NYCReview
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
Sushi on Jones
This spot is Permanently Closed.
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Most restaurants follow a set of culturally accepted norms. They let you stay as long as you like. They accept reservations either by phone, an app like OpenTable, or maybe don't take reservations at all. They have more than four seats. Most of them let you sit indoors.
So when we say Sushi On Jones breaks conventions, we don't mean it in the sense of, "This restaurant only serves small plates!" This "restaurant," an outdoor, four-seat, omakase-only sushi bar where you're limited to 30-minutes and have to make a reservation by text message, pretty much just says f*ck you to all the things that normally make a restaurant a restaurant.
The best way to get one of the four seats is to text them - the number's 917-270-1815, because we like making things easy for you. You'll show up for your allotted time slot, and from there you'll be served 12 pieces of sushi over the course of 30 minutes. The $50 (before tax and tip) menu includes scallop, crab, uni, hamachi, uni, eel, sweet shrimp, two styles of tuna, two styles of salmon, and seared wagyu beef. To finish, you get a piece of seared wagyu beef topped with a piece of uni. Looks like two different-colored tongues, tastes delicious. The pieces have light sauces and some of them are seared slightly, but overall the sushi is relatively straightforward and simple, and very good. Sushi On Jones' owner used to be the chef at Sushi Dojo, so if you've been there, you'll be familiar with the style.
Overall, there are some pros and cons that come along with being an outdoor, time-limited sushi bar. Having only 30 minutes to eat is short, but it also means you know exactly when you'll be seated and they can fit in a lot of people each night, even with four seats. And eating outside is always fun, as long as global warming isn't flexing its "HEY I'M REAL" muscles too hard. (There's an awning, but maybe don't come during a thunderstorm, blizzard, or the hottest day of summer).
If you can manage to get a seat, and have about $60 and a half hour to spare, this a fun, unusual, not ridiculously expensive omakase experience. It feels good to break the rules sometimes.
