I had been wanting to go to Zutto since I went to the Mayanoki Sushi club a few years ago. Mayanoki is a "supper club" based around a man named Albert who was the head sushi chef at Zutto several years ago. He had such a huge fan base that when he left 2 guys tracked him down and started a sushi club around him. I love love love Mayanoki and the food Albert produces, so I thought it was only fair that I check out the original place he worked at.
I was actually surprised to find that it wasn't really a sushi place but a Japanese Pub - they serve a variety of small plates, ramen and sushi. Nancy and I went on one of the coldest days ever in NYC at 6pm and luckily they were still having some happy hour specials. I snagged a Sapporo for $3 and then we proceed to order way too much food: pork belly slides ($9), fried rock shrimp ($8), Buffalo Cauliflower wings ($6 - happy hour), Tribeca roll ($12), Maryland roll ($12) and the Negi Toro roll ($12) - we were so hungry that we actually considered ordering more food but we thought we would stick with this order first. The small plates came out fast and furious - the rock shrimp and the pork belly sliders must have come out in under 10 minutes of ordering. The rock shrimp was incredibly tasty - the shrimp was fried with a tempura batter and then smothered in spicy mayo and tobiko. They were very addictive but if you let them sit around and get cold, they start to be less tasty, especially as you get to the bottom of the bowl - so eat them quickly (there's a LOT of it) while you can. The pork sliders were also fantastic - large fatty yet meaty pieces of pork belly in a perfectly fluffy soft bun with miso-mayo and lettuce. If I could, I would have asked for less rock shrimp in the bowl and more pork buns for the table. Next came the Buffalo cauliflower wings - we primarily got them because they sounded like an interesting alternative to the usual buffalo chicken wings. They were pretty good and for any vegetarians who haven't tried making them before, definitely give it a try although I'll admit that I still like the chicken version better.
On to the sushi - the plate came out with 4 rolls on it (we only ordered 3 rolls), with one looking very similar to a regular California Roll. When I asked if this was our order, they said it was, they just randomly put a California roll on there by accident but that we wouldn't be charged for it. Ok, I guess it's better to have more food than no food or the wrong order. On to the sushi, so while it was good, I wasn't as blown away by the sushi as I was with Albert. The Toro roll was quite good but any quality Toro roll should be. The Tribeca roll consisted of spicy tuna, avocado, caviar and in the shape of a large triangle - so yeah, it was really just a larger version of a spicy tuna roll, which was fine but not insanely good. The Maryland roll consisted of lump crab meat, avocado, caviar and tuna - again, it was a good roll but not mind blowing. I usually don't like crab meat in rolls because I don't think crab meat really pairs well with rice and I think that's what got to me here. If I hadn't known that Albert had previously worked here, I wouldn't have thought of this place as somewhere that had amazing sushi - maybe we just ordered the wrong rolls. Strangely enough, we still had room for dessert (and also partly because the table of 3 guys next to us were having the most hilarious conversation ever about love/relationships/feelings and I wanted to stay and listen to more of it). We got the mochi tempura ($10) which was fried red bean mochi with green tea ice cream. It was actually quite tasty and not super sweet. The mochi was a bit sticky to split among two people but overall as Asian dessert go, it's not a bad choice.
All in all, I still really enjoyed my dinner at Zutto and there are still tons of other dishes I wanted to try like the ramen and maybe some sashimi instead of sushi. I would have given it a higher rating if I didn't have such high expectations for the sushi. But in any case, it's a fun, casual, affordable place in an part of the city (Tribeca) that doesn't always have a lot of these options. Total bill: $45/pp with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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