Sushi of Gari Hollywood: A Pictorial Essay

[attran99]

Thanks, @ipsedixit! We’ve got our traditional place in Seal Beach…it would be fun to try something different every now and then.

[PorkyBelly]

@Haeldaur

Well, they do have a restaurant in Tokyo. Perhaps someone will tell me it only attracts tourists, but my experience in Japan is Japanese people are not nearly as purist about their food as western japanophiles.

I don’t think this place would have much success in Tokyo. It’s definitely a New York export, not the other way around. According to their website the toppings and sauce were meant to save his customers the “trouble” of drowning the sushi in soy sauce. So… maybe sushi for new yorkers???

Gari observed many of restaurant clientele eating sushi in undesirable manner. He found that customers used too much soy sauce. In fact, they dipped whole pieces of sushi in the soy sauce, which caused them to taste nothing but the sauce instead of the delicate succulent sushi pieces. Gari wanted diners to enjoy the fresh taste of the fish as well as the delicate sushi rice instead of the soy sauce, so he tried explaining to his customers the better way to eat sushi, with little success.
He decided to create his own brand of sauce to put directly on the sushi during the preparation stage. This meant that customers were saved the trouble of gauging the amount of sauce needed for each piece of sushi.

[ipsedixit]

From what I understand, the Gari in Midtown (or Sushi Gari 46) is a favorite of Japanese business people in NYC for work.

[CiaoBob]

Great report and shots.
Cannot wait to try it.

Most of the pieces remind me of the way they used to return the Space Shuttle from Edwards to Fla.

[J_L]

Total damage (omakase, 18 bonus rounds, 3 desserts and 1 beer): $300 (before tip). Again: I did 18 bonus rounds.

[Ns1]

@J_L

Again: I did 18 bonus rounds.

like a boss.

[Chowseeker1999]

Wow $300 (before Tip)?!

I’m living vicariously through you again.

Although at that price would it be better to eat 2 entire dinners at Shunji or even save another $100 and go to Urusawa instead?

Both of those options seem more appetizing.

[J_L]

Some of the flavor combinations worked much better than others.

My favorite bites of the meal were: The honmaguro akami/tofu/rayu, sake/yaki tomato (their signature bite), hirame/uzura no tamago/truffle (sorry, CiaoBob), “yaki kaki nigiri”, minced toro/takuan, sauteed mirugai, “crispy” unagi/avocado, and the sweet potato dessert.

Some combos didn’t quite work for my palate (but this is obviously subjective): The uni on the zuwaigani was too strong, which drowned out the gentle sweet taste of the crab meat, and the fatty salmon belly was a tad bland.

The searing is not done in front of the customer. Rather, the whole piece of nigiri is taken back to the kitchen briefly immediately after assembly, and seared in its entirety. Now, I have no problems with this practice at all - Just explaining why the shari (rice) looked seared in my photos as well. I actually kinda liked the “socorrat” effect it has on the finished product.

[J_L]

@onelabneh

One of the sushi chefs at Gari is Taketoshi San, formerly of Mori Sushi. So the technique here is definitely going to be on point.

Agree. One of the other diners there during my visit was Morihiro Onodera himself (and Amy Scattergood, so expect a LATimes treatment soon).

[J_L]

The whole nigiri piece seems to have been seared at times. Not necessarily a bad thing, though…

[J_L]

Except the sushi is considerably less aerodynamic…

[J_L]

It all depends on where you fall on the “sushi spectrum”: More on the “traditionalist” end, or the “innovative” end… No right or wrong answers.

Bottom line: I love great tasting food, and there are indeed some great (and unique!) bites here.

[J_L]

AND all 3 desserts, too.

So essentially I had 2.5 omakases.

[linus]

@PorkyBelly

So… maybe sushi for new yorkers???

or maybe…stay with me here…sushi for…people who
want to eat sushi that day or night

.[quote=“ipsedixit, post:23, topic:3387, full:true”]
From what I understand, the Gari in Midtown (or Sushi Gari 46) is a favorite of Japanese business people in NYC for work.
[/quote]

from what i understand, gari is a favourite of people who want to eat sushi and have the money to pay for it.

[notthesea]

It’s okay linus, it is perfectly okay to be casually racist to white people these days.

[matthewkang]

nice report. looks super creative and fun

[noddles]

@J_L

Agree. One of the other diners there during my visit was Morihiro Onodera himself (and Amy Scattergood, so expect a LATimes treatment soon).

Scouting report: Sushi of Gari in Hollywood

[ipsedixit]

@linus

@ipsedixit

From what I understand, the Gari in Midtown (or Sushi Gari 46) is a favorite of Japanese business people in NYC for work.

from what i understand, gari is a favourite of people who want to eat sushi and have the money to pay for it.

Incorrect, your understanding is.

[linus]

silly wabbit.
trix are for kids.

[not_tellin]

Love this angle, esp the bottom line.