Sushi of Gari
http://www.sushiofgari.com/
402 E. 78th Street, New York, NY 10021
Friday, September 28, 2007

Today was my last day with a job I'd been at for about 28 months. I start a new job on Monday - no rest for the weary. Even though I didn't really want to go out to eat, my wife was dropping some hints and I knew she had wanted to go back to SOG for some time. We've been to Yasuda, Poke, all the Nobu's in NYC, Seki and Sen-Nin (uptown), as well as some others (including a nice one in the Lake Success shopping center on Long Island and another one out on LI somewhere...). Some are good, some were garbage but Sushi of Gari is one of my top two favorites. I decided to commemorate the occasion of my leaving my job and make her happy at the same time. I called the restaurant and was able to get a seat, but alas, Chef Gari wasn't available. Being that we didn't sit with him the first time we came and still thought it was some of the best sushi we ever had, we figured that sitting with any of the master sushi chefs at the bar would be a fantastic experience.

I wish taking pictures of food while eating wasn't tacky - and yet tons of people still do it - because these pieces of sushi are as beautiful as they are delicious. We decided to just let the chef prepare pieces for us at his discretion. At a place like SOG where there is such a variety of fish, if you try to do it on your own you might miss something truly wonderful. My thinking is that if you trust the chef, he will give you what he likes best and come up with some really wonderful combinations - or he might just use it as an opportunity to unload some fish that really hasn't moving all week. Oh well....

While I don't recall the exact pieces and combinations, I will say that SOG is amazing in that the quality of the fish is akin to the buttery perfection of a perfectly dry-aged piece of Prime grade steak. The fish just melts in your mouth and you taste the sweetness, the natural fattiness, the creaminess - all so amazing. In addition, they pair each piece with some kind of condiment. Most sushi places don't do this at all and unless your a place like Yasuda, where the fish is perfection, these lesser places could probably use some cover for their fish. However, other places that I've been that also use condiments with their fish don't seem to do it as well as SOG does. Jalapeno with a marinade, a humus-like sauce, a ceviche like marinade, roasted tomatoes - these are just to name a few of the condiments that are paired with the fish. Each condiment only goes with certain fish. These guys are amazing at what they do. The condiments never overpower and only seem to accentuate and enhance the flavors of the fish.

The one thing that we had - which my wife ordered, surprise, surprise - was a soft-shell crab roll. I love soft-shell crab, but in a roll it is a huge and unwieldy thing. It falls apart and you don't truly get to enjoy the soft-shell crab. They put some mayo-like substance in it and this reminds me of garbage like Philadelphia rolls and other crap that people waste their time eating at sushi places when they should just be sticking to sashimi and sushi. If I do rolls, I'd rather just do plain, clean cucumber or tuna rolls. For that matter, I'd rather just eat the raw tuna.

My wife also insisted on ordering dessert - her beloved Mochi. I had a feeling it wouldn't be so great here and I was hoping she'd pass. Maybe I'm just used to the awesome Mochi that Momofuku serves and don't think that anywhere else will surpass theirs. Well she ordered it and it wasn't great. Just unnecessary fluff for the tummy after a great meal and unnecessary fluff for what was already going to be a big bill. I would say that we had about 10-12 pieces of fish each, the crab roll and one dessert and with tax and tip it was $250. Maybe we had more fish but I'm pretty sure we didn't have less than 10-12 pieces. Overall, I would like to try some other sushi places in the city, but I really don't think they will be nearly as good as SOG is.