Signage is up for sushi restaurant SUGARFISH by Sushi Nozawa at 207 West 75th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam).
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The forthcoming restaurant will be the sixth SUGARFISH in New York City and the first on the UWS. SUGARFISH’s parent brand also owns popular restaurants KazuNori and Nozawa Bar. The chain also has eleven SUGARFISH locations across California.
SUGARFISH states that Nozawa-style sushi is particular in its “strict adherence to traditional sushi: You’ll find no California rolls, spicy tuna rolls, or teriyaki at SUGARFISH. Chef Nozawa believes the sushi experience should be pure and simple.”
This focus on simplicity is exemplified by their “Trust Me” menu options, which give diners curated selections of sushi for a fixed price. These start at $28 for the “Trust Me LITE” lunch and $32 for the dinner version, with more premium options available at a higher price point. Customers can also order à la carte; sushi orders run between $7 and $9, while sashimi and hand rolls are in the $6 to $20 range, depending on the fish.
Marinated tuna sashimi, c/o T.Tseng / Flickr
SUGARFISH is notorious for not taking reservations, preferring to seat customers on a first-come, first-served basis. It’s not unusual to see a line of customers assemble outside SUGARFISH locations, keen to secure a table. Posts online tell tales of hour-plus waiting times and even customers having to head home after the restaurant stopped taking names for its waitlist quite early in the day.
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While SUGARFISH is known to be a favorite among celebrities and sushi connoisseurs, many customers question whether the long waits for tables and in-restaurant experience live up to the hype; online reviews are very mixed.
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The restaurant gets plenty of praise for its casual vibes and reasonable prices while also receiving criticism on sites like TripAdvisor and Reddit for inconsistency across locations in quality and service. Some customers have described the sushi offerings as repetitive; Pete Wells went so far as to use the word “monotony” in his 2017 review for the New York Times.
Yellowtail, snapper and scallop, c/o T.Tseng / Flickr
Various items from a location in LA. c/o Richard / Flickr
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According to the website, SUGARFISH was founded after a conversation between well-known Sushi chef Kazunori Nozawa and his friend, restaurateur Jerry Greenberg. Nozawa opened his first restaurant Sushi Nozawa in Los Angeles in 1978. Kazunori Nozawa and Jerry Greenberg founded Sushi Nozawa Group in 2007 along with Nozawa’s son Tom and others. The group went on to open the first SUGARFISH in Marina del Rey in 2008.
Delivery and pick-up are available at all existing locations, which will likely be the case at the new UWS spot. SUGARFISH is also self-described as a no-tipping establishment.
The restaurant shows no sign of being ready to open just yet. We have contacted SUGARFISH’s press team and will provide updates as soon as we know more.
Visiting LA from NY’s UWS many years ago, I remember eating at the Sugarfish in LA and wondering why the rice “ball” that came with all the sushi offerings was well beyond room temperature, not hot, but too close for comfort. Diners seated next to us told us that this was part of the proprietor’s tradition/style of preparing sushi with warmer than usual rice. I suggested that such a practice detracted from refrigerated sushi remaining chilled as I thought many of us preferred it. Warm-to-hot rice meant warmer fish. No matter, this was what the sushi chef at Sugarfish was known for and we were in the minority liking our raw fish chilled. I never went back and don’t know if Pete Wells experienced the same novelty preparation during his visits to the New York venues run by the same master chef.
Authentic sushi rice is supposed to be served at body temperature (98 degrees or so), not cold. Cold rice tastes like gas station sushi.