Just moved in from NYC a few months ago and have been surfing chowhound NJ looking for a legitimate sushi place but am coming up empty. I’ve since been introduced to this site and it seems much better than ch.
I’m looking for a sushi place where its owner and sushi chef is Japanese and trained extensively in Japan. Sushi is not what most think. It’s not an easy thing where you simply get sushi rice, slice the freshest fish on top, and call it a day… If you do eat sushi with never frozen fish (especially salmon), please get yourself checked for parasites and worms. For the fish, it’s more about the know-how and treatment of the seafood and how to defrost/prepare the fish properly. The main star of the show is actually the rice. It’s about balance and perfect execution.
Anything like this in NJ or do these chefs exclusively open up in the city for foot traffic, reputation, and profit margins? Even in the city there are so many opportunists who open up places that either cater to general tso’s equivalent philly rolls, etc… While there’s certainly a market for fast food I’m looking for the real deal.
Is Shumi (response I got from ch) the one and only place?
Hey Now, I like the sound of that!! Unfortunately I’m of no help for your inquiry here, I just wanted to say Hello and Welcome to Hungry Onion!! Look forward to your contributions, hope you get some good answers here.
Where in NJ are you located? I’ve never been to Shumi but heard good things about it.
The few Japanese restaurant that are run by real Japanese that I know about are Ajihei in Princeton, Jo Sho in Somerset and Kazu in Freehold.
Keep in mind that even though these places have Japanese chefs, it does not necessary mean their sushi will be up to par with what you are used to get in NYC.
I’ll check out the others on your list here. I looked into Tomo on yelp after people mentioned it in ch but noticed in the pictures the fish to rice ratio was off. Shumi so far looks promising. Will definitely ask you if considering going to these places!
I fish for tuna and eat it fresh…nothing bad so far. I’m not recommending you or anyone does it, but there is nothing like it. When they freeze it the fish definitely loses quality (tenderness and mouth feel just aren’t up to par.)
Just to clarify you are talking Asbury Park, what us locals call Asbury. For those North of the Driscoll there is another town called Asbury, that is not where Taka is.
The frozen thing was in reference to salmon just to illustrate there is an individual process/know-how for each type of fish. I’m certain your tuna is amazing. But proper sushi chefs prepare every fish in a certain way to bring out a specific kind of flavor/texture so it’d be a different thing altogether. Korean fishermen who know what they’re doing also eat raw off their catch out at sea for certain fish the same way you describe. What I’m suggesting here is that most sushi places that didn’t go through this training don’t bring out the texture/flavor/fish/rice ratio and to a certain extent safety properly.
