Beyond Sushi

Whenever I go to a Japenese restaurant, I always struggle with which sushi roll to order because I love cucumber avocado rolls and sweet potato tempura rolls, but it would be too much food for me to get both (since I also always get chicken yakitori and salad).  Ultimately, my love of avocado pretty much wins every time and I order the cucumber avocado roll.  One of the last times that my sister and I went for sushi, I told her I had found a solution to my problem: order one roll with sweet potato tempura and avocado inside!  It sounded like a genius idea, but I felt too weird asking for it so I chickened out and got the cucumber avocado.  Then, when we were walking through Chelsea Market, we passed a place called Beyond Sushi, The Green Roll.  Intrigued, we stopped and looked at the menu only to see that one of their rolls, the Sweet Tree, has sweet potato and avocado inside!  It was close to dinner time so we had to pass it up, but I made it my mission to give Beyond Sushi a try.

So, today I braved the scorching heat outside and made my way to Beyond Sushi by Union Square.  They only make vegetarian sushi rolls, pieces, and rice paper wraps, which is perfect for me because the only sushi I eat is vegetarian.  They also use either six grain rice or black rice for their rolls, which is really unique, and they have a wide array of special sauces that are paired with each roll.  A lot of the menu items peaked my interest, but I of course had to get the Sweet Tree.  It has sweet potato and avocado on the inside, and six grain rice with alfalfa sprouts on the outside.  It also comes with their toasted cayenne sauce, but I chose to swap that our for the sweet soy mirin sauce.

I got there early so there were seats available, but I decided to take it to go.  If you are planning to go during the peak lunch hour, you should plan on taking it to go because the seating is extremely limited. Also, there was only one person making the rolls when I went so you should also factor in some wait time.  Each roll comes with 8 pieces, and when you get it to go the sauce is in a really cool tube on the side (if you stay, the sauce is on top).   

This roll was really delicious, and just what I had been craving.  The rice is really nice and there is not too much of it, which I appreciated. The combination of sweet potato and avocado on the inside was perfect, and the alfalfa sprouts added a nice crunch.  I highly recommend getting this with the sweet soy mirin sauce instead of the toasted cayenne that usually comes with it.  It kind of reminded me of an eel sauce, which I always pair with sweet potato rolls.  This roll is even better than what I would've gotten in a regular sushi restaurant because the sweet potato is not tempura, so it is much healthier.  

Some of the other rolls that they have here are the Mighty Mushroom, which is six grain rice, enoki, tofu, shitake, micro arugula and shitake teriyaki, the Spicy Mang, which is black rice, avocado, mango, english cucumber, spicy veggies and toasted cayenne sauce, and the Nutty Buddy, which is buckwheat noodles, cashews, carrots, cilantro, jalapeno peanut butter, avocado, sesame oil, tofu, romaine, and sweet soy mirin.  They also have individual pieces like Mango, Carrot, and Baked Tofu, so they really have a great range of options.  Of course you have to be open to strictly vegetable sushi to truly enjoy the food here, but if you are like me and love vegetable sushi rolls you should definitely give Beyond Sushi a try.

Umi Sushi

Sushi restaurants in the city can basically be found on every block, but the tricky part is separating the good ones from the bad ones.  Even more tricky is spotting the gems that tend to be under the radar instead of going to the typical expensive Japanese restaurants in the city.

Even though I don't like fish, I love Japanese food and sushi.  My love for it, however, does not even compare to my sister, who could literally eat Japanese food for every meal every day.  So, when we moved to the city, one of the first things we did was try to find a good Japanese restaurant near our apartment.  After searching multiple times on Google Maps, Zagat, and Yelp, we decided to try out Umi, a very small and understated Japanese restaurant on 31st street between Lexington and Park.  And, after one visit, we knew we had found our place.

Umi is that neighborhood Japanese restaurant that you would expect to find in the suburbs, not off the bustling streets of New York City.  The menu is very simple and straightforward, and they don't try to do anything overly fancy, they just make really fresh and good food.  They have a wide variety of sushi, sashimi, specialty rolls, appetizers, and hot dishes like Teriyaki and Bento Boxes.  The waiters there are also super nice and friendly, and after a few times of going there they remembered us and our orders.

I am a creature of habit, so I pretty much get the same thing every time.  I always start out with a garden salad with ginger dressing on the side.  While I have had my fair share of ginger dressings, I can objectively say that they have one of my all time favorites.  The ginger taste really comes through and it is not over powering.  Next, I always get the Yaki Tori appetizer (as my main course) and a cucumber avocado roll.  The yaki tori comes with two skewers of chicken, onion, and scallions smothered in a delicious and sweet teriyaki sauce, and topped with some sesame seeds.  It is the perfect portion size and it is really delicious.  Even though cucumber avocado rolls tend to be pretty standard, something about theirs just tastes so much better to me.  I think it is because they don't put too much rice on the sushi, and there is a very generous amount of avocado.  Sometimes, I also get a Sweet Potato Roll which is delicious as well, especially when dipped in eel sauce.

Even though I don't eat fish so I can't personally comment on their sushi, I can rely on the rave reviews of my sister and friends.  According to her, they have some of the best sushi that she has ever had.  I could even tell that it was good because the raw tuna had a super bright red color to it so that you could tell it was extremely fresh.  My sister has never had any bad sushi here, and she could not praise it more.  Even though she generally always gets sushi, she has also ordered the Salmon Teriyaki.  What is great about their salmon is that they use sushi grade salmon for the teriyaki.  Since it is sushi grade, you know it has to be extremely fresh since it is the same exact fish that they are serving raw.  This shows that they really care about the product they are serving and they want everything to be as fresh and delicious as possible.

I highly recommend Umi to anyone looking for a great, high quality Japanese restaurant.  It is, in fact, one of my favorite restaurants in the city.  I know it may be tempting to go to the more well known and fancy places like Nobu and Morimoto, but there is really something to be said about the smaller, neighborhood establishments that deliver a high quality product at a reasonable price.  Don't let the understated exterior fool you, if you go to Umi you will be sure to leave feeling full and completely satisfied.