I did not familiarize myself with sushi until I moved to the city in 2007. It wasn't widely available in the dining halls of my college campus, so my lack of sushi was really just circumstantial. When I met my roommate Vanessa, she was simply appalled at my not-so-sushi universe and made sure we had a great first meeting. It was a success.
Once I joined the sushi ranks, I realized a few things about sushi. First, there is sushi at accessible prices all over the city. Although the allure of a place like Nobu still holds some muster, I have yet to run to an expensive sushi place when I know I would pass a million reasonably priced sushi places along the way.
Lunch specials at sushi restaurants tend to be relatively similar. With that said, how do you choose a good sushi place? For me, I like interesting roll choices, fresh fish, and rolls that stay intact. The easiest way for me to write off a sushi place is if a roll falls apart as you dip it in soy sauce.
I recently had lunch at Amber Sushi and Kumo Sushi. Both were pretty good. The lunch specials were reasonable and the rolls were nice. The rolls at Amber stayed well intact, which I liked, and they were very plump. They were definitely full rolls.
With so many sushi places in the city, it can be hard to choose. Respectable, cleanly places are a good place to start. Awesome specials will follow, with freshness and craftmanship to seal the deal.
Have a delicious day!
NYC Menu Girl
Akina for cheap sushi, and Kanoyama for something nicer.
ReplyDeleteI still haven't been to Kanoyama! I have been to Nobu a few times and was sadly underwhelmed. It's tough striking the right balance of quality and price with sushi. I like Akina and Kumo for their sushi specials in the East Village, but some places are terrible (Yo Sushi, I'm looking your way).
ReplyDeleteThe difference in price is tuna that literally melts like butter on your tongue versus some gritty fishy-tasting piece of meat. That's also where you'll see the soy sauce start to drown out the more delicate flavors so you don't need your rolls over-compressed. There is so much blah fish in the city that going to a place like Kanoyama and just eating any plain piece of fish they give you is an eye-opener.
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