Ooki Sushi is located on 3rd Avenue off 89th Street, and on a recommendation of a friend; we decided to give it a try. We were greeted by a very loud hostess/waitress, who startled the diners seated near the entrance; she wasn’t unpleasant, just loud. We were seated promptly and handed menus. She gave us a few minutes and then asked for our drink order. We had plenty of time to peruse the menu before she returned with our wine. There were some very interesting and even creative sounding sushi rolls, but I wasn’t in the mood to experiment like that just yet. Somehow, bananas and mango with my sushi didn’t sound appealing to me.
To our surprise Kumamoto oysters were on the menu. For those of you who don’t know, the Kumamoto oyster is really a great choice for a newbie to raw oysters. The "Kumie" (my affectionate name for it) has a firm texture, buttery sweet, mildly fruity, richly creamy; with just a hint briny in flavor. In my opinion, it doesn’t need any type of condiment.Originating from the Kumamoto area of Kyushu, Japan, this oyster can take up to three years to develop the small, deeply cupped shell that protects its surprisingly plump little yummy morsel. There are no indigenous Kumamoto oysters, they were too expensive to grow, pollution killed off them off, and hardly any effort was made to protect them – until the Kumamoto seed was brought over 50+years ago to Humboldt Bay in California - luckily for us - oyster farmers from California to Washington have been growing them. They are rare to find on menus these days, due to its popularity as they sell quickly or restaurants choose not serve them because they are expensive.
We were brave and decided to order a dozen, something we normally wouldn’t do unless; it is a reputable Japanese or seafood restaurant we’ve been to, like Nobu, Aqua Grill, City Crab or Ocean Grill – you get the picture. Our other choices were relatively safe – sashimi deluxe, filet mignon roll, spicy scallop roll, gyoza, and a special eel roll.
As I looked around, I realized that the décor is indescribable, with no real theme – neon lights &
a flat screen TV at the bar, exposed brick, a stoned wall with trickling water in the back. The restaurant is too dark; not cozy/romantic dark, but I couldn’t see what I was eating - dark. The seating is arranged a bit too close for my liking, the atmosphere felt cold, some of the other waitresses appear stone-faced and the ambience well, was lacking.
Finally the long awaited Kumamoto oysters arrived – only to be completely disappointed, shocked and mortified my little oysters drowning in a ponzu sauce! I was speechless; many people may enjoy it with a cocktail sauce or a citrus mignonette, but I would have preferred an option, of drowning them myself. We proceeded to tell the waitress that we didn’t know it would be in a ponzu sauce, and that she didn’t tell us when we ordered it. She was not very apologetic but instead said that is how they serve them and it says so on the menu. In fact, she offered to rinse them off…I’m sorry, WTF? That is just wrong. I can’t even fathom that. What ever happened to the customer is always right? Needless to say we were appalled and should have been irate at this point but we remained calm.
The rest of the food arrived – the sashimi was fresh, the filet mignon roll didn’t taste like filet mignon, the spicy scallop roll was good, the gyoza was probably frozen, and the special eel roll was not that special.
In conclusion, Ooki Sushi is sub par with their contemporary take on Japanese. With the enormous amounts of delivery menus being left under my door, it is quite apparent that there is no shortage of sushi restaurants on the Upper East Side, try another one.
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