Recommendations for best sushi restaurants around Boston

After trying all the highly recommended sushi places in and around Boston, our favourite remains:

Asahi restaurant in Salem, MA

(even though it's a good 35 minutes from Boston).

The sushi is always excellent and fresh--consistently the best of what I've had around Boston (especially if you follow chefs Mori or Bo's recommendations on what's best that day). Although their sushi is what to go for, their Edamame (boiled beans in the shell sprinked with salt) and Dobin Mushi (brothy soup in a little kettle with seafood and vegetables) are my two other favourite items from the non-sushi menu. Also, being in the suburbs, it seems just that much friendlier and less rushed and crowded, and at least a quarter of the patrons seem to be regulars on any given night, which gives it a nice feeling of congeniality too.

Asahi is popular so reservations are recommended on most nights of the week (especially if you want the sushi bar), although it never seems to get so crowded that there's a line.

Details: Asahi, 21 Congress Street (right near Pickering Wharf, just off Derby St), Salem, MA. Tel: (978) 744-5376. Closed Mondays.

Closer to Boston, my favourite remains Cafe Sushi at 1105 Mass Av in Cambridge near Harvard Sq. In addition to having excellent sushi, it will always be a sentimental favourite since one cold winter day we got there 15 minutes before it opened; the nice proprietress unlocked the door for us and seated us in the entrance area while they were doing final preparations and brought us some hot miso soup to warm up (which turned out to be complimentary). A small but memorable show of real Japanese hospitality--all done as if we were honoured guests.

Other random recommendations:

Oishii (Hammond St, Chestnut Hill, just on the Brookline side, and just off the south side of Route 9). Small atmospheric sushi bar -- NO tables, just the sushi bar. It is quite new, just 1-2 months. Their unagi (eel) was the best I've had (better than Asahi, which is saying a lot!) and the others were good too. (Just around the corner from the somewhat pretentious Figs -- why wait 45 minutes for a table there when you can go to Oishii?)

Kotobukiya (Porter Exchange, 1815 Mass Av): (I hoped I picked the right one--it's the one that's the "real" restaurant in the Porter Exchange, near the parking lot back entrance.) Good service and food. Their sushi plate of 25 pieces or 50 pieces (or something like that) is an especially good deal, since you can pick ANY type of fish to assemble your own collection!

Roka (essentially across the street from Cafe Sushi). Indifferent staff. Mediocre sushi. Why bother, when you have Cafe Sushi 2 minutes away? Maybe I'll give it another try again (it has been almost a year since that visit).

Ginza (Brookline). Good sushi (and Dobin Mushi) but it's a zoo. The staff is so rushed that service is pretty bad.

Ginza (Chinatown). Had great sushi there once, and pretty bad another time. But it is open till 2 am or so on weeknights and I think 4 am on weekends, which makes up for a lot ...

Susheiya (Chinatown). Actually a Korean place. Sushi was good (not great) but what huge pieces of fish! Open till 2 am (I think) on weekends.

Summary:

*****: Asahi (Salem, MA)
****: Cafe Sushi (Cambridge), Oishii (Brookline/Chestnut Hill)
 ***: Kotobukiya, Susheiya, Ginza
  **: Roka

Shahrukh Merchant