NYCGuide
The Best New Sushi In NYC
Every week we track all the most exciting new openings across the city, and then try as many as we can. And we recently noticed a pattern: there’s a remarkable amount of new sushi to eat in this town. Whether you’re looking for a place to get lunch outside with someone you haven’t seen in a year, or a takeout experience involving marbled otoro in your pajamas, we’re here to recommend a new sushi spot to match your mood. From splurge omakase spots to a fish market that specializes in salmon, here are our favorite new sushi places that have opened recently around NYC.
The Spots
You know a sushi place is special when the team commissions an artist to design the takeout packaging. That’s the case with Sushi Muse, a new takeout and delivery project from the chef of high-end Japanese spots Odo and Hall. Fortunately, the food inside their present-like bento boxes lives up to the design, including some flaky-sweet anago, sparkly silver kohada, and idyllic chutoro that should run for mayor of New York. We’d recommend letting the chef choose your sushi selection by ordering the original, premium, or luxury boxes (which range from $38 to $95), but you can also curate your own nigiri box or get a smaller “salmon lover” or “tuna lover” combo for $23.
Like Settlers of Catan and Gregorian chants, fish markets and sushi spots feel like they were made to be enjoyed together. Fjord Fish Market in Park Slope is a combination fish market/sushi spot with a small sushi case that’ll probably remind you of a grocery store’s setup, but the rolls and nigiri are much better. Especially anything involving salmon, which has that perfect, super buttery consistency. Fjord is a great lunch option, as almost everything is under $15, and even works for a late breakfast - the market opens at 10am and that’s when you can get something to-order from their sushi guy.
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If the year were not 2021, Sushi Kai would probably only serve a tasting menu of 12-ish pieces of lush nigiri in a nondescript room in the East Village. But in the current life and times of raw fish in New York City, this high-end spot also offers a la carte rolls, nigiri, and sashimi for takeout and delivery. That means you can get all of the quality of high-end sushi omakase, (like a smoky yaki tuna that had been lightly seared, buttery medium fatty tuna with scallions, and yuzu arctic char) but in your own home and for less money. Their maki come tightly-wrapped, taller-than-average, and they’ll complement your comparatively unimpressive apartment. The price may certainly be more expensive than a bill from your go-to neighborhood sushi takeout place, but the quality of Sushi Kai’s fish speaks for itself.
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photo credit: Maki Kosaka
This casual offshoot of a fancy omakase spot (called Kosaka) opened in the summer of 2020 near The Container Store in Flatiron. And like America’s foremost Organization Consortium, Maki Kosaka’s perfectly-plated makimono sushi sets will remind you that an orderly, minimalist aesthetic is extremely pleasing to your brain. If you’re comfortable spending $50 on excellent fish for dinner or lunch, get the makimono set. It arrives on one platter with two pieces of toro and scallop onigiri, four large futomaki pieces full of pickled and fresh vegetables, and what Maki Kosaka calls “grab sushi” - three pieces of beautifully-constructed nigiri that you scoop up with fresh, crisp Saga nori sheets from Kyushu, Japan. In case you’d like to supplement your sushi grabbing (or split something with a dining teammate), Maki Kosaka also offers maki roll combo options for under $30, and you can design your own “grab sushi” set.
If you ever grapple with overfishing but can’t give up your weekly spicy tuna craving, Rosella is somewhere you should check out. There aren’t a ton of places in the city that are fully dedicated to making sushi and sashimi out of sustainably-farmed fish, like bluefin tuna from North Carolina or applewood-smoked steelhead trout from inland farms. That’s what this East Village restaurant is all about, and their chirashi is a great way to get a sampling of their sashimi.
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