May 23, 2009
游壽司
Wife's sister took us to this tiny sushi bar near Yongkang St. to celebrate her new job at IBM. With barely a dozen seats and good Internet word-of-mouth, reservations are critical. The entire store-front is barely wide enough for the sushi bar and facing stools, and not much longer, either. Service consisted of three sushi chefs and a hostess, which is quite an extravagant ratio, when you consider the size of the place.
The available sushi options are scribbled on a blackboard, based on what was fresh at the fish market that day. One can choose a-la-carte from the blackboard list, but all of us simply chose a set meal, each containing set number of pieces of sushi but the contents of which are at the chef's discretion. There was a good variety, demonstrating different techniques, flavors, and textures.
- The sashimi donburi is the centerpiece of their most popular set meal. Big chunks of tamago, salmon, tuna, and salmon roe covered the bowl of rice. Garnished with julienned shiso.
- The aji mackerel is pre-cut and marinated with sesame seeds and shiso, ready to be piled onto the gunkan-maki roll.
- The sushi chef created surface texture with some delicate knife work, which broke up the stranded meat of the squid to make it easier to chew. Flanked by pickled daikon and ginger.
- Some say too large a piece of fish can overwhelm the balance with the sushi rice. Screw them. When it comes to tuna, the more the better.
- Ordered the scallop a la carte, in addition to our sushi set meals. Well worth the extra few bucks for the big lump of fresh shellfish meat.
- The chef used the butane torch to good effect on a number of sushi pieces to sear the outside while maintaining the rawness of the fish filet. Plus it makes for an entertaining show for the diners.
- As the sushi pile up on the plate, gotta love how the fish pieces almost entirely obscures the rice underneath. Note the freshly grated wasabi root in the background.
The available seafood isn't as extravagantly high-end as Mitsui, but everything is is fresh and well-handled so no complaints there. It's nice to have some of that secretly-famous hole-in-the-wall Japan sushi bar vibe, but with the ability to converse with the chef, which is actually a big part of what makes those three-star sushi bars worthwhile. And the girls had a good time chatting with the young sushi chefs as they flashed their knives and torches. The cost is much more within our typical budget, too, without having to wait for the rich uncle's treat. Although both places do require advanced reservation, albeit for different reasons. Which explains why nobody ever goes there, because it's too crowded!
游壽司
台北市大安區麗水街18-2號
02-2322-5531