Best Sushi in OKC

[Richard at Remax]

Tokyo is good and cheap. (It is just south of Wilshire on Western, on the east side of the road. A little white building.)

Neko is my favorite, but is on the expensive side. But I love the atmosphere.

And when I can't get to either of those Buddha Tao on memorial is actually pretty good and has good prices.

[EBAH]

I second both Okura and Tokyo, both are delicious and have nice staff and atmosphere. But I think the best vaue and taste for my money is Shiki on W Reno. I think the location causes people not take it seriously (very close to Night Trips), but they have great food!

[Dave Cook]

Shiki??? That stuff is over-priced cat food.

Kimochi warui!

[jbkrems]

I went to Shiki tonight and it was pretty good. I ordered four different rolls, and would order at least two of them again, and then try a 3rd different on my next visit.

[jc74]

It baffles me that Sushi Neko keeps winning the best of. Really are you kidding me?! I love Tokyo. I even proposed to my wife there. Lol. My new favorite is Okura. They have the most amazing sushi creations, but the open room atmosphere is not to my liking. I wish I could take Okura's menu and put it at Tokyo.

[360-IM]

Having lived in Japan for about four years, Tokyo is the closest to a neighborhood sushi bar and restaurant I've found in OKC. Sushi Neko is okay but it's more LA style sushi than authentic Japanese.

I agree...when I was deployed, we were on mainland Japan for a couple months. Tokyo is absolutely the best IMHO. Of course everyone's taste buds are different but I typically prefer authentic.

[zachj7]

Gonna bump this thread since it's been like 6 years.

Is Tokyo still people's favorite? Has anybody been to Saii Bistro? What about Samurai sushi, Sakura, GOGO sushi? Does anybody know of any decent spots in Edmond area? All the places I tried seem to be lacking. The best I have found so far is from a Thai place in Edmond! Being from SF, I miss high quality really good sushi. There was a sushi joint, often times all they had was fresh sushi, on every corner in SF. All the places here have cream cheese, mayo, and weird stuff that doesn't belong in sushi IMO.
So far, Tokyo is the best I have found in OKC area.

[dankrutka]

I'm not a sushi expert by any means, but there's something I've always liked about Park Harvey Sushi.

[bchris02]

Tokyo is the best I've had here. If there is somewhere that's better I would like to know about it. There was one place that opened up at N MacArthur Blvd and Memorial that was very good starting out but the quality has since went way downhill. I miss all of the sushi options that come with living in a coastal city as well as the much lower prices than what is available here. To be fair though, I've lived in places with much worse sushi than here and there are some decent places here if you know where to go.

[FighttheGoodFight]

Places we eat sushi:

Saii (OKc. Good and nice atmosphere)
The Sushi Bar (When in edmond. A bit pricey)
Park Harvey (OKC. When we lived upstairs. A bit pricey but a nice family runs it)
Sushi Master (Norman. Close to home. Good prices and fast)
O Asian Fusion (Norman. Good, cheap and good drink specials) I usually get the firecracker dish here while my wife eats the sushi.

[trousers]

For work lunch: GoGO Sushi in Midtown. Hard to beat the lunch special.
Dinner: Saii

[tfvc.org]

It probably isn't traditional sushi but I really like the sushi at Thai Delight in Norman. I usually get sushi as an appetizer and finish it off with some Thai hot curry. mmm!

[okatty]

The Sushi Bar has staked out a new location on Memorial (on the Eastbound side) West of Hideaway, Interurban etc. Right by a strip office complex with insurance agency and workout facility.

[Bullbear]

I like to go to Saii now and then and love Tokyo house. but for dropping in for sushi close to my house I go to Samurai on NW 23rd. small place always fresh and delicious. very nice family.

[bchris02]

The Sushi Bar has staked out a new location on Memorial (on the Eastbound side) West of Hideaway, Interurban etc. Right by a strip office complex with insurance agency and workout facility.

That might be the end for Sushi Tsubaki if it ends up happening. It should do well though.

[zachj7]

Thai delight in Edmond has solid sushi for this area. So far, Tokyo is my favorite. Sounds like I gotta try GOGO, Saii, and Park Harvey it sounds like. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Teo9969]

I consistently hear Tokyo is the best from people whose opinion I most respect, but I've yet to personally have their sushi.

Gogo Sushi seems like a great value to me. Park Harvey was good, but a bit expensive (though if you live right there, not sure you can complain).

Overall, I feel like the sushi scene in OKC is pretty decent for a land-locked city.

[bchris02]

Overall, I feel like the sushi scene in OKC is pretty decent for a land-locked city.

OKC is the most landlocked city I've had sushi in so I am not sure how it compares to somewhere farther from the coast like Kansas City or Denver. The availability of top notch sushi here is pretty limited compared to Charlotte but I am glad there are places like Tokyo that offer similar quality to a coastal sushi restaurant.

[Andon]

Alright, sushi chef here. I have worked for Western Concepts, Sumo in Edmond, and I ran the sushi program for Nani when we were serving sushi. I have spent the better part of 15 years working on what I feel is the very best sushi experience that one can offer here in the city (this is not to sound braggadocios, but rather that I believe that people deserve the very best experience that I or anyone else can give them when it comes to experiencing a meal). Sushi is very near and dear to my heart, so I have quite a lot to say on the matter, and this is true for all metropolitan areas, not just Oklahoma City; I just know this city the best, so I'm speaking on the subject of sushi in the 405.

And if it means anything one way or another, I'll tell you where I eat sushi around the metro. Here are my two cents on a few things:

First, people really don't need to be concerned when it comes to Oklahoma being landlocked, as you can still get incredible quality seafood practically anywhere in the world now with modern transportation. The vast majority of fish are flash-frozen as soon as they hit the boat for safety and transportation concerns, so practically everywhere you go you will have fish that has been previously frozen. It also bears mentioning that having truly fresh fish right out of the ocean often isn't the best way to serve it; the flesh of fish prior to or still in rigor mortis is not nearly as good as it can be once that process has run it's course. In fact, many fish benefit from aging for various lengths of time; under the right conditions you can age tuna for nearly two weeks (often more) and make it that much more incredible of an experience. Having said all of that - again, thanks to the miracles of modern refrigeration and transportation methods - if you want fresh seafood straight out of the ocean you can have that, too.

So, if you can get great quality ingredients even in a place like Oklahoma, then why does so much of the sushi around here seem "average" to true sushi lovers? It's because hardly anyone is buying quality product, and that largely has to do with what the general population expects and wants out of a sushi experience. People love sushi, and they should, it's delicious! But the issue is that they [the general population] love the sushi with lots of spicy mayonnaise and eel sauce and sriracha. All three of those ingredients are wonderful when used in the right application, but they often become a crutch to lean on when you are working with less-than-stellar products. Something tastes good, but bland? Put spicy mayonnaise and eel sauce on it. Something needs a kick? Spicy mayonnaise and eel sauce. You see this in practically every sushi restaurant when people ask for sides of those sauces, or drown their sushi in soy sauce. It's unfortunate, but people are free to eat sushi as they wish, and often times that's all that they've ever known on how to eat sushi. This is the reason that Sushi Neko keeps winning "best sushi" every year. It's average sushi, but it's popular, and it's exactly what the general population wants out of a sushi experience.

More on quality, it should also be mentioned that with the exception of salmon and maybe the occasional tuna or mackerel, hardly anyone is buying whole fish and breaking them down in-house; they are buying in loins of fish or ground tuna for spicy tuna rolls and going from there. You cannot have a truly great end product if you do not start with a wholly great product.Why? Because that's the type of quality that the general population expects, because - again - spicy mayonnaise and eel sauce, etc. Buying in whole fish and breaking them down in-house matters because once you portion something out from it's whole form it immediately begins to oxidize and lose it's inherent qualities. If you get the product in whole you can control every aspect of it's handling (provided that you handle it properly,) along the way from the time you take it in until the time the diner enjoys it. This is why you should, ideally, be more cautious or at least guard your expectations when you go into a sushi bar and you see pre-cut fish in the sushi display refrigerator, and many places around the metro are guilty of this, and they do so because they are trying to save a few seconds later by having the fish already pre-portioned into neta (what sits on top of the dango of rice in nigiri) for quicker handling later. When you do this you are essentially exposing that whole loin of fish to oxygen all at once instead of gradually doing so by slicing as you go. Tokyo is guilty of this, among others. If you go in to Tokyo and look at their sushi display case you will see that the most popular fish - salmon, tuna, yellowtail, escolar (also known as white tuna, even though that's not what it actually is) - are already pre-portioned out for quicker handling. Tokyo is not the only place that does this - there are other as well - but it bears mentioning as it is a fan favorite of sushi lovers in the 405.

Continuing on quality, most sushi restaurants around the metro order their pantry items from the same two or three distributors, so you're essentially getting the same product wherever you go. So much, if not all, of what you enjoy at a sushi bar can be made in-house, but many places do not. Eel sauce is incredibly easy to make, as it's just soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and either dashi or fish bones (contrary to popular belief, eel sauce does not traditionally contain eel, nor should it have to. It is merely a sauce to be enjoyed with eel,) simmered for a good while, but many places just buy it in from their distributors. It's puzzling as to why, too, because it's considerably cheaper to make it yourself. Sumo and Western Concepts made their own eel sauce last I checked/worked there , Tokyo does not. I have seen the chefs behind the sushi bar refill their bottles of eel sauce on the line with a larger jug of kabayaki sauce from a distributor. I am not trying to dig on them for that necessarily (again, other places do that as well,) I am just pointing out what I have known and seen.

Mackerel is another great example. All you have to do to prepare great mackerel is to buy it in whole, clean and portion it down to loins, cure it in salt and sugar for a while, and briefly steep it in rice vinegar. That's it. Yet, the majority of places around the metro buy their mackerel pre-cured, and it all tastes the same. The only place I have enjoyed truly a la minute cured mackerel that I did not make myself (it's a fish that's very important to me; I love it so much that I have it tattooed on my right arm,) is at The Sushi Bar in Edmond, and it was magnificent. Other than that, it's all bought-in.

The last, and definitely most important part of a great sushi experience is the rice itself. The term sushi actually means "vinegared rice", and there's a whole history behind it that I won't go into here, but suffice to say that without great rice you cannot have truly great sushi. In fact, I would say that great sushi rice is 90% of what makes a truly great sushi experience. If you do not have great sushi rice, then it's just not going to add up, and anyone that wants the best sushi experience would do well to find a place that takes invests the extra time, effort, and money into their rice. The vast majority of sushi restaurants use Kokuho for their sushi rice, which is a really good introductory rice for people that are new to trying sushi or making it themselves. Kokuho is also about $1 a pound. Koshihikari, hitomebore, and akitahitome are what you will [or should] find in higher end sushi bars, and they go for about $1.80-2.50 per pound. The quality of the rice matters, as does the quality of the seasoning. Most sushi restaurants under-season their sushi rice, and you can instantly tell whenever you taste it; it tastes bland. Moreover, most sushi restaurants around here are also high-volume locations, and so they either cannot or perhaps simply do not devote the time that they should to making the rice as great as it could be. Great sushi rice is an art, and it's something that I have spent nearly half of my life working on. It's so important to me that often times we would just serve the rice by itself, a simple dango formed at that moment, and ask that guests eat it as soon as it was placed in front of them. We then served them another dango of freshly made sushi rice, simply dressed.

Last I checked/worked in the public, the best sushi rice in the metro was at Sumo in Edmond. However, this was when I last worked there in the spring of 2012, so whether or not that's the case now is a question I have no answer for.

To tie all of this together, a great sushi experience needs to embody and fulfill all of the aforementioned subjects, but more importantly, it's about intentionality. Uchi/Uchiko in Austin are a great example of this. They did not compromise on their vision, they have put out the best quality product that they can, and they have been rewarded a thousand fold. If you want to make waves in the otherwise sleepy waters of sushi in the Oklahoma City metro, then you need to really make a full, honest effort to not compromise to the will of the general public and put forth the best sushi that you possibly can. The same is true of any other restaurant. If you put forth average or sub-par products, then that is what the public will want, because that will be quite literally all that they will know. If you put for an incredible product and an incredible experience then the general public will come to want that. Supply and demand.

Alright, so having said all of that, here are my current personal recommendations for sushi:

Best rice: Sumo. Last I checked, at least (this was also last I was working there, in 2012, and I handled most of the rice there, or at least as much as I could).

Best quality fish and nigiri: The Sushi Bar. Skip the rolls, go for the nigiri, and get what's on their specials board if they are offering nigiri on it.

Best rolls: Sumo. This, again, has to do with the rice, as the majority of what constitutes a sushi roll is inherently rice. Again, this was last I checked and last that I worked there (again, 2012).

Best atmosphere: Tokyo. Hands down, the closest to an authentic sushi bar experience that you will have.

Overall: If I'm going to enjoy sushi, and I'm not making it myself, I go to The Sushi Bar. It's a hike, but it's worth it for how they handle their products.

[Andon]

And with all of that, I am in no way discrediting any sushi restaurants of bars that I have or have not mentioned. Good sushi is easy to find in Oklahoma City. Great sushi? See above.

[Teo9969]

Wow…thanks Andon.

Posts like that are why I spend so much time on internet forums. You can learn so much from some of the most informed people simply because they have a passion for it.

[Motley]

Andon, curious if you could compare the sushi in OKC with other places. I am not talking about the "best" sushi place in a city, but the quality of the average place in OKC to the average place in other cities. For instance, sushi is plentiful in San Diego. They have incredible places, yet one of the busiest, at least around my area, is one that has all-u-can for $25/person. I wonder if that would be comparable to what is offered in OKC.

One thing I have noticed is that the sushi roll offerings in OKC and Tulsa is very heavy on cream cheese! Typically don't see that many rolls in San Diego with cream cheese, except the Philly rolls with salmon. However, we have lots of rolls with eel sauce or spicy mayos and such.

[Roger S]

Andon... You mind if I plagiarize that and change it to BBQ?

That's exactly how I feel about the food of my passion in Oklahoma City.

[okatty]

Speaking of passion and sushi - sometime catch Jiro Dreams of Sushi on Netflix. Really good.

[Andon]

Andon, curious if you could compare the sushi in OKC with other places....

I'll write on this more here in a bit!

Andon... You mind if I plagiarize that and change it to BBQ?

That's exactly how I feel about the food of my passion in Oklahoma City.

By all means. You can really apply all of that to any type of cuisine. You get out what you put into it.