Embarking on a sushi-rating enterprise

Lately it seems sushi places - including some really good ones - are opening up or coming to my attention around where I live. (Yes, in the northern suburbs, believe it or not). In addition, it's possible that my work might start requiring me to drive a lot farther away from home than usual. So I've been thinking about undertaking a personal project to rate my sushi options. My inspiration for this is the LTH Forum thread, Caprese Salad Index.

I have been collecting menus and other data, and tried a few random samples from places that have opened near me recently. I find myself mentally measuring them all against a particular place that I loved in Santiago, Chile - which I might never get a chance to go back to, but at least it serves as a useful benchmark. (If you're wondering what are the odds that there'd be great sushi restaurants in Chile, consider that Asian immigrants and their descendants are all over the west coast of South America.)

What I'm looking for with this post are suggestions on factors that would enter into a sushi restaurant rating system. I think this would be of practical use to LTHers beyond my own radius of regular options. I'm having trouble deciding what should be the rating factors of interest. So far the following come to mind:

- sashimi - quality, variety, price, sustainability
- rolls - quality, variety, price ... is sustainability an issue?
- [I know there is some disdain here on the board for ... whaddyacallit ... the not-so-authentic, let's call it, the "Lake Forest roll"
- I'm wondering whether/how to rate accompanying items such as miso soup and whether they come with or without charge (I've recently started making this at home, and I find that it does bug me to be charged extra for it when I dine out for sushi)
- I'm wondering whether or not to be distracted by hot main dishes available such as tempura, teriyaki, tonkatsu ... should I apply my rating system only to the sushi and sashimi options?
- given that this is not about eating at home, I'm wondering how/if to rate restaurant service and decor

My personal goal in this is to try a bunch of places within my radius and figure out which ones - based on quality, variety, price, service, decor, etc. - most make me want to visit again and again.

If there is already a thread that touches on this, I'm sorry I didn't find it searching, and I welcome anyone's directing me to it.

Katie wrote:

My personal goal in this is to try a bunch of places within my radius and figure out which ones - based on quality, variety, price, service, decor, etc. - most make me want to visit again and again.

Hi katie

Sounds like you're pretty lucky to have so many sushi places popping up where you live. It's a great idea to make a mental, or written, account of how you rate them. Your rating system is likely to change as the project gets started and you expose yourself to more and more sushi.

To me...your idea sounds great!

If it were me, I would try and devise a rating system that kept the food separate from the service and then combined them later. There may be times when I want to know who had the best tasting sushi, service aside.

I'm currently going through a learning phase making sushi at home and I'm currently trying to really pay attention to the sushi rice from each place I visit. It's been said that a sushi place can be judged by the quality of their sushi rice and the sashimi. If these are thought to be exceptional the rest is said to be gravy. I know that the statement can be argued but I wouldn't overlook the sushi rice.

Keep us posted!
dan

The most important things for me are:

Quality of fish (freshness, knife skills of the sushi chef, temperature)
Quality of rice (temperature and texture)
Crispness of nori (are rolls being served to me right away or are they being held allowing the nori to absorb water and turn gummy)

At least for me, very little else matters.

Also, if you're trying to rate sushi I'm not sure why it makes sense to include things like tempura or teriyaki.

Here are some places I am hoping that you will evaluate:

Sushi Masa
701 N Milwaukee Ave Ste 344, Vernon Hills, IL 60061,...
(847) 549-0101

Bowl House
1921 Algonquin Road, Schaumburg
(847) 398-7878

Daruma Japanese Restaurant
1823 W Golf Rd, Schaumburg, IL 60194, USA
(847) 882-9700

I have been to the first two places for sushi, but have not been to Daruma.

Sushi Kushi In Lk Forest is a must to include.
It is reccomended by every Japanese person I know or have heard of...

I also find the Sushi at Kegon in Northbrook to be surprisingly good given that it's actually a teppan restaurant.

I have been to Sushi Kushi in Lake Forest and was impressed, but that was before I started this new hobby, so I'm going to have to visit again. I have not yet tried SushiThai in downtown Libertyville, but I'm intrigued by their menu and looking forward to checking it out. They are scheduled to open another location on Route 60 in Vernon Hills later this year. I will follow up on those Schaumburg and other recommendations too.

The other day I got some sushi to take home from Sushi Kushi San3, also on Route 60, and took home a menu of theirs to study. I liked what I saw at the restaurant and the sushi sampler I ate at home, but mostly I was just trying to stay alive long to get home and eat. It occurs to me that during a sweltering heat wave might not be the best time to evaluate sushi and sashimi offerings. Perhaps I should sit in the air conditioning a while longer making my list of destinations, and venture out for taste-testing when the weather breaks.

I have also bookmarked some notable LTH threads on sushi (I am Katsu's bitch, What's the most "real" or authentic sushi place in Chicago?, etc) that just happened to pop up today, and will search for more when I finish rereading those. And I've subscribed to the RSS feed on the sustainable sushi blog. I foresee lots of pleasant evening reading about sushi.

I think I'm going to like this hobby much better than my last one, which was trying without success to rescue a crashing hard drive. I really hated that one.

I would really suggest also not evaluating a sushi place on their take out. Really good sushi is one of those things that I think just doesn't hold well for more than a minute or two... the rice starts cooling, the fish starts warming, the nori starts getting too wet and everything that was magical about it the moment the itamae made it flies out the window.

Among the things I look for are signs the itamae trained in Japan. That usually means the nigirizushi is made small and tight and with a noticeable vinegar tang to the rice -- the style I prefer (ymmv). Such sushi bars nearly always serve pristine and beautifully cut fish, and they are also likely to offer other items aimed at Japanese rather than American tastes. They do tend to offer fewer of the elaborate everything-but-the-kitchen-sink rolls.

But since you are rating for your own pleasure, the thing to do is rate on how close it comes to your personal favorites.

gonefishin wrote:I'm currently going through a learning phase making sushi at home

Dan, you are much braver than I. I think I have a lot to learn from the pros before I try anything as entry-level as even a California roll at home - though I would love to get to the point of feeling confident about making it myself.* I hope you'll post about your experiences on the learning curve.

*But then again, if I did try this at home, I'm fairly certain that sushi and sashimi would quickly be added to the list of Things That My Dog Will Eat With Me That My Husband Won't.

Katie wrote:

gonefishin wrote:I'm currently going through a learning phase making sushi at home

Dan, you are much braver than I. I think I have a lot to learn from the pros before I try anything as entry-level as even a California roll at home - though I would love to get to the point of feeling confident about making it myself.* I hope you'll post about your experiences on the learning curve.

*But then again, if I did try this at home, I'm fairly certain that sushi and sashimi would quickly be added to the list of Things That My Dog Will Eat With Me That My Husband Won't.

Hi Katie. I'm actually approaching my sushi adventure much different than I do other cooking. I'm shooting for acceptable or functional sushi. With other recipes I'm always shooting for really good recipe, but I realize sushi is about a technique that will never get proficient at. I'm going for minimally acceptable.

What is minimally acceptable? Rice that is improving in flavor and texture, better cutting techniques and better constructing techniques. This is more so something that is purely fun, rather than trying to come up with a killer gumbo, paella, shoulder, etc. Because I know my sushi skills will always be severely limited.




dan

Gonefishin -

I went through a huge learning phase a few years back, and you will be just fine. The knife skills for the sashimi, nigiri will be fine if you are searching for "acceptable." I have given up on mastery. Your maki photo shows that you've rolled the maki over and through a layer of rice resulting in nori in the middle of your roll. It's all aesthetics, but if you want to correct it, and only have rice, and filling in the middle, use less rice, and you'll get the hang of how much rice to use so that your closest edge of rice meets your far edge of rice when you do the roll over. This will result in only rice and filling (no nori) in the middle of your roll. You might not care about it - it doesn't change any flavors, but when I'm rolling now, it looks nicer. As for my nigiri and sashimi, hopefully you'll have more patience with your knife than me, cuz I've basically given up trying to be great at it, and "acceptable" is now my "good."

Also, I really agree with you about the rice. Tiny, tiny, bit sweet, and good tang. I like it a little on the warm side with super cold fish - truth be told. On top of the sugar/salt/rice vinegar, I've been adding a tiny bit of fresh lemon juice trying to come up with an ideal flavor that I've had at a few spots where I really like the rice. Still haven't pinpointed it yet, but it's fun trying!

seebee wrote:On top of the sugar/salt/rice vinegar, I've been adding a tiny bit of fresh lemon juice trying to come up with an ideal flavor that I've had at a few spots where I really like the rice. Still haven't pinpointed it yet, but it's fun trying!

Try using yuzu instead of lemon juice.

Thanks for the advice seebee. I am trying to get better at all aspects of sushi, rolling included. Uramaki still gives me alot of trouble...but I'll eventually work things out.

I've always appreciated going out for sushi and the skill that goes into it, but once I started to dabble in it myself I gained a whole new level of appreciation for the art.

thanks,
dan

Could not agree more, gonefishin!

And stevez - thanks for the tip! Prolly try it out this wknd. Been a while since I made some.

If you are not experienced in the best Sushi establishments run by Japanese employing classically trained Japanese sushi chefs using the best quality ingredients available, it will be like having a someone not familiar with New York deli's rate the local ones here in the Midwest.
Most sushi restaurants are not owned by Japanese and most chefs are not classically trained. That's not to say one can't have good food, but the food is a part of the experience, the traditional Japanese sushi bar is different than what one usually finds in the Midwest.
You need to have your 'bar set' by going to the best available and even then without a study of the traditions and methods employed, you are at best only able to provide a superficial subjective rating.
Kuni's in Evanston and Katsu come to mind for places to start and certainly Sushi Kushi is not bad but the range of items that can be provided is huge and because of your location in Midwest, local regulations of the handling and serving of raw fish, you are hampered. Probably better to start in Japan.
I have been frequenting sushi bars for over 30+ years and have the equipment to make my own sushi/sahimi as well as the resources to source from the best suppliers of fish but I consider myself still an amateur but I do know that if I am not greeted traditionally and the chef is not Japanese and classically trained, then I am eating at the Mcdonalds equivalent of a sushi restaurant.-Dick

I appreciate the input, budrichard, truly I do, but

Probably better to start in Japan

isn't going to be an option for me anytime soon. So it will necessarily be a constrained (to the Chicago area and a few other Midwestern data points) and highly subjective approach, and possibly of no value, in the end, to anyone but me. Still an interesting exercise - for me, anyway. The geeky me likes the challenge of developing the best formula as much as the hungry me likes the idea of eating sushi as often as I can.

I do fully agree with the suggestion to visit the best of the Chicago area's offerings, as well as to read up and learn as much as I can about the topic. I'm looking forward to both.

I'm not sure how to follow up on the earlier suggestion of determining whether the sushi chef was in fact trained in Japan - just ask, I suppose, is the answer, but I'm not as outgoing as some about such things. I'm also, I must say, not entirely persuaded about how key that is: there are good teachers and bad teachers, and good students and bad students, here and in Japan and anywhere else in the world.

I had the opportunity to stop by Happy Sushi (about which there is an LTH thread; I'll hunt it up) in the Ravinia neighborhood of Highland Park today - alas, during the afternoon hours when they are closed between lunch and dinner. They were kind enough to open the door to give me a menu, though. I like this research project.

Katie wrote:I'm not sure how to follow up on the earlier suggestion of determining whether the sushi chef was in fact trained in Japan - just ask, I suppose, is the answer, but I'm not as outgoing as some about such things.

Try asking for ume-shiso maki. If you get a blank stare, the chefs aren't from Japan.

Katie wrote:I'm also, I must say, not entirely persuaded about how key that is: there are good teachers and bad teachers, and good students and bad students, here and in Japan and anywhere else in the world.

Traditional itamae training in Japan is an apprenticeship that takes 10 years or more. Few chefs trained elsewhere will have such a background. If you see a young guy behind the sushi bar, chances are he didn't go through much rigorous training.

Also, I'd guess that around 90 percent of the sushi chefs in Chicago are Korean, and they are largely working in a different style. Korea has its own style of sushi, born in the Japanese occupation after the Sino-Japanese War and adapted to Korean tastes. Then they brought it here and adapted it further to American tastes. So the sushi tends to be larger and more loosely formed, the fish floppier, the rice blander, and you'll see a lot more elaborate combinations and spicy seasonings.

I'm not saying that's not tasty -- but it's different from Japanese tradition. It's marketed as Japanese in the U.S. because Korean restaurateurs think "Japanese food" is more appealing to Americans than Korean food.

Thanks for the clarifications, Leah.

seebee wrote:On top of the sugar/salt/rice vinegar, I've been adding a tiny bit of fresh lemon juice trying to come up with an ideal flavor that I've had at a few spots where I really like the rice. Still haven't pinpointed it yet, but it's fun trying!

Daniel at Tampopo uses a wee bit of fresh squeezed orange juice in his sushi rice.

budrichard wrote:...if I am not greeted traditionally and the chef is not Japanese...

It's true. If you weren't fortunate enough to inherit the sushi gene, you're only capable of producing McDonald's sushi. Scientific fact.

A further clarification of my comments on training: Not all chefs who undergo traditional Japanese apprenticeships are ethnically Japanese.

Also, a lot depends on what kind of sushi you like. If you enjoy escolar rolled up with spicy tuna, dried gourd, tempura crumbs, hot sauce and strawberry slices, then doused with eel sauce (and no, I am not making that up), you probably don't have to concern yourself with the chef's background.