inside, re-roll and dunk in a small amount of house made soy sauce. The kelp was oddly chewy but it gave the fish a new dimension. I didn't like the eel roe; it came like a square glob of jello and I still don't get what made it this way. The flavor was nice and light, kind of like champagne-flavored jello, but the texture was too weird for me.

4) If you take a look at the post I wrote on Sushi Azabu last year, I called what comes next as "grand finale of sushi." However, it came too soon this year to be a grand finale; this time it was more like the main event. They served it the same way, though: one piece at a time. Last year they plunked each piece right in front of us. At Kanoyama, they put it up on the counter so you have to make sure your chopstick skills are steller, lest you drop your fish during the 12 inches it travels from its dark granite home to your outstretched neck.

There were quite a few similarities from last year, which I enjoyed. Many of these things I haven't had since last year, and now I'm somewhat familiar with them to know what a treat they are. Namely, uni and toro. I would like to find a way to incorporate more uni and toro into my life.

Here are the seven fishes:

a) Fluke -- Topped with a little bit of salt and lemon juice. Great flavor, but very chewy.

b) Japanese Mackerel -- This one was the fishiest of all and therefore, probably my least favorite.

c) Sea Scallop -- I love the texture of fresh, raw scallops. A little citrus and wasabi hid beneath the fish and the rice and made it even better.

d) Jackfish -- Topped with lots of sesame seeds. This combination was surprisingly good.

e) Toro -- It's always a treat to have the non-translucent tuna. The way it hugs and rice and then melts in your mouth... wow.

f) Uni -- I thought of a passage from the book Motherless Brooklyn when I saw this. Somewhere it is mentioned that uni is the national food of Japan and that a Japanese family must eat it at least once a week to maintain self-respect. That sounds as good an excuse to indulge as any; I LOVE the taste and texture of sea urchin. It goes down so easily without being slimy or too wet. How does it do that?

g) Sea Eel -- We each got a whole, huge eel. I know these are delicacies but I wish we could just stick with the good, cold stuff. The glaze they put on top is too sweet for me and I don't think it helps that I can never get the creepy grimmaces of those things out of my head.

5) We ended with a bowl of matsutake mushroom soup. It smelled sort of like an old wood cabin; in a good way. Apparently these mushrooms are delicacies as well but I really don't like the springy texture of most mushrooms.

Well, we should have been done here but we wanted one more thing: an oyster we saw going out a few times with uni and orange roe on top. It was a huge bite, but so good -- a great combination of wet uni and oyster and popping, flavorful roe. Oysters are a relatively new thing to me and having bizarre combinations like this is a good getting-to-know-you exercise. One of the things I'm liking about oysters are the way they linger in your mouth, kind of on the back roof of your mouth, like you just jumped into the ocean, face first. In a good way.

We finished with a scoop of ice cream -- red bean for him and green tea for me.

While I don't think we'll be doing any more omakase at Kanoyama, I do think we'll be back at some point to try a few things we didn't get to have here -- lobster miso soup, sliced duck, and the ankimo, which looked amazing. I may have to get a little toro and uni, too. You know, for self respect's sake.

Kanoyama

175 Second Ave (at 11th St.)

212-777-5266