Sushi on Jones - NOHO, New York, NY

A small little sushi spot, giving a taste of how Japan run their business. It's a no frill, quick 30-minute meal. Don't expect any lengthy conversation with the chef, just a smile is what you'll get. The concept of less talk and more eat fits perfectly with NYC lifestyle.

Sushi on Jones has been on the sushi scene for a while. They've started out with $50 omakase and now (thanks to inflation) has gone up to $58 which is still a great price for good quality omakase style sushi. Be sure to make your reservations since there are only 6 seats available.

The omakase menu changes seasonally, so your best bet is to check out their Instagram and see which items they have to offer during that time.

They don't offer alcohol, so we opted for green tea. It was nice and refreshing on sunny spring day. Also helps to cleanse your palette if you don't like pickled ginger.

From top left counter-clockwise: hamachi, golden eye snapper, albacore, artic char, scallop, tuna

From top left counter-clockwise: ikura, botan shrimp, eel, squid, hokkaido uni, wagyu-ni

The omakse consist of 12 pieces, 12 delectable and satisfying pieces. All prepared within minutes of each other. Once you devoured a piece, the next piece was placed in front of you - hence the 30-minutes time frame. But, I like that. It doesn't give you time to think twice about it nor time to digest and feel "full." It was fast, delicious and to the point.

Specials from T-B: toro w/ caviar, uni w/ caviar, The Big Mac (wagyu, toro, uni)

We indulged a bit and that's where the price sky-rocketed - but it was totally worth it. These specials were amazing and to be quite frank with you, I've never had French Sturgeon caviar before. If this is how it taste, then I can eat this all day. I can understand why they are priced so high, it's so clean tasting and decadent, one of life's little pleasure.

If you get the chance, definitely do yourself a favor and visit Sushi on Jones. They have another location in the West Village that has indoor seats and alcohol but still only slot you 30-minutes. I'd much prefer this location since it's outdoor, you get to eat delicious sushi while basking in the sun and the busy streets of NYC surrounds you - quite an experience you can't get anywhere else.

Verdict:
Food ~ 4.5 out of 5
Price ~ 4.5 out of 5
Service ~ 4.5 out of 5

Sushi on Jones
348 Bowery
New York, NY 10012

Shinjuku - we are not how we once were

After being terribly disappointed with a restaurant closing down (if you must know, Bab Al Yemen is officially closed as of August 2013), J and I had to decide quickly on a place to eat. We walked past Shinjuku before and saw the all-you-can-eat sign for $19.95 and thought we'll try it out one day - that day was here.

The restaurant was quite empty and quiet when we got there, it was around 9pm already. We were asked if we wanted to do the AYCE or the regular menu. The AYCE consist of a lot of varieties, sushi, cooked dishes, skewers, soup/salads and special rolls. The waitresses give you 2 small pieces of paper to mark off what you want. The wait didn't take too long for the food to arrive at our table.


Soups were ok, a bit on the MSG side but overall it's not bad. The vegetables in mine were definitely not cooked, it was just thrown into the hot soup which I'm not a crazy fan of.

J went a little crazy and got the Tuna and Salmon Salad which were practically the same thing but with different fishes. The dressing tasted like thousand island and they added a lot of panko which then got really soggy.

Probably my favorite out of everything because it was quite crunchy, meaty and not that oily. This was worth a re-order.


J wanted sashimi and ordered one, told me some of the pieces taste like it was frozen and was thoroughly defrosted. Hahaha...can't expect much from a place in Brooklyn. The sushi was just meh, uni wasn't fresh but the sweet shrimp was alright. The handroll was massive, it's like they cut 1/3 of the avocado and just stuffed it in there.

All of the special rolls weren't special at all. Each one was filled with avocado (must be really cheap). A lot of it tasted really mushy and you can't really distinguish the fish from the avocado from the rice from the seaweed. Yes, it was that bad.

Don't think I will be returning. The quality was really poor and I really just can't see myself eating more avocados. But, if you love them, please come.

Shinjuku
1664 Sheepshead Bay Rd
Brooklyn, NY 11235
(718) 934-8886

Lunchin' Solo: Tanaka - Lunch Box

Tanaka is really close to my office and my coworkers always order from here. I finally gave in and tried out their lunch box because it was the biggest bang for you buck kind of deal.

I ordered from Seamless and it said it would be ready in 10 minutes. There was a lot of food for about $10 (I also used a code so it was cheaper than the original price). The entree came with soup and salad which was already more than enough.

I haven't had Miso Soup in forever, this wasn't bad but I also forgot how salty it can be also. I always like the pieces of tofu that came with it. There was also a small side salad with the ginger dressing but I passed on that since I want to be able to eat my box.

I ordered the Salmon Teriyaki. Everything was placed really neat in the box. Salmon was really tender and had just the right amount of sauce, there was also some grilled vegetables on the bottom. The fried dumplings were really good too, still crunchy by the time I picked it up and brought it back to the office. Best of all? Was actually the California Roll, I'm not a big fan of it because it's just a simple roll with imitation crab meat, cucumbers and avocado, but for some reason Tanaka makes it really well.

I would order this again on days that I'm starving or want a bento box. For midtown, the quality is quite good. Usually, I can't justify the price to what I'm getting in Manhattan because I always find it more worth it to get the same thing in Brooklyn for a cheaper price. But this was far better than I expected, apparently not a lot of people agree. Should give this place a go for lunch, you won't be disappointed.

Tanaka
222 E 51st St
New York, NY 10022
(212) 308-6976

Sushi Yasuda

This is my second time at Sushi Yasuda, the first time with J and we sat by the sushi bar. This time around, we came in a group of 5 and sat at the table. Both experience were extremely different and it made me decide which I liked better.

WARNING: There will be a ton of photos...some possibly repetitive, because I can.

Got seated right away because we made reservations a week in advance. There was 3 girls and 2 guys in total and we all ordered differently, which was just a tad bit confusing. Two ordered the omakase, two ordered from the a la carte, and one chose a prixe fix meal.

We all started with a small amuse bouche with pickled daikon, carrots, cucumbers, and seaweed.

Ordered a plate of Flash Fried Tuna. I thought it was just ok, nothing too special about it. Wish they had fugu instead though.

Lovely display of ginger and wasabi. You're suppose to have a piece of ginger after each sushi piece to cleanse your palate but I never do that since I'm not a big fan of ginger. As for the ginger, the sushi doesn't even need it because the chefs already tucked a bit of it in the sushi, sneaky indeed!

My beautiful table set up. Just thought it was cute and so neat. Lame but neat.

Starting off with my friend's dishes. She ordered a prixe fix (I assume) which she chose sashimi and was given a piece of paper to decide which type of fish she would like. She also ordered 4 piece a la carte because it was so tempting after seeing J and my dish (which you will see later on).

Our other two friends that ordered the Omakase had about 3 rounds of food coming and this was their first dish.

Of course, they couldn't resist and ordered more also.

This is J and mines. Went a little overboard but was totally worth it.
In no particular order, we ordered -- Big Eye Fatty Tuna, Little Tunny, Warasa (Yellowtail), Kanpachi (Yellowtail), Fluke, Sea Trout, Coba (White Fish), King Salmon, Sockeye Salmon, King Salmon New Zealand, White King Salmon, Coho Salmon, Sanma (Mackerel), Cherrystone Clam, Oyster, and Sea Urchin.
If you're able to match up the names with the pieces, congratulations because we can't for the life of us.

We ordered two more of our favorite pieces. Mine was the New Zealand King Salmon and J's was the Cherrystone Clam, the only place he eats clam raw.

Decided to get the Freshwater and Saltwater Eel sushi because our friend had it with their Omakase. I wasn't going to order it but it looked so appetizing and I just had to have it. Looks sure are deceiving because it was more on the bitter side since they used sake soy sauce instead of the sugared sweetened soy sauce glaze.

Finally, to end the meal we all ordered a piece of uni for ourselves. The uni was especially fresh and delicious that day. They only had the Santa Barbara Uni, a bit disappointed they didn't have the east coast but overall still extremely satisfied.

Our Omakase duo ordered the Green Tea Mochi Ice Cream. Nothing special since I remember having this the first time with J. It's good but the green tea powder can really dry up your mouth.

Our bill for 5 wasn't as bad as we thought. I remember the first time here with J, we easily spent over $300 for two people so either we held back this time (which I doubt because we're not cheap when it comes to food) or our stomach shrank, I like to think it's the latter.

And because we're Asians and we can, we divided up the bill into 3 hence the 3 credit cards. We even did the math for them and wrote it on the to of the bill. I was so proud at how organized we were. *thumbs up*

A good meal but not the greatest that I had here. Definitely interesting eating with a group and I look forward to it in the future.

Personally, I like sitting by the bar better because you get the full experience. You get to communicate with the sushi chefs and they can make you pieces of sushi according to your appetite and liking. They even give you some off the menu items which J and I had last time but not this time around since we weren't by the bar.

This is one of the places where I will find myself coming back, regarding if I go broke. Sushi Yasuda proves that great quality does come with high prices.

Sushi Yasuda
204 East 43rd St
New York, NY 10017
(212) 972-1001