Do you eat at real Sushi restaurants or phony ones?

[Mr.X]

Trout: Does not taste too good raw.
Shark: They will eat anything and apparently, that gets into their flesh.
One other warning: If you go out on the half-day fishing boat, don't sample the bait or the catch -- it really upsets those around you to see you sampling the bait. (Don't ask how I know.)

Very interesting. Trout and other fish flesh can carry a variety of parasites. I have often seen nematodes parasites wriggle out of the flesh. Ick.

Sharks need to have the flesh purged of nitrogenous waste. That's why a soaking in water or milk overnight is often recommended by chefs. Eating it straight out of the water would probably not be advisable.

I once ate the flesh of a 15 foot Sleeper Shark and it tasted great - after a night of soaking and deep fat frying. Blue shark fresh off the boat - phoeey. Come to think of it I have never seen shark sushi, or sashimi? X

 

[ScubaTexan]

Did your last sushi bar have a fully trained and qualified head sushi chef?
Yes

When you entered the establishment does the sushi chef recognize you immediately.
No, but it doesn't bother me. He serves hundreds of people every day. I don't expect him to remember me.

Do you eat at a table, or do you eat at the bar where you can see the food being prepared?
Both. Depends on availability at the bar.

Have you tried raw urchin combined with rice in a proper seaweed wrap?
Can't say that I have.

I don’t care about what sushi I get because I drown it out with beer.
Not true. I usually drink iced tea with it.

The best sushi I've ever eaten was at a restaurant in London called YO! SUSHI! It is literally automated. The chefs prepare the sushi and set it out on conveyer belts that run by the bar. Patrons select which dishes they want, which are color-coded to determine the prices of each. The sushi was very fresh and tasty. I don't recall it having fugu (I rather doubt it, actually), but the variety was tremendous. A robot runs around the dining area with drinks for the patrons. It was a lot of fun. There are supposed to be others in Tokyo and Honolulu. Has anyone else ever heard of YO! SUSHI!?

 

[dlndavid]

no, but have eaten at Shushi Bars with "moats"

 

[jiveturkey]

Did your last sushi bar have a fully trained and qualified head sushi chef?
I don't know but she was awful cute.

When you entered the establishment does the sushi chef recognize you immediately. No,but I'm not a regular. She said "ososayo" because she spoke Korean, not Japanese.

Do you eat at a table, or do you eat at the bar where you can see the food being prepared?
Most recently it was takeout. But I've eaten at conveyor belt sushi bars in Nagoya. Very cool.


Have you tried raw urchin combined with rice in a proper seaweed wrap?
Yes, but I don't like it.

I don’t care about what sushi I get because I drown it out with beer.
No, I don't do that.

 

[ItsBruce]

When I ate the shark, it had been dead less than 20 minutes. Had I had a few less beers, I'd have waited until it was cooked. Of course, I would also have thought better of using the marine radio to ask if anyone in Avalon Harbor had any wasabi.

 

[El Orans]

The best sushi I've ever eaten was at a restaurant in London called YO! SUSHI! It is literally automated. The chefs prepare the sushi and set it out on conveyer belts that run by the bar. Patrons select which dishes they want, which are color-coded to determine the prices of each. The sushi was very fresh and tasty. I don't recall it having fugu (I rather doubt it, actually), but the variety was tremendous. A robot runs around the dining area with drinks for the patrons. It was a lot of fun. There are supposed to be others in Tokyo and Honolulu. Has anyone else ever heard of YO! SUSHI!?

http://www.yosushi.com

I'll let you know on Tuesday...

 

[RikRaeder]

We've got those galore over here. Maybe not too many with robots, but kaiten-zushi (revolving sushi it's usually translated as, but I feel this gives the wrong impression) is very common. Conveyors, color-coded plates. Old hat. The problem I've found with similar setups in California is that some sushi tends to stay on the plate too long and gets yucky.
Oh, and yes. I'm eating only the finest sushi (no doubt poached by longliners from an ocean near you), cut by real Japanese Sushi-teers, from real Japanese restaraunts and paying low-low Japanese prices (really, seafood is so cheap here; guess long-liners are cost effective!)
It's a guilty pleasure, but whatcha gonna do?

 

[El Orans]

I had a couple of dinners and lunches at YO! SUSHI! Very good sushi. Took some back to eat on the train as well. May be old hat for others, not for me.

 

[chepar]

The best sushi I've ever eaten was at a restaurant in London called YO! SUSHI! It is literally automated. The chefs prepare the sushi and set it out on conveyer belts that run by the bar. Patrons select which dishes they want, which are color-coded to determine the prices of each. The sushi was very fresh and tasty. I don't recall it having fugu (I rather doubt it, actually), but the variety was tremendous. A robot runs around the dining area with drinks for the patrons. It was a lot of fun. There are supposed to be others in Tokyo and Honolulu. Has anyone else ever heard of YO! SUSHI!?

I've heard of YO! SUSHI! in London, but I've not heard that we have it here in Honolulu. We do have several other restaurants using the conveyor belt concept, though - Gengki Sushi being the most popular. They have several restaurants and all of them are crowded all of the time. Not really traditional style sushi, but I like it.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Yes. I mean no. How does one answer a double-barrelled question such as this by checking off a box?

For me a "real" sushi restaurant would be a tiny hole-in-the-wall in Japan where itamae-san selects sushi for me based on what I've liked before, even if I've only had a single order up to then. It's usually very below-the-radar and offers nothing but sushi and sashimi and thus has no tables at all. Typically, there would be no ingredients on display in "Neta Cases." It is likely to offer unusual or distinctive sushi such as odori-ebi, basashi, or fugu.

There ya' go! Sitting at the counter with the little conveyor belt is nice, too. "Kaiten-zushi"

Yummmmmm.....