Sushi Dojo’s Omakase, One of Our 100 Favorite Dishes

Later this year, we’ll pen our Best of New York issue, our annual love letter to what’s great in this town. When that paper hits the streets, you’ll find our picks for the very best this city has to offer when it comes to dozens of cuisines, restaurants, dishes and drinks. Until then, you can get a taste of our contenders as we count down, in no particular order, our 100 favorite dishes from around the boroughs, a list of laudable eats worth tracking down right now.

No. 71: Omakase at Sushi Dojo

It takes a lot to get us fired up about sushi–it’s not that we dislike the concept, it’s just that we see very little variation among menus at spots that serve raw fish in this city (unless, of course, we’re at a prohibitively expensive place). That’s part of what makes the $45 10-piece omakase offering at Sushi Dojo unique: chef David Bouhadana has a religious convert’s zeal for his craft, and he’s using the lessons he learned making sushi under some serious Japanese masters to turn out a board of fish that’s well-rounded, exciting, and original. Start with carefully crafted vegetable appetizers and end with an uni comparison or a transcendental hand roll, with plenty of surprises along the way. Better, still, is to sit at the sushi bar and let Bouhadana give you a lesson every time he hands you a new morsel.

No. 100: Taqueria Lower East Side’s carnitas
No. 99: Tartine’s steamed mussels
No. 98: Malu’s Cookie Monster ice cream
No. 97: Coppelia’s Havana salad
No. 96: Falansai’s clay pot catfish
No. 95: Uncle Boons’ Khao Soi Kaa Kai
No. 94: ABC Cocina’s salted caramel “impossible” flan
No. 93: Shu Jiao Fu Zhou Cuisine’s peanut noodles
No. 92: Distilled’s country-fried duck and waffles
No. 91: Calliope’s octopus salad
No. 90: Charlie Bird’s diver scallop crudo
No. 89: Silver Moon Bakery’s fig and pepper bread
No. 88: Stage Restaurant’s egg, cheese, and sausage on a roll
No. 87: Manzanilla’s Marbella’s Full Moon
No. 86: Bia’s Cary Ga
No. 85: La Newyorkina’s pineapple jalapeño paleta
No. 84: Empellón Taqueria’s skirt steak tacos
No. 83: Sugar Sweet Sunshine’s pistachio cupcake
No. 82: El Chivito d’Oro’s skirt steak
No. 81: Saro Bistro’s satarash
No. 80: Oda House’s adjaruli khatchapuri
No. 79: Hill Country Chicken’s pie milkshake
No. 78: Fletcher’s Brooklyn Barbecue’s chili mac
No. 77: The Musket Room’s steak and cheese pie
No. 76: Battery Harris’ Baked Patties
No. 75: Legend’s Dan Dan Noodles
No. 74: Pure Thai’s Nakorn-Patom duck noodles soup
No. 73: Melt Bakery’s Morticia
No. 72: Calexico’s Baja Fish Taco