Just came back from Tokyo, managed to dine at Hiroo Ishizaka again. However from the first bite the sudden & sad realization that Sushi dosent give me that mouth orgasm anymore made me start to think, what do people really like about sushi?
Let talk about the sashimi, the freshness & bouncy texture of white fish & shellfish is great but is it really eye-rolling amazing? The stronger tasting pieces such as the otoro, uni, anago, abalone, ebi more or less have the same taste after dining at so many places. I know what to expect & It just dosent really excite me anymore. Dont get me wrong it is delicious but at the end of the day, to pay such high prices for each piece of sushi.. I was wondering if it was worth it.
To those people who have dined at the absolute top echelon of sushi ie Saito, Ammamoto etc, I have a question for you. Is Sushi there really so much different from other "excellent sushi restaurants"? Is there really another higher plane/dimension of pleasure that one can derive from Sushi that is only possible from such places?
From my trip, I actually derived much more satisfaction from mid-end places such as sushi bullpen. Price point aside, the fact that those places do not require ridiculous reservation means and that the sushi was decent and managed to satisfy my cravings got me really thinking if it was worth it to go through the hassle & pain (wallet wise) of dining at top end sushi spots.
by AloneFunny5516
12 Comments
No.
Sushi is not overrated.
High high end sushi is much better than “expensive sushi”
Yes sushi is overrated. It’s still delicious though
It’s not elite cooking to slice up pieces of raw fish, yummy as they are
And I agree with you that good sushi is competitive with “great” sushi. Not like the difference between good and great cooking
As a whole? Don’t be a silly goose
I think how you’re wording things is wrong. I don’t think sushi is overrated, it’s more like a lot of high end sushi restaurant or places itself are overrated. Sometimes it’s just hard to compare 2 otoro sushi nigiri from like high end and mid lvl. Most people wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference. If most are getting the freshest and best from the same place, then it just all comes down to technique and seasoning, and it’s just going to taste similar unless the chef is doing some unique things instead of the traditional edomae sushi.
Ive done some starred sushi and ive been to Japan. Some of the best sushi I had was in a train station in japan because I hadn’t eaten all day and was starving. It was high quality and so fresh, for sure, but I mean it was no fine dining. Some of the other best sushi I’ve had was starred places. The context you eat the food in matters IMO. If the experience is good, what does the price tag matter?
I like sushi a lot, but for the life of me I cannot tell the difference between sushi at a one michelin star restaurant and a two/three. It’s all just good for me.
So, overrated? Not if its reasonably affordable. When it starts getting to be $500+, I start questioning it though
People are trying to protect their investment of tens of thousands of dollars in high end omakase by compulsively downvoting me, so I feel compelled to repeat it: OP is right, sushi is overrated. That doesn’t mean sushi’s not good. We all like sushi. But it has come to have a totally disproportionate role in fine dining. Fine cooking is about combining multiple ingredients in compelling surprising and harmonious ways through the use of technique. It’s not about cutting small pieces of raw fish. The difference between the most celebrated sushi establishments and simply good quality sushi is nothing close to the difference between e.g the very best French cooking and a good French restaurant
Rather than try to suppress this rather common sense statement through the histrionic use of downvotes you should use the reply feature to explain why it is wrong
They will downvote you too, OP, but I applaud your courage.
To be honest, I can’t really tell the difference between good sushi and great sushi, but I wouldn’t say sushi is overrated. At least in Japan, it’s a deeply rooted culture, even an art form.
One thing I do appreciate, though, is that sushi doesn’t allow bad flavors or poor-quality ingredients to be hidden by cooking techniques. So the fact that I can say a meal with no single piece of sushi that tasted bad is already something quite remarkable to me.
It’s a personal preference and you can only get subjective answers. I like sushi but won’t spend stupid amounts of money for it. I prefer places that aren’t fully “fine dining” worthy. I had amazing hamachi kama at Sushi Ran in Sausalito CA when they had a star (only bib gourmand now). Madcap in San Anselmo, CA is an amazing value and their menu leans Japanese. I can’t say enough good things about it *for the price*.
Some are more worth it than others.
The measure of good sushi depends on who you ask. That person may or may not have visited Tokyo and experienced the baseline quality of sushi omakase in Ginza.
I’ve had so much bad sushi recommended to me by other people in the U.S. over the years that at this point I trust virtually no one when it comes to sushi recommendations unless they have spent time trying out traditional Edomae omakase in Tokyo to form an informed opinion. Same goes for ramen. I get a chuckle reading reviews by locals of mediocre sushi restaurants, as if they were world class. That said, I really appreciate when I find people who have taste based on experience.
I also quickly deviated from a sushi focus to other things in Japan such as tempura omakase at Tempura Motoyoshi in Shibuya, Iruca Ramen in Roppongi Hills and Gyukatsu Motomura in Harajuku. Quite a few people here probably already know that there’s a lot more than just sushi when you are in Japan.
Seeking only Korean BBQ in Seoul is similarly unfortunate when there are many other other Korean dishes such as Pyongyang Naengmyun, galbijjim, sooyook, Junjoo bibimbap, samgyetang, etc.
Honestly Kaiseki is much better than Omakase if we’re talking about the very high end stuff.