On Oct 25, 5:27 am, Gregg Schoenberger > wrote:
> Simple question. Where and why.
>
> --
>
> GreggS - The sky is my canvas, fire is my palette.

Some favorites (for classical Edomae/Tokyo style nigiri sushi):

Ino Sushi (San Francisco J-town)

-Best ankimo receipe ever, even better than some of Los Angeles's
best. Bold rich and what else can I say...deathly good.
-Nigiri, gari, wasabi go on the counter directly (immaculately clean
laquered wood)
-Inoue-san toasts nori for makimono and temaki, gives them an extra
crunch
-Classically trained sushi nazi chef who will go ballistic if he sees
you drown his precious vinegar flavored sushi rice in soy sauce
-A true sushi-ya, no tempura, no teriyaki, and no cooked food (except
what his electrical grill can make, and maybe chawanmushi).
- Iron Chef Japanese Roksaburo Michiba gave Inoue-san a scroll that
basically says "Knife Handler For Life". It's behind the counter.
Beautiful work.

Kaygetsu (Menlo Park)

Ok this is a real kaiseki restaurant, but the 6 seat sushi bar is no
slouch. The sushi chef and owner used to own Toshi's sushi-ya down the
hill and is a pimp ass master himself, and classically trained.
Arguably the equivalent of Ino in SF but more. Very expensive, $3 to
$7 for a single piece of nigiri EASY depending on what you order

- Superb sushi rice receipe, top notch nigiri molding (fast and
accurate) and perfectly sized to fit in one's mouth comfortably.
- Seasonal imported fish from Japan often available (e.g isaki in
June, hamo during part of late summer). They used kisu (sillago) on
their recent kaiseki seasonal menu, so probably had it available as
sushi.
- Arguably the closest one can get to the top LA Sushi restaurants
(like Mori or Sushi Zo)
- FRESH wasabi provided and probably used on the nigiri. Not freshly
grated, but it's the good quality non paste stuff.
- Finer touches on things, like if you order a scallops nigiri, it is
Hokkaido hotate, resting on a strip of nori between the sushi rice
pad. On top? an uni miso sauce with kaiware. It's beautiful...

Sakae Sushi (Burlingame, CA)
Neighborhood bar and feel, the white board is dangerous (all fish Fed
Ex'd from Tsukiji and as expensive as Kaygetsu's sushi bar, but large
pieces, untextured cuts and no vinegared flavored sushi rice).

- Insanely fresh fish that pairs well with a sweet vinegar marination
(for silvery fish for example)
- decent in house prepped sauce (nikiri) on certain fish like medai or
mutsu, but last time I went they even marinated those white fish in
kelp! Really really good
- Miyazaki Wagyu (Japanese beef) - $26 an order of nigiri
- cornet fish/pencil fish spotted here
- you may rake a $100 bill easy but at least the portions are bigger
than Ino or Kaygetsu.
- high end sake selection, including some $100 bottles rarely seen
elsewhere (supposedly)

Heard great things about Kyo-Ya in SF (hotel) although selection is
small.

Hope that helps