Happy Noms

Authors: Victor and Ken
Restaurant: New York Sushi Ko
Chef: John Daley
Website: http://newyorksushiko.com/

Date: June 12, 2013
Dinner

Notes:

New York Sushi Ko just opened on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, and it consists of a sushi bar that can seat seven and a small table that can seat four. You make reservations by calling or texting the number listed. They have pretty late hours, and Chef Daley mentioned that he made the hours so late because he likes serving other people who also work in the restaurant industry. (I don’t know how truthful he was being when he said this, though!)

There are four main menu options: 3 courses, 5 courses, 7 courses, and an open-ended omakase (it generally comprises 9 to 12 courses). We went with the open-ended option, as we wanted to try as much of Daley’s food as possible.

The restaurant’s only two days old, so they’re still working out kinks. I liked what I saw, though! The staff was really friendly and unpretentious, and the atmosphere felt fun and exciting—the staff seemed to enjoy what they were doing, and the customers enjoyed the food. Chef Daley’s loud, relatively wild (at least for a chef), and fun to be around; he definitely made the meal both more lively and relaxing.

The major problem is that Chef Daley is pretty much the only guy preparing the dishes during service… and he has to prepare dishes for up to 11 people. Meals took longer than necessary for some people, but Chef Daley acknowledged this and thanked customers for their patience. We got lucky because we were seated at 9:15 p.m.—by 10:30 p.m., most of the customers had cleared out, so we received our food at an accelerated (or what should be normal?) pace.

Thoughts on the sushi:

The fish was very fresh, and most of it was flown in from Japan. A few things were from other countries; for instance, some of the uni was from Chile and California, and some of the Bluefin tuna was from Spain.

The sushi rice could have been slightly warmer and softer; the rice felt too hard/grainy at times. I wonder if it was because we were eating sushi so late—it was around 11:00 p.m. when we started eating sushi! Still, for a restaurant that was only in its second day of service, the rice was pretty solid.

In the end, I had an enjoyable meal with Chef Daley and the rest of the staff and customers, and there were truly some outstanding dishes and sushi pieces. I can’t say that the meal was perfect because I thought the sushi rice was slightly off. I’ll definitely come back in the future, though, to try new dishes and have more of the sushi! (The place is definitely worth checking out, and it’s still very new—you should go while reservations are relatively easy to make!)

Click here to see pictures of the food!