Sushiden – Another Good Midtown Sushi Restaurant

Sushiden has been around for a long time and I’ve been here before, but only for business dinners which don’t really allow you to fully enjoy the meal because you sit at a table not at the sushi bar and you end up ordering stuff to make sure everyone is okay with the food not what you would order on my own.  However, even under those circumstances I remembered liking the food, so when my girlfriend and I decided to go see Cirque Du Soleil at Rockefeller Center, I decided it would be a good chance to try Sushiden again since it’s right next to Rockefeller (fyi, Sushiden has two locations on here and one on Madison).

The restaurant is fairly large with a sushi counter and small seating upfront and then a larger dining room in the back with some private dining rooms as well.  The waitresses are dressed in kimonos and the sushi chefs in typical white chef’s gear with chef hats.  The customer base was mainly Japanese and completely Japanese at the sushi bar.  The service was good and attentive as to be expected at a good Japanese restaurant.

Here’s what we got:

Sea Bream:

This was from Japan.  The fish was fresh and had a slight richness about it that was nice.  For this piece the rice was served slightly warm and the chefs were discussing the rice for a while, so I believe the batch was slightly messed up b/c it was still too hot.  They use a little more vinegar then I prefer, but the flavoring was still good.  7.75/10

Horse Mackerel (Aji):

This was from Japan.  It was served with a little bit of minced scallions and horse radish. Horse mackerel is an oily and slightly fishy tasting fish. The version here was good.  For this piece and the pieces to follow, the rice was normal temperature, so I’m pretty sure the rice was messed up on the first piece, the rice was much better when it was cooler. 8/10

Jackfish:

This was from Japan. It’s a fairly simple white that is fairly lean.  It had good texture and was mild in flavor.  Overall, it was a good piece of fish.  7.75/10

Giant Sweet Shrimp:

This was from Canada. This was quite good, the shrimp was sweet and it had a good soft texture.  8.25/10

Japanese Skipjack:

This was served with a little bit of minced scallions and horse radish.  I believe skipjack is a type of tuna. It was a quite tender and mild flavored fish.  7.75/10

Fresh Octopus with Salt:

This was recommended by the chef as one of his favorites of the day.  The octopus was excellent, it was very tender and the salt that was sprinkled on it really added an extra dimension to the flavor.  This was very good and probably my overall favorite piece of sushi.  8.5/10

Sakai Salmon:

A nice piece of salmon that had good flavor and texture.  7.75/10

Medium Fatty Toro:

This was from Spain.  It didn’t look all that pretty to be honest, but it tasted quite good.  It was nicely fatty as toro always is and had a good rich flavor.  8/10

Grilled Octopus Suction Cups:

This was interesting as it was prepared on a skewer like a yakitori.  The chef sprinkled a little bit of salt on it.  It had a good grilled flavor to it and the octopus was still reasonably tender.  7.75/10

Abalone:

This was from Seattle.  I’m not a fan of raw abalone as it is rather tasteless and somewhat hard.  However, the version here was pretty decent as far as raw abalone goes although I’m still not a huge fan of it.  7.25/10

Japanese Mackerel:

This was quite good; it had to nice richness from being an oily fish without having an overly fishy flavor that bad mackerel can have.  8.25/10

Uni:

This was from San Diego.  It was rich, creamy and still had like slightly briny seawater flavor that I love.  8.25/10

Chopped Toro with Takuan (Pickled Daikon):

This was a nice addition to the meal.  The richness of the toro went well with the tartness of the takuan and the saltiness of the soy sauce.  8/10

Anago:

This was served two ways, half with salt and half with the sweet eel sauce.  The flavor was good and the meat was nicely tender.  8/10

Kumamoto Oyster:

This was a simple oyster served with a ponzu sauce with scallions.  The oyster was fresh and pretty meaty and ponzu sauce is a great sauce for an oyster.  7.75/10

I liked Sushiden and the sushi is quite good although I don’t think it makes my list of top tier in NY, which I reserve for Yasuda, 15 East and Kuruma.  However, it is in that solid 2nd tier of sushi restaurants in NY.

Address:
123 W 49th St (between 6th and 7th Avenue)
New York, NY 10020
(212) 398-2800
https://www.sushiden.com/