The traditional gift for a 10-year anniversary is aluminum or tin, but in its 10th year around, Sugarfish is getting all of us a gift and it’s made of 16 bites of sushi.
In honor of its first decade—and for the first time ever—Kazunori Nozawa’s streamlined sushi chain just unveiled a fourth and off-menu “Trust Me” option, the restaurants’ most popular style of ordering.
Look on the menu at any Los Angeles or New York Sugarfish and you’ll spot the “Trust Me Lite,” “Trust Me” and “The Nozawa Trust Me,” here in ascending order of price and how much fish you’ll be eating: a simple and no-frills production of fish served in the order and format per menu you pick. But the new “Don’t Think, Just Eat” option isn’t printed anywhere on the menu; that’s because this new omakase-inspired meal ($52) is only available through the end of the month as an anniversary special—but if we’re lucky, it’ll stick around for longer.
So what’s new and so special about the latest procession of nigiri, sashimi and hand rolls? The “Don’t Think, Just Eat” begins as its three predecessors do: with a plate of organic edamame followed by tuna sashimi. From there, you still receive cuts of fish over Sugarfish’s trademark warm, loosely-packed rice that’s grown in the Sacramento Delta. The biggest difference here is that in lieu of the usual two pieces of the same nigiri, you’ll be getting one standard piece, and the other will showcase that same fish, mollusk or shellfish with a new preparation: the regular sesame-topped salmon nigiri arrives, but instead of two of the same, one comes topped with a thin sheet of kombu (kelp). There’s large-scallop nigiri, but there’s also bay-scallop gunkan.
The newest menu stays true to “Nozawa style,” which roughly translates to little or no sauce beyond the restaurant’s house-made soy and ponzu varieties. You will find just a few new preparations, sauces and slices, though, that are unique to the “Don’t Think, Just Eat,” such as albacore served with soy and ginger, or the snapper served with shiso. It’s also the only “Trust Me” that includes that craveable lobster hand roll, and it should be said that it’s also a lot of food.
If this is what Nozawa gave us for the 10 year, we can’t wait to see what we get for the platinum and gold anniversaries to come.
Sugarfish’s new “Don’t Think, Just Eat” menu is now available at all Los Angeles locations. The menu runs $52 per guest.