SUGARFISH by sushi nozawa — Restaurant in New York

4.75

I unfortunately have not been able to try the California locations, so I was very happy when this opened up.

I waited two hours to sit down.. such a long wait. But hey, it was worth it! I knew there would be a long wait since this establishment recently opened. Got there at around 5pm on a Wednesday and sat down by 7pm. They at least have a texting system in place that will message you when your table is almost ready and they give a 15 minute window to return. There is also an area upstairs that is a nice waiting area (in addition to the very small area at the entrance of the restaurant) that is good to have a chat and relax while waiting.

Upon sitting, I looked over the menu, which had a great choice of sushi, sashimi, and etc. Many items caught my eye, so I decided to go for their most expensive set, the Nozawa Trust me! You save a few dollars getting it as all ($51 compared to around $65+ if you get everything separately).

My order of the Nozawa Trust Me consists of the following: (all sushi comes in two pieces), Edamame, Tuna Sashimi, sushi that included of Albacore, Salmon, Yellowtail, Snapper, Sea Bass, and Scallop, hand rolls that consisted of Toro and Blue Crab. As a note, they did not have Hirame (which is normally on their Trust Me menu), so they had substituted it for Snapper and the special that night was Scallop.

Of course the star of the show was the sushi. Many of the pieces I had felt like the fish melted in my mouth. I honestly could taste the freshness in these pieces of sushi and sashimi here. My favorite ones included the Tuna Sashimi, Salmon, Albacore, and the Toro hand roll. As a note for the hand rolls, it is best to eat them once they are delivered to you, as this allows you to best experience the combination of the warm seaweed paper and rice with the fish. So DON'T LET IT SIT TOO LONG!

I have also had the pleasure of trying their Albacore Belly and Uni sushi. Both are superb! The day I got the Uni it was from Santa Barbara, CA. It was definitely the highlight of that particular meal!

Anyways, service here was excellent and I would definitely come back again (hopefully the wait will not be as long.. but I have heard people quoted longer wait times).

NOTE: Prices here already take tipping into consideration, so there is no need to provide an additional tip upon...

Let me start off with saying that the freshness of the sushi and rolls were BOMB. They were great. The crunchy seaweed paper and warm rice really does make a difference. The fish cuts tasted fresh, and it's clearly very different from other sushi joints.

HOWEVER. $10 for two small pieces of sweet shrimp (literally one piece for me, the other for the bf) was just... not really worth it for me. Was it good? Yes. Was that worth $10? No, sorry. I could have gotten a shrimp tempura roll with the tail still at the end at the sushi place 3 blocks away.

The edamame was disappointing. It was $10 for what looked like 10 pieces, and it was cold. I've never had cold edamame... it's always hot at any place I go to. Maybe it's just their thing? Dont know. But I wont complain too much about it.

The spicy salmon tasted better than the spicy fatty tuna, in my opinion. It did melt in my mouth, but I felt like sauce was needed on the side. The menu states (and the waiter, too) that they dont serve sauce with your rolls or sushi. ...ok, fine. I guess the chefs want you to experience sushi/maki the way it's supposed to. BUT if after that first or second bite of whatever roll I got just isnt doing it for me, I feel like sauce should be an option available. I personally would have loved more spicy mayo or eel sauce on the side. But I'm sure if I begged for any sauce, it would have been like $5 extra. So I didnt bother trying.

The waiter did do a good job at explaining whatever we had questions about. But honestly, I wouldn't come back unless it's a special date night & if I dont mind spending a few extra bucks for that crunchy seaweed bite. The place felt like somewhere you take a date you're really into, or a place for an expensive girls night out, or maybe even a quick bite to eat if you got money to spend like that.

I'm a panko-sprinkled, -imitation crab, -chopped up spicy mayo with tuna, -shrimp tempura tail left on the roll, -warm edamame- type of person.

If you scrolled to the bottom to find out what's the end point:

Yeah they're good, if you dont mind spending. But no, I wouldnt wanna be a regular here just because...

Been there twice and both times ordered the Nozawa Trust me. Food have been consistently good and quite filling as they are generous with the rice portion.

However, I rate my overall experience 1 star due to the terrible service from a specific waitress I had. When I initially came in, I asked the hostess if they would be able to store a cake I brought to celebrate my friend’s birthday & engagement. She spoke with the manager and they allowed me to do so, but I could not light any candles or sing hbd out loud. Basically she said it has to discreet but we were allowed to enjoy our cake at the end of the meal. Which was completely fine with me.

Here comes the miserable waitress we got. At the end of the meal, she was quick to give us the bill and there was no cake. I guess she didn’t have the capability remember such a small thing. I had to remind her about the cake and she brought it out with an attitude. The cake was still in the box in the plastic bag. Couldn’t they have at least taken it out on a plate? Then, I don’t know what went through her empty head to decide to immediately take away our plates. How was we supposed to eat? With our hands? During this whole time, I did not say anything and was nothing but courteous to her. Then I nicely asked her to please get us plates to eat the cake. Then she proceeds to look at us directly and roll her eyes as if doing the most basic requirement of her job was such a nuisance for her and she wanted to let us know that. The situation could’ve been avoided anyway if she had the brain cells to not take away the plates in the first place. Her self hating projecting attitude spoiled our mood and we wanted to just pay and eat our cake elsewhere and she grabbed the bill and my card out of my hand with such attitude. All in all, good food, pitiful waitress with bad service. I truly hope she gets the help and common sense she so clearly...