Asuka was very sadly the worst sushi experience I have ever had.
On a Friday night, the place was super packed and there was a line. It moves quickly, but I’d recommend a reservation just so you can jump to the front. The space is large and turnover is relatively quick, but despite being busy, the service is good and efficient. Located right next to the 23rd & 8th Ave subway, it’s really convenient to get to.
We ordered yaki ramen noodles with veggies and two cucumber rolls. The yaki noodles came with a choice of udon, soba, or ramen and we chose the ramen given that it’s the more unique option (udon and soba options are everywhere). It came with a variety of veggies: broccoli, onions, carrots, mushrooms, etc. The dish was pretty good, but not fantastic. Nice flavor, but relatively mild and not worth a trip to eat.
The sushi is where the experience went terribly wrong. We ordered one brown rice roll and one white rice roll. Admittedly, brown rice sucks relative to white rice (both in general and in sushi), but both rolls were terrible. The texture of the rice in both rolls was essentially like a puree. It reminded me of overdone mashed potatoes. I have never seen brown rice that was so soft, mushy, and almost like baby food. How can you get brown rice to be so soft? The texture was so off-putting. There was nothing to even chew. The white rice was the same. On top of that, both rices were completely unseasoned. As in 100% bland. No salt, no sugar, no rice vinegar. I don’t get it. The funny thing is, even plain steamed white rice doesn’t taste that bland, so I have NO idea how they managed to remove the flavor from the rice.
When we informed our waiter of the problem, he said he’d speak to the chef and have them make another roll. Though that was nice, we didn’t want to be presented with the same problem in our next roll. He said that they would use a fresh batch of rice, so we agreed. But when it arrived, it had the exact same problem. Crazy soft rice, super mushy, devoid of any flavor, and just generally very very wrong.
I’ve never really met rice that I didn’t like and when you’re a sushi restaurant, repeatedly messing up something as fundamental to your dish as rice is just not ok. I have no idea whether what happened with the rice was an anomaly or not, but if you can’t get your rice right 100% of the time, then you need to rethink being a sushi restaurant. I really wanted to like this place because it’s cute and the servers are nice, but I will not be back.
