402 E. 78th Street, between 1st and York
New York, NY 10021
(212) 517-5340
Reservations recommended
menu here
I heard a lot of hype about this place before deciding, yeah, I want to try this place. I’d heard rave after rave about how great the sushi was, how inventive the sauces, how wonderful… and it had better damn well be, since it’s a good ten minute walk from the train station, and about 45-50 minutes from my work place- in the opposite direction of home. The place was said to be small, and always a wait, even with reservations, so I sucked it up, made reservations for 7 pm and hoped like hell it would all work out.
On the bright side, SoG is easy to spot and practically on 1st Avenue, so it’s not another half avenue walk before you get there. But on the down side, there’s no room to stand while you wait, and there is definitely a wait. We waited about 15 minutes for our table, although in SoG’s defense, they had a table reserved for us, but an elderly couple (who must’ve been seated over an hour and a half ago) took their time eating, and both the couple and SoG’s maitre’d apologized for the wait.
We all scoured the menu, looking for the interesting, inventive sauced sushi, and found… standard rolls (although I personally hadn’t yet seen toro in a roll… then again I never had toro before last Saturday, so perhaps I just never noticed it). Nothing really jumped out immediately, so finally, we all ordered a bunch of rolls, myself hoping that it would be more than just simply “eel & avocado roll” or “toro & scallion roll”.
But before I get to that, of course, the appetizers! We opted for salmon guacamole, because that sounded interesting, and katsu-ika. Well, on the menu it was called fried ika, but the breading was very katsu-like and it was served with a side of the same sauce that most Japanese restaurants serve when you order katsu.
Honestly, I wasn’t too thrilled with the salmon guacamole. Basically it was a grilled salmon filet, coated in guacamole (after grilling). It was super mushy, and the guacamole a touch too black-peppery for me. I felt it could have been much better than it was, but it just… wasn’t.
The fried ika, on the other hand, since I really like the katsu breading/bread crumbs in general, I really liked. They actually served this tempura (I’ve never had ika tempura before, actually) or this style, and we chose this style. There was also a small salad on the side, which I liked since eating all that fried food tends to make me feel gross, so the tomatoes and cucumbers cooled me down sufficiently to not feel too icky afterwards.
top: spicy shrimp tempura, eel & avocado, yellowtail & scallion, toro & scallion
bottom: fried kaki (oyster), toro & scallion // spicy shrimp tempura, eel & cucumber
The rolls were good, though fairly standard. I partook in the top picture, so I can’t comment on the oyster roll, but everything tasted fairly standard and normal; good, but not fantastic or wonderful. The toro I thought was lacking and probably not worth it (they do not list the price on the menu), the yellowtail was eh, and the eel roll was pretty mushy (but that could be because he misunderstood us while we were ordering- we wanted eel, avocado, and cucumber all in one roll, and we only got eel & avocado). The shrimp tempura roll didn’t taste spicy at all. A point to note, however, was that the wasabi was barely a paste, instead you could see that it was freshly grated Japanese horseradish, which was nice and spicy.
After we scarfed down all that sushi, we realized we were still hungry, so we ordered a salmon roll. This actually proved to be my favorite of the night- which I guess isn’t too surprising since salmon is at the top of my short list for sushi (white tuna being the only item above it)- this was bursting with salmon, really fresh, buttery salmon, and had a touch of wasabi spread in it, so all you needed was a slight dab of soy sauce and you were good. I really liked this roll, even though it still was fairly standard and normal. When we got the bill, I was surprised that it was only $4.50 (most of the rolls hovered around the $7 mark).
So far, Sushi of Gari was not living up to its hype. The rolls were all standard fare, and while we were ordering, the waiter had tried to force us to order the omakase. At $70 for 10 pieces of sushi- $7 a roll- he tried to tell us that it was the same price per person as ordering rolls, which no, it simply wasn’t. I might have gone for it if two of us hadn’t just been to morimoto nyc, one of us was about to go to morimoto nyc, and some of us just simply weren’t into raw fish.
When the dessert menu came around, we shrugged it off and ordered the mille crepe; the description read “thin crepes with an ethereal and creamy custard filling.” We also opted for the special, a homemade chocolate mousse with a vanilla ice cream.
mille crepe // chocolate mousse
The mille crepe wasn’t exactly what we were expecting: this is just an ordinary crepe layer cake (which, honestly, you must need infinite patience to make). It was good, but again, nothing outstanding and wonderful. It tasted very… standard.
The chocolate mousse, on the other hand, presentation definitely won it extra points (spun sugar on a pistachio, raspberry sauce drizzles, gold glittery markings on the top of the mousse itself). The mousse itself tasted off to me- not bad/rotten, but the flavor wasn’t quite right. I wanted to say it was dark chocolate, but it wasn’t; it just was… odd. The raspberry sauce was super tart, which was nice, but the vanilla ice cream was very flat and one dimensional in taste. Eh.
Yvo says: It wasn’t expensive- final total was $27/person, for 5 people, no alcohol, two appetizers, nine rolls, and two desserts. However, I think this place is strictly – as we all agreed – “I’m in the neighborhood” type of place. Not the kind of place you trek all over town to eat. That or the omakase must be really f’ing good, but even then, how often do you want to pay that much for sushi? When you do, you want it to be the total experience: ambiance, decor, excellent service, excellent food, and everything. This place doesn’t begin to cover the other areas. Our waiter foisted us off on someone else after we refused to order the omakase, and didn’t even look at us again. The place is very, very small. It was a good sign that it was crowded on a Wednesday, but it was also very annoying to maneuver around everyone. I won’t be going back unless I’m definitely getting the omakase and I’m driving, or if I happen to be in the neighborhood one day (unlikely). Also, one of my dining companions got sick from the food.
Benjamin says
Sir, the only way to get the real experience is to ask for Omakase (chef selection). I now live in LA but have crazily cosidered going to NYC just to eat again at GARi