There is no other sushi restaurant that serves sushi this fresh and delicious at this price point.
I first encountered Sugarfish in LA almost a decade ago when my colleagues at Netflix sometimes would order takeout from there. When I was in town and wanting to wanting a quiet, relaxing night, I’d have it delivered to my hotel for dinner. So I was delighted when they expanded to New York City, much closer to home these days.
Even the original name tingles, exactly the intended sensation owners chef Kazunori Nozawa and his co-founders want diners to have when eating their fish. And evidently it’s working as there are now 16 Sugarfish restaurants in New York City and Los Angeles. They don’t take reservations at any, so you really have to time it right. Whenever I’m in Manhattan, I try to get to one just before 11:30am when they open or after 1:30pm when the lunch crowd has cleared.
People call it “budget omakase,” but it’s anything but low rent. For lunch, there are three preset menus entitled Trust Me Lite ($27), Trust Me ($37) and Nozawa Trust Me ($48), which go up in quantity and cost. These menus expand a bit for dinner and are priced accordingly. The constant in anything you order here is the freshness of the fish, coming from all over the world and yet tasting like it swam onto your plate.
This is a fish restaurant. There are no gyoza, salads, miso soup or teriyaki on the menu. You come to Sugarfish for sushi, simply prepared with minimally enhancing sauces, and the excellent, consistent service. They do serve some beer, sake and wine, but selections are limited.
I’ve eaten at all the Manhattan locations numerous times and turned lots of friends onto their melt-in-the-mouth offerings. The perhaps sad reality is, I can no longer eat sushi anywhere in Connecticut where I live because they simply don’t compare. Admittedly, I do miss seaweed salad, a sentence it feels strange to say and yet it’s true. Hard to get it anywhere but a Japanese restaurant so…
Sugarfish is the perfect place to eat with friends or alone, as the various courses are staggered allowing time to savor and relax between bites while catching up on email or observing other sushi lovers.
