Bondi Sushi — Restaurant in New York

I went into this takeout meal with intentionally low expectations: between the appearance of the menu and the way to slick branding, I did not have high hopes for this meal. Despite that, this still somehow ended up being the most disappointing meal I've had in years.

I'll start with the positives. Great branding and packaging. Fast. Modestly priced. Relatively high quality ingredients.

Negatives: The food. As noted above, the ingredients used (from the fish to the vegetables) all seemed to be really high quality. But they were frankly thrown together with no regard for flavor or texture that completely somewheres the taste of the seafood. The seaweed salad came with a heavy thick sesame dressing more appropriate for romaine. The avocado overwhelmed the salmon in the salmon avocado roll. The scallion overwhelmed the yellowtail on the yellowtail roll. The cucumber was so powerful in the cucumber roll that you could hardly tell it was a roll. The spicy tuna roll (even when I dug out the spicy tuna mix) could not distinguish the tuna. The miso soup was broth and a bit of scallion. In short, it was sushi for people who don't like seafood. Now, bear in mind, my above observations all occurred after I had already lowered my expectations. This just goes to show how bad it is. While I haven't had the grocery store sushi from Fairway up Broadway, I somehow imagine that...

Dropped in as a party of one during happy hour and had the following $5 hand rolls: Crab, lobster, eggplant, and yellowtail My favorite was the crab (warm, cooked) - just chock full of delicious crab meat. Not particularly spicy as described but very tasty. Lobster (cold, cooked) was similar to a lobster roll filling but in a better format with less bread (rice) keeping you from the true lobster texture and taste. Eggplant miso had sliced cucumber - great blend of crisp moist cucumber and the eggplant which they toast warm for you. Yellowtail and scallion had juicy, good-sized morsels or yellowtail. Classic combination. Solid and not a bad deal at all at happy hour. Note this space is small and bar only as far as I can tell. May be difficult for...

What an amazing experience. Kristina was our attentive, efficient and knowledgeable server. She made the dining experience seamless anticipating our needs, politely refilling our drinks and getting rid of dishes accordingly as we went through courses. Thanks for the Sake recommendation it was crisp with a clean finish. The nigiri and handrolls we're sensational, carefully crafted with different textures and flavor profiles happening in my mouth (the truffle avocado was a decadent surprise). The seared toro was buttery and velvety smooth on the tongue. The mochi bites at the end we're a clean and sophisticated way to terminate the outing leaving me satisfied and healed in some ways (emotionally or physically I have yet...