Go Gin Chow: Haru, 3rd Avenue NYC

Hello everyone, this is Shadow out to get my sushi fix in Manhattan, NYC. This place is packed! Very hip, lively and fast paced environment. Despite the crowd, staff is very efficient and you are seated pretty quickly. Let's get right to the food. Lobster miso soup, wow, they really give you a decent amount of   lobster here, for a small bowl it seemed like a whole tail, claw and everything, broth was very salty though. The king crab dumplings, sounded nice on paper, but the filling was all ground up to a puree, I would have appreciated it if there were some lump pieces of crab in them. With the crab completely ground up, they might as well have used any other cheaper seafood, I would not be able to taste the difference.   The scallop entree was just ok, portion size a little on the small side and a little bland in flavor, could not taste the advertised truffle, scallops were perfectly cooked though. The seafood udon was hearty with lots of veggies, shrimp and salmon, scallops, though again the broth was too salty. Sushi is definitely one of their strengths here. Fish is very fresh. Their special roll menu is very secretive, they just mention, the name of the roll and not what is in it. Took a gamble and went for the Gramercy Park roll and the Third avenue roll. Both came to the table as beautifully prepared works of art. The Gramercy park roll was very colorful the outside was wrapped with assortment of different raw fish and paper thin lemon slices, cilantro leafs then topped with a strikingly vibrant assortment of different colored fish eggs. Taste was a complete explosion in your mouth, the sourness of the lemon, the different textures of the eggs and fish, the spicy mayonnaise sauce. Did not need to dip in soy sauce or wasabi which would take away from the native flavors of the roll. The 3rd avenue roll was just as beautiful garnished with red tobiko and scallion, though the taste was richer and the flavors not as complex. For a chain restaurant (they have several locations throughout the city and in Boston as well), not bad at all. Happy eating!

                                                           Haru
                                                           1329 3rd Ave
                                                           (between 76th St & 77th St)
                                                           New York, NY 10021
                                                           (212) 452-2230