After proclaiming Takesushi to be "the best value for quality seafood in New York with a cheap entry price," it was clear a revisit was in order to confirm that it wasn't a fluke. I would have been back sooner, but this ridiculous cold weather has made be a bit anti-social of late. After last night's meal, I definitely stand by my previous claim.
ANKIMO (MONKFISH LIVER) $7
AMUSE: CHILLED EGGPLANT SIMMERED WITH GINGER
The meal began as it did last time with some simple and delicious eggplant and an order of monkfish liver. I thought the texture was better this time around, and the condiments were noticeably spicier which worked well.
TORO KAMA (GRILLED FATTY TUNA COLLAR/CHEEK) $10
Yellowtail collar was also listed on the menu, but they ran out, so we ordered two of these so that we each got one. Similar to the tuna belly last time, this was a sizeable piece of moist, fatty flesh, cooked through but still juicy and tender. The bottom had a thin layer of complete char, which may have been necessary to achieve the excellent crunch on the top. As long as you take note of it when digging in with chopsticks, it won't have an adverse effect on the rest of the deliciousness.
FUGU (BLOWFISH) SET - SASHIMI AND TEMPURA $15
I ordered the set both because it was great value and because my friend had never had fugu before. While it was all delicious and done well, I much prefer the meatier tempura and will probably order only that next time instead of the set.
MAINE LOBSTER SASHIMI AND SUSHI SET $27
The set consisted of a lobster soup made with the inside of the head and legs, sashimi of the tail meat, and the claw meat cooked and made into an 8 piece sushi roll topped with scallions and tobiko. The soup was on the mild side, but still had some nice sweet umami. The sashimi, while not the sweetest lobster I've ever had, was cut very well, retaining the meatiness and the crunch of the flesh. The cooked lobster roll was simple but good.
If the slices pictured above seem thinner than what you would normally expect, please note that the picture above was HALF of the omakase sashimi. At this point in the evening, we'd already eaten a good amount of food, so we opted to get one omakase to split between the two of us. The chef was nice enough to give us exactly duplicate plates of the diverse selection. Kumamoto oyster, hotate (scallop), aji (horse mackerel), bluefin toro (fatty tuna), hamachi (yellowtail), mirugai (geoduck giant clam), iwashi (sardine), Santa Barbara uni (sea urchin), and tai (sea bream). Everything was excellent, but the pieces that stood out to me were the scallop (very sweet), aji (fresh and not too strong), iwashi (the sardine wrapped around shiso and cucumber created an interesting and pleasant flavor), and toro (see below). The uni was nice and creamy but not as crazy sweet as some others I've had.
The toro was so buttery that we decided to order a piece of sushi each, which used up all their remaining toro (sorry to whoever ate after us). Even though it was a whole slice of fish, it melted in my mouth as if it was chopped up toro.
If we did not splurge for the extra toro sushi, the total damage for 2 would have come in under $200 including tax and tip, with 2 bowls of rice, and 2 large Kirin beers. I'm not saying that the fish here rivals that at 15 East, but the overall quality was still very good and tremendous value given the sheer variety and amount of food we ate.
Takesushi
43-46 42nd St
Sunnyside, Queens
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