When my childhood best friend came to NYC at the last minute and told me she was staying by Rockerfeller Center, I panicked because I NEVER eat up there. In fact the only other part of the city that I hate more is Times Square. It's just teeming with tons and tons of tourists and there just aren't a lot of food options up there. Even though I had a great meal here, I still wouldn't recommend this area as an optimal food destination.
However, I did know that there were a few high end sushi joints nearby and found Hatsuhana while I was doing a quick google of sushi + Rockerfeller Center. Boy am I glad that I did. While it is a more formal, stuffy type of place than I generally prefer, the rolls and quality of the fish were truly fantastic. We entered the restaurant and were quickly ushered upstairs and it was just a very Japanese, quiet, serious type of sushi joint. But usually these type of sushi joints are very very fresh and high quality and Hatsuhana was no different. We started with a basic order of edamame ($6.25) and at first glance I was a bit disappointed. They looked overcooked and brown and frankly $6.25 for edamame is pretty ridiculous (I mean the entire bag costs $2 in Chinatown). But honestly, they were cooked perfectly with the right amount of crunch to it and it was heavily salted to make them super addictive. We also had the tempura appetizer ($10.50) which came with 2 pieces of shrimp, 2 pieces of broccoli, 1 pumpkin and one other vegetable. I was not super impressed with the tempura, it was pretty standard and nothing to write home about but also nothing to complain about. For our main entree, we decided to split a bunch of rolls. I was leaning towards my usual order of some kind of sashimi or chirashi but it's been a while since I had rolls, so I was game to split them with Jeana. We got the eel and avocado roll ($8), spicy scallop ($7.25), spicy tuna ($7.50), spicy salmon ($6.25) and spicy yellowtail ($7.50) - do you see a pattern? We both clearly love those spicy rolls. They were all the perfect size with just the right amount of rice. What I loved about the spicy rolls here is that they are not chopped up but large pieces of fish with a thin layer of spicy mayo in the roll. The best one was the scallop. It was a perfect piece of raw scallop in the middle of each piece and you could really taste the essence of the fish. My next favorite was the salmon, as it was perfectly moist and melt in your mouth. Even though the spicy yellowtail and tuna were comprised the same way, they just didn't seem as delicious as the other two rolls. Mainly because they are generally less moist type of fish to begin with but don't take this to mean that I didn't like them because I still did, they just weren't as good as the scallop and salmon. The eel and avocado roll was extremely enjoyable too. Sometimes eel can taste old or dry but this one was neither and had the right amount of sauce to make it all work together really well.
While I was doing my research for this entry, I noticed that they seemed to be famous for the Box of Dreams entree (pictured) and honestly every picture I've seen of it looks amazing. It's 9 mini bowls in a bento box of raw or cooked fish for $41. It's definitely a bit pricey but it looks good enough that I would contemplate going back just for that dish. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed my meal here and the only reason I didn't give it a 4.5 or higher rating was that I didn't think the tempura was amazing and they charged $6 for edamame?! Totally stick to just the sushi/sashimi here and you'll be very happy. Total bill: $36/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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