Sushi Yasuda - Review

Intro
Sushi Yasuda - Recommended
204 E 43rd St, New York 10017
Btwn 2nd & 3rd Ave
Phone: 212-972-1001

My girlfriend just got a new job, so figuring what better way to celebrate than going to the best sushi restaurant in NYC - Sushi Yasuda. I've been here 2 other times sitting at the sushi counter with Yasuda-San and another time with his #2 guy (Okino?) - both times being the best sushi I've ever had. This time we sat with Mizuno(?) the 4th guy at the sushi counter. It was very good, but not mind blowing which was a little disappointing. I even tried some defensive measures to make sure the dinner came out great. For lunch, I had bad pre-boxed sushi rolls from the cafeteria that might have been made the day before. This helped, but still something was missing. Overall, I give the restaurant an 88/100.

My Menu

1) Kimo (various fish livers) - Highly Recommended
2) Soft Shell Crab - Highly Recommended
3) Sushi Omakase - Highly Recommended

Dish Comments
1) Porthos likes to call fish liver the foie gras of the sea. The fish liver flavors are so rich and satisfying. It's amazing how the different fish livers have their own unique taste.
2) I've been craving soft shell crab for a while and it made sense to get it here. It was spectacular. Perfectly crispy with a great flavor. The soft shell crab also was nice and thick, where you could see a lot of crab meat and tamale. A lot times soft shell crabs look like they're pressed down and you really can't see any crab meat - not true here.
3) Again, everything was very good to great with only one below average item - sea eel which was very dry. My keys to sushi and sushi rolls are a fresh fish flavor (obviously), rice and nori that falls apart easily in the mouth, the texture and flavor of the rice and nori, and the correct ratio of rice to fish. My cafeteria sushi experience had nori that was chewy, rice that was hard, and no fish flavor. With the #4 guy, the sushi was very good and he hit on almost all of the marks. The standouts include Negi-Toro Roll (and hand roll), shima-aji (my favorite), king salmon roe, and freshwater eel - these were all spectacular. Other pieces were very good to great, but again something was missing. With Yasuda-san, each fish had a completely distinctive taste and the fish felt so alive in the mouth. With the #2 guy, the rice complemented the fish and fell apart in such an ethereal way. The #4 guy did not have any of these components, which was again a little disappointing.

Overall Restaurant Experience (88/100)

• Food 9.0/10 - Very good to great sushi
  
• Service 5.0/10 - Very good service, except the waitress spilled soy sauce on my girlfriend. I was pretty upset about it, but they were very nice and my girlfriend wasn't that upset since she was wearing a black shirt. Still unacceptable...
  
• Atmosphere 9/10 - Everything is very minimal - sushi counter is made of blond cedar wood that makes you want to eat sushi. Mixed crowd to the solo business man enjoying sushi, to loud groups at the counter...
  
• Price 8/10 - Expensive meal - $260 for the 2 of us, but I was still happy at the end.
  

Closing Comments
It's funny how the same cut of fish can be so completely different when a master sushi chef handles it. The previous two times I was on cloud 9 when I left the restaurant - feeling like I just had sushi for the first time. This time I was very happy, but missing that cloud 9 feeling. I will only hand out a highly recommended rating when I have that cloud 9 feeling. Still recommended and I think better than Sushi-Ann, even though an argument could be made that Shumi in Sommerville, NJ was an equivalent experience. If you go, make sure you sit with Yasuda-san, otherwise you may get mixed results.