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Food guide

How to find good sushi

The single most reliable indicator of a good sushi restaurant is the thing nobody photographs. It is the rice — its temperature, its seasoning, and whether it holds together until it reaches your mouth and then falls apart.

How do you order sushi?

Start with nigiri rather than rolls — fish over rice is where the skill shows. At a counter, ask what's good today; it's a real question, not a test. Order omakase if you'd rather the chef choose, eat each piece as it arrives, and if the chef hasn't already seasoned it, dip the fish side in soy, not the rice.

What separates a good one from a bad one

  • Rice at body temperature, not cold — Shari should be just warm, lightly seasoned with vinegar, and loosely packed. Cold, dense, unseasoned rice is the clearest sign that the kitchen is treating sushi as an assembly job.
  • A short, changing selection — A menu listing sixty kinds of fish year-round is buying frozen commodity product. A board with a dozen things that change is buying what is good.
  • The rolls are not the point — Nothing is wrong with a dressed roll, but a restaurant whose menu is mostly elaborate rolls with three sauces is selling something other than sushi. Look at how much space nigiri and sashimi get.
  • A counter, and someone working it — A sushi counter changes what you can order and how it arrives — piece by piece, at the right temperature. It is also the only way to ask what is good today and get a real answer.
  • Wasabi already between fish and rice — At a serious place the chef seasons each piece. If you are handed a lump of green paste and a dish for soy, that tells you the format the kitchen is working in.

What to order

  • Omakase — Chef's choice, in sequence. The best way to eat at a good sushi restaurant and usually better value than ordering the same number of pieces yourself.
  • Nigiri over rolls — Fish and rice, nothing else. It is where the skill is visible.
  • Whatever is on the specials board — Seasonal fish is the whole reason to eat here rather than somewhere else.
  • Ask what is good today — At a counter this is a normal question with a real answer, not a test.
  • Chirashi, at lunch — A bowl of assorted sashimi over rice, usually far better value than the equivalent in nigiri.

Where to find sushi

Open listings put 14,100 sushi restaurants across the US. These are the cities and campuses with the most of them.

Cities with the most

New York, NY 531 Los Angeles, CA 228 Chicago, IL 209 San Francisco, CA 187 Las Vegas, NV 134 San Diego, CA 126 Portland, OR 110 Seattle, WA 107 Miami, FL 105 Orlando, FL 81 Houston, TX 79 Honolulu, HI 77

Campuses with the most within a mile

The New School 155 NYU 155 CUNY Graduate Center 155 Touro University 147 Baruch 146 FIT 134 Hunter 82 John Jay 62 BMCC 62 Pace University 52

A few to start with

Counts are listings in Overture Maps open data (September 2026), counted by the town in each address. Independent places only in the examples above, and they are a starting point rather than a ranking.

Sushi near campus

How Savor Scout looks for it

A sushi search weights mentions of omakase, counter seating, named chefs, seasonal fish and rice quality much more heavily than a five-star average, because a strip-mall place with fifty five-star reviews for its Dragon Roll is answering a different question than the one you asked. If you search for omakase specifically, places without a counter drop out.

Find sushi near you →

Looking in a particular city?

Each of these opens Savor Scout with the location already set, so you can say what you want and it searches from there. It covers 1,000 US cities in total — these are simply the largest.

All 1,000 cities →

Shellfish allergy at the table? Where shellfish hides on a menu, and what to ask before you order.

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