10 Best Sushi Bars Worth Traveling for
By Dan Myers
It wasn’t so long ago that sushi was still considered an exotic delicacy by many, one too strange and outside-the-box to pay much attention to. The seemingly simple pairing of raw fish and rice was the domain of the adventurous and the very rich, the ones who were looking to impress. Today, however, there are sushi restaurants across America of just about every stripe, from holes-in-the-wall turning out decent California rolls and tuna sashimi to sprawling emporiums run by internationally renowned chefs, from cozy neighborhood favorites to upscale counters that might as well be temples to fish and rice. There are some amazing sushi restaurants in America, and this is our second annual ranking of the nation’s best.
How did we go about identifying the best sushi bars in America? We approached it the same way that we rank the 101 Best Restaurants in America every year: we started by reaching out to leading culinary authorities to ask what their favorite sushi restaurants are. Next, we supplemented those suggestions with sushi bars featured in local reviews and pre-existing regional and local rankings, as well as the many restaurants considered for last year’s ranking. While many of these restaurants also serve a menu of traditional Japanese food, the primary focus needed to be on sushi. We then took that list of more than 150 restaurants from across the country and graded them on qualities including freshness of fish, variety of offerings, reviews from both professionals and everyday diners, and level of renown both local and national.
Here are the 10 best:
#10 Naoe, Miami
Photo Modified: Flickr / T.Tseng / CC BY 4.0
For sushi lovers, Naoe is a little slice of heaven in Miami. The sushi here would be right at home even at a high-end spot in Japan, and at this tiny, eight-seat temple to raw fish, you can let sushi master Kevin Cory, dubbed the “Omakase King,” be your guide. The accolades for Naoe just keep piling up: Five stars from Forbes Travel Guide, named one of the country’s best sushi restaurants by Travel + Leisure, a nomination for best new chef from Food & Wine, and so on (Last month, chef Ferran Adrià even called it “one of the best Japanese restaurants that I have been to outside of Japan, in the world”).
More from The Daily Meal: The Healthiest and Unhealthiest Breakfast Cereals
#9 Oishii, Boston
Photo: Yelp / Vivian T
Boston isn’t a city that’s generally known for its sushi, but the fish at this South End gem is right up there with the country’s best. Chef Ting Yan opened the restaurant in 1998 with the intention of drawing on influences from his multicultural background and experience as a sushi master in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, and unexpected menu items include kaffir lime duck salad, handmade tofu, and foie gras-truffle sushi. While there’s a wide menu of expertly prepared appetizers, entrees, soups, and salads, the sushi selection is exceptional. Six types of salmon, 12 types of tuna, 10 types of shellfish… the variety alone is enough to make your jaw drop, and Yan knows exactly the right way to slice, treat, and garnish each fish.
#8 Sushi Zen, New York
Photo Modified: Flickr / Omnitographer / CC BY 4.0
From décor and presentation to style and taste, everything at this decades-old Midtown West sushi restaurant is about harmony. Stepping in off the busy street just a block from Times Square, you immediately feel a calm only Japanese hospitality can provide. Allow yourself to be ushered to the 10-seat counter that doesn’t feature the sushi case ubiquitous to most sushi restaurants for an intimate and deliberate experience. There is no rush, the ingredients are high-quality, and the delivery and presentation are precise (you’ll be reminded that pieces come pre-seasoned with wasabi). That’s a good thing, given that Sushi Zen is one of the city’s few spots to serve fugu, the pufferfish delicacy that can be deadly if not prepared correctly. Chef Toshio Suzuki is a master whose omakase is always on-point, if a little on the expensive side. While a sushi omakase technically starts at $65, you’re likely to want extra pieces beyond that, at which point things can start adding up quickly.
Related: Sushi Chef: Americans Are Eating it All Wrong
#7 Sushi Zo, Los Angeles
Photo: Yelp / Grace C
Once somewhat of a secret, chef Keizo Seki’s Sushi Zo, an unassuming gem located in a Westside Los Angeles strip mall, has branched out to a second and more contemporary high-profile downtown location (called just “Zo”). Seki is a no-nonsense sushi purist. Don’t expect California rolls, or laughing banter between bites of the precisely seasoned nigiri — the interactive experience is more temple than tempura. What you’ll get is course after course of fresh, expertly cut, beautifully presented sushi delivered quickly. It’s no understatement to say this is some of the best sushi in the country, and if you believe world-famous chef Ferran Adrià, it’s even better than what you can find in Japan.
#6 Nobu, Las Vegas
Photo: Nobu Las Vegas / Facebook
Nobu Matsuhisa is nothing short of a rock star in the sushi world, and a visit to one of his two Las Vegas restaurants (we recommend the one located in the newish Nobu Hotel inside Caesar’s Palace, but the original inside the Hard Rock Hotel is also spectacular) will immediately tell you why. These David Rockwell-designed Nobus are chic and hip, sure, but the ambiance never gets in the way of the food. You’ll find all the trademark Nobu dishes — black cod miso, rock shrimp tempura, yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño — but there’s also an astounding sushi selection. Even though Matsuhisa himself is more renowned for his hot dishes, he’s brought on some of the best sushi chefs in the world and his creative ingenuity is on full display here. Be it abalone, Japanese red snapper, shad (kohada), or striped jack (shima aji), when it’s served at Nobu, it’s going to be good.
#5 Sushi Nakazawa, New York City
Photo Modified: Flickr / Edsel Little / CC BY-SA 4.0
Those obsessed with sushi watched the 2011 documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi with fascination and even a little bit of envy for the lucky diners sitting at the small bar in the tiny, three-Michelin-star restaurant tucked into a Tokyo subway station run by Jiro Ono, marveling at the many years his sons and apprentices took to master tasks like making rice and egg custard. A similar sense of marvel and fascination is now taking place in New York City at Sushi Nakazawa, the West Village restaurant opened by Jiro’s apprentice Daisuke Nakazawa in August 2013 and that promptly earned four stars from the New York Times. With its opening, America gained not just one of its best sushi restaurants, but one of its best restaurants period. Your two-hour meal at Sushi Nakazawa will feature about 21 pieces of sushi that Nakazawa prepares with dedication to tradition and ingredients.
#4 Urasawa, Los Angeles
Photo Modified: Flickr / Case Simmons / CC BY 4.0
This Japanese culinary shrine, with a sushi bar and just enough room for ten diners nightly, located in a shopping center off of Rodeo Drive, might be called the West Coast version of New York City’s Masa. That’s not surprising: Not only did Urasawa chef-owner Hiroyuki Urasawa train under Masa Takayama before opening his eponymous restaurant here, but the spot previously housed Takayama’s Ginza Sushi-ko, where Masa made his reputation. Urasawa has a nearly 30-course omakase menu that changes daily, not to be missed if you can afford to pay $395 for the privilege.
#3 O-Ya, Boston and New York
Photo: Amy Braga
Chef Tim Cushman brings innovative sushi and related new-Japanese fare to his menu with imagination and flair, serving these and other truly wonderful dishes; accompanied by a large choice of excellent sake and wine, in an understated dining room whose simplicity belies the complexity of flavors on the plate. Cushman won the 2012 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northeast. You can expect to enjoy dishes like balsamic chocolate kabayaki, claudio corallo raisin cocoa pulp, sip of aged sake and warm eel with Thai basil, kabayaki, fresh kyoto sansho. And with the opening of a second location earlier this year in New York, Cushman has elevated Manhattan’s sushi game to new heights.
#2 Sushi Yasuda, New York City
Photo: Sushi Yasuda
It’s a special kind of restaurant that you can walk into, sit down, and without looking at a menu just say to the people preparing your food, “Yes, please,” — and know that every bite is going to send you searching for new superlatives. For sushi lovers, that’s exactly what Yasuda and its minimalist dining room represents. To say the fish is fresh just doesn’t do the place justice — for many, experiencing the taste and texture of seafood at Yasuda will set the bar for what freshness means. The restaurant’s namesake and founder, Naomichi Yasuda, decamped to return to Japan in 2010, but the standards he established here haven’t faltered. His hand-picked successor, Mitsuru Tamura, keeps that Yasuda philosophy alive.
#1 Masa, New York City
Photo: Masa / Facebook
Masa Takayama is undeniably a sushi master: calm, precise, insistent on the very finest raw materials, and the sushi and other dishes you may sample at his flagship in Manhattan’s Time Warner Center will be truly memorable. Does that justify the $450-per-person tariff (before tip or beverages) for his omakase menu — or, for that matter, the $200-per-person fee for cancellations less than 48 hours in advance? That’s something each diner must decide for him- or herself. Suffice it to say that Masa’s toro-stuffed maki rolls inspire ecstatic reactions, his fugu sashimi (including liver, skin, and intestines) is well worth the frisson you’ll get from consuming this fabled blowfish (toxic if not properly prepared), and his toro with a generous helping of caviar seems almost worth the price of admission. That said, à la carte selections are also available.
More from The Daily Meal:
What Did Dracula Eat? 10 Transylvanian Foods You’ve Probably Never Tasted
World’s 21 Deadliest Delicacies
16 Ways People Eat Eggs Around the World
WATCH: The Latest Foodie Hot Spot Is … Greenland? No, Really!
Let Yahoo Travel inspire you every day. Hang out with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Check out our original adventure travel series A Broad Abroad.
