Phillyist Framed Returns!
Playlist Rewind: AFI at the Factory
Whole Hog Is All Heart
Extra, Extra
Across the Ist-a-Verse
That is not a hyperbole.
Last week, I was really jonesin' for some raw fish. But I'd already been at the place across the street so many times. I wanted to try something new. And I didn't have a whole lot of time. A quick Google search reminded me that there's a sushi place, Tokyo Sushi Bar, at Reading Terminal Market. As my office is just around the corner from there, it seemed worth a try.
I'm really not that picky when it comes to my sushi. I want it raw, relatively fresh, and not likely to give me any sort of food poisoning or intestinal parasite. That is all. Or so I thought.
I arrived at Tokyo Sushi and was instantly pressed to place my order. When I said I needed a minute, the man behind the counter stood and stared at me. Flustered, I asked for the day’s special: a combination of spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls. Very basic, but I figured I’d play it safe. I didn’t look at the price on the special, and if I had, I would have run away: there is no way that two rolls should have cost me eighteen bucks, unless I was getting them at Morimoto – and watching Chef Morimoto make them. Especially in light of what I ended up with.
Tokyo Sushi doesn’t accept credit cards, so I ran to use an ATM at the other end of the market. By the time I got back, my sushi was ready. I noticed that they only gave me two packets of soy sauce, so I asked for more, which the man at the counter gave me grudgingly. I thanked him despite his rudeness and headed back toward my office, where I planned to make short order of my lunch. (I was starving.)
Once there, I opened the lid to my meal, and noticed something didn’t seem quite right...
My spicy rolls were made spicy, not with traditional spicy sauce or even with wasabi, but by a rather large quantity of red chili powder that had been dumped on top of my food. I like spicy food and all (and frankly, this didn’t strike me as being all that spicy), but chili powder is one of those things you don’t want to eat in its raw form.
Still, all might have been forgiven if only my gastronomic disaster had ended there. But unfortunately, the chili wicked out much of the moisture of the rolls, leaving them dry. The tuna and salmon was exceptionally fatty, like it was scrap meat. The rice was overcooked and mushy. And the nori was nearly impossible to chew. In all, it was one of the most unpalatable meals I’ve had in years. I’m not going back – and I wouldn’t recommend that you try it, either. Ever.
With the wealth of good sushi to be had in Philadelphia, I can’t think of any reason to give Tokyo Sushi anything short of two thumbs way, way down.
UPDATE: Comments were accidentally disabled on this post. The feature has now been restored. Comment away!
Image of something that really doesn't belong on sushi, via Adam's Extract.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
It sounds like you got punked. For nine dollars a roll there should have been a pretty pair of earrings or some soggy Phillies tickets wrapped up in there. Bad sushi is always a sad story.
I also got sushi from there. I was not impressed. The rice was over-steamed. It was kind of like eating rice boardering on paste.
Yeah, I miss Philly--miss it a lot, but Philly was never really a sushi town.
Are you kidding? There's tons of great sushi to be had around here. There's got to be a reason that Chef Morimoto opened his restaurant in Philadelphia.
I just went to the wrong place, is all. Not doing that again.