Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya

Missing a lot of my favorite sushi items.
The eel roll was a bit salty even though there wasn’t much eel in it. Not sure if I would go back though. I am picky about the sushi I eat.

First time here. The sushi dishes were good. A lil pricey, but you are paying for the ambiance

I was excited to finally try one of the Blue Ribbon restaurants while in NYC this week. My husband and I were feeling a little more izakaya and less straight up sushi so we decided to check out Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya for a bit of both cuisines. The atmosphere was great, trendy and chic, modern, and comfortable. Not pretentious at all. We had skipped lunch and needed an early dinner so it wasn’t surprising that the place was completely empty on a Wednesday evening at 6pm. By the time we left, it was getting more lively for sure.
Overall the meal was great. Service was attentive and impeccable. They have a pretty vast sake menu with choices for all types of sake lovers. We opted for a nigori bottle and were extremely pleased.
For food, we just went with a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Started with a couple of skewers — the beef short rib and the rock shrimp with garlic. The short rib was pretty good but a little more chewy than I was expecting and the rock shrimp was good but the sauce overpowered everything else and the grill flavor was lost.
Next up we had the chicken katsu bun, which was a special for the day. Excellent — perfect soft bun, perfectly fried katsu, and a great blend of flavors.
After that was the miso marinated black cod. This is a pretty standard dish at any higher end Japanese restaurant and I was expecting Blue Ribbon’s version to blow me away. It was solid for sure, but no different from any other miso black cod I’ve had at Japanese restaurants in Chicago and others in NYC. The portion was small for the price, but not so small that we were annoyed. The cut of fish was great, the flavoring was great. The fish flaked off to perfection — so everything was done correctly, I was just expecting a little more wow factor in one of my favorite standard Japanese dishes.
We finished the meal with the deluxe sushi set which included 10 pieces of nigiri and a standard roll (we chose spicy tuna). The spicy tuna roll was excellent — you can tell that rather than make their spicy tuna with the scraps of tuna left over, they actually use fresh tuna and blend it. The nigiri pieces were much smaller than I was expecting and although very fresh — they were not the freshest I’ve ever had (which I was expecting with the Blue Ribbon name). The deluxe set gives a good variety of fish, all fairly standard options.
Overall we had a nice dinner and a nice experience last night, but there was no wow factor or differentiator that would entice me to come back again. I put it on par with any higher end Japanese izakaya type of restaurant in any large city.

We were there last Friday, food was Average, I got the sashimi, server (yoshihisa) was very polite and attentive, we had 3 bottle of sake. I spell my drink and the server came right away to clean it and fill out my drink. Will come back

I came to Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya on a bustling Saturday night and truly enjoyed my experience. My date and I sat at the sushi bar sat at the bar and enjoyed an assortment of fresh sushi and ramen. The restaurant is quite trendy, and it is definitely a place you want to make a reservation prior to visiting, especially on a weekend.

Had a great meal here! Good miso, great fresh rolls. Strong and delicious cocktails and the service was attentive and helpful. Much more of an ambiance than the other blue ribbon sushi in soho. Would definitely come back. Had a blue fin tuna app special, spicy king crab roll, spicy tuna, salmon tuna yellowtail roll — all great.

This is probably one of my favorite restaurants in LES. Everything on the menu is good and the service was on point. I highly recommend the ox tail fried rice, chicken wings, and the bone marrow. The in house sauces are to die for, like the honey wasabi sauce that comes with the wings and the blue ribbon hot sauce that comes with the ox tail fried rice. Since we were staying at the hotel above Blue Ribbon, we got to try the breakfast there and I rate it ⁴⁄₅. The Blue Benedict was good but not great. The Pan-​Cake was the highlight of our meal. The pan-​cake was unique because it was fluffy, moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. It also had a hint of vanilla extract to give it that cake flavor.

Came here for dinner because another restaurant I went to was out of uni and I really enjoy it so I tried blue ribbon and was really impressed. Service was great and the staff is very friendly. The Fish was super fresh especially the uni it was incredible!

LOVE their chicken wings here. The way they bread and fry it is very different from many other joints I’ve been to. But where else can you get fried chicken, sushi and bone marrow fried rice all at the same time? Here you can! This place never lets me down and I always order the wings appetizer that comes with honey dip, their bone marrow fried rice and a platter of sushi.

This place is AMAZING. Must get the oxtail fried rice. Everything is delicious. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Sashimi, sushi, rock shrimp, ramen, all fantastic. Seriously best quality fish around and worth the price.
Good sized restaurant, one semi private room big enough for 6 people. Great décor, very excellent service. No changing table in the bathrooms is my only quip.

I’m still salivating.
Great find in the East Village.
We ordered an assortment of sushi, along with some wings and miso soup to start.
The wings were light, crispy and tender, and the wasabi honey and chili sauce perfectly complimented them.
The fish, especially the fluke, was melt-​in-​your-​mouth good. It left me wanting more, but my stomach told me otherwise.
The service was unpretentious and quick. This will definitely be in my list of places to return to whenever I’m in the area.

More like no ribbon sushi!
I have been wanting to try this place forever. Constantly telling the hubby that the reviews were great and everyone seems to love it, that we should trek down to the LES and check it out.
Well, I definitely lost some street credit here…
At first we walked right by the restaurant, distracted by another restaurant down the block — that must have been «The Sign» that we should skip Blue Ribbon. When we realized our error, we traced back our steps and found the restaurant. Up 2 flights of steep steps (already thinking how we would navigate them after a few glasses of sake…), we step into Blue Ribbon Sushi (the causal part) and Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya (the fancier part).
The hostess showed us into a lovely room where the sushi chefs give a hearty yell when we walked in (welcoming at first, but after the 10^th couple comes in…).
We are shown to our table and given menus.
The prices aren’t bad and the menu is diverse. Sushi and Sashimi are broken out by the ocean in which the fish is from (nice touch). They also have a list of specials where some of the items are more than double the price of their counterparts on the regular menu (ex: regular tuna $ 7 a piece, semi fatty tuna $ 17 a piece — and I know that fatty and semi fatty tuna are more expensive but that is a huge difference).
The plating of the fish was lovely! The couple next to us (who loved their food ironically — clearly never had good sushi or was too drunk to care…) had a display with seashells and fish that was just beautiful!
We ordered:
— Semi Fatty Tuna Sashimi — the best item on my plate
— Scallop Sashimi — tasteless, overpowered by the lemon it was sitting on — which is the normal way to plate it but it literally tasted like a lemon slice.
— Sweet Shrimp — tasty
— Regular Tuna — bland
— Fried Oyster — all batter overpowered the oyster
— Lobster Caviar roll — lobster was overcooked and tough
— King Crab Sushi — visibly dry
— Sea Urchin — bland and overpowered by the cucumber it sat on, something that I would have told you was impossible — two days ago!!!
— Salmon Sushi — bland
— Scallop Sushi — bland and dry
— Assorted other Sushi pieces — no flavor and totally dry
— Tomago — terrible and completely inedible
— Green Tea Ice Cream — the hubby enjoyed
— Hot Green Tea served through the meal — good
Now before you call me a sushi snob (which admittedly I might be…) I have enjoyed sushi at lower end establishments (see reviews of Sushi Ren and other small shops on the UES).
The bland food coupled with the constant (classless & annoying) yipping of the sushi chefs, Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya is not worth the price of the Über we paid to come downtown.

Blue Ribbon has a range of different restaurants from fried chicken to sushi. Blue ribbon sushi is located inside the hotel Sixty LES.
Friendly and professional welcome. A lot to choose from, both meat, fish and sushi.
The portions are not huge… We where quite hungry and started with two squers, quite small but really tasty.
Ordered one sushi dish each and then one more to share. Tuna/​avocado, spicy tuna and tempura shrimps. It was all perfect and delicious!
Will be back!

Delicious but pricey if you decide to go for skewers and/​or sushi. The fried rice dishes are a good deal and very rich and filling.
Beautifully decorated restaurant with a muted volume (good for conversation) and great for large groups with its round tables and long communal tables. I’d recommend for a special occasion with friends and family. Lovely service that allowed me to sit even though my whole party wasn’t present, and timely with food.
Highly recommend the:
— oxtail and bone marrow fried rice (comes in a half portion too for ~$ 14 which is good for two people if you order other stuff); rich and filling.
— sushi deluxe platter (order the spicy tuna roll! So tasty); fresh fish.
— the Hokkaido Uni, decadent though it is quite expensive at ~$ 10 a piece. They have cheaper types of Uni available as well.
We also had the short rib skewer ($ 5) and the scallop with miso butter skewer ($ 12). While these were tasty morsels, I didn’t think the scallop was worth the steep price tag as it was about three bites. The short rib was more justifiable; that was also only about three bites.

I love blue ribbon!
Avoid all the crowds on this silly street and get the best sushi around and some other foods, great balcony in the summer and ope late, can’t beat it, I do love the uptown location a little bit more but I work close by now and love this spot for being so close :)

I came here on a Saturday night with my friends. The host was kind enough to push our reservation to a later time. Most of our party was vegetarians, but they had called ahead of time to ask what the veggie options were. Unfortunately, that night, on a bust Saturday evening, they ran out of sweet potato, a key ingredient in many of their sushi. But the rolls they did get were good and the manager was kind enough to comp us a carrot tempura which would mimic the sweet potato.
Our waiter wasn’t as knowledgable with the menu as I would have liked. Especially because the menu was a bit confusing. I Unilocaled the reviews for this restaurant and every post I read instantly highlighted the scallops with butter miso. They were amazing, but you only get 2 scallops on the skewer, so don’t offer to share.
I asked the waiter to recommend a few rolls, and right off the bat, he told me the Blue Ribbon roll. This was named after their restaurant, but also was the most expensive roll on the menu. So I decided to get it and it was amazing. It was wrapped with lobster and topped with black caviar. Definitely recommend it. Also, they had yamazaki at their bar which made me very happy.
The waiter was very accommodating to our requests. We asked for a round of sake bombs, which they don’t do. But he brought us glasses and a bottle of sake and a few beers.
Even with all the fails, we had a great evening, the atmosphere was very classy and upscale and the food I ordered was great.

Dark décor. Solid sushi. Great service. We came here at 6pm on a Sunday.
— pork belly — awesome. It literally melts in your mouth, and the garnish matches with the fat.
— sushi platter — the fish was fresh but small. Slightly pricy
— pineapple cake — good dessert with a bit of spiciness in the sauce

Fancy place located above a hotel right off Houston street, it’s huge inside so I’ve never had to wait at all for a party of 2 or 4. I don’t think we’ve ever ordered anything we didn’t like. Have tried the sushi/​sashimi combo, beef short rib appetizer, pork belly, various nigiri and their Blue Ribbon platter for 4. Sushi is fresh but comes in small portions so I’m left feeling slightly hungry at the end but it leaves room for their amazing banana split. It comes with three heaping scoops of ice cream — green tea, red bean and ginger (it’s just a hint of ginger), macadamia nuts, lots of banana topped with whipped cream. It’s seriously amazing, we are ice cream lovers, so sometimes we make an excuse to have dinner here just so we can have the split.

Loooooove it. I’m still having dreams of that bone marrow oxtail fried rice.
Location:
As a restaurant in a hotel, I didn’t expect it to be such a large venue. They have several seating areas — one with a couches and a lounge feel, summery outdoor seating, bar seating and some booths like most Japanese restaurants, and then a dark, intimate, closed off dining area with tables and chairs (where we sat). Each one of these sections had a cool ambiance. I loved how the chefs yells a greeting as you walk in. They had candles on each table (it was around 6 PM) and the lighting gave it a romantic feel.
Food:
— Wakame: Blue Ribbon has my favorite seaweed salad. Not too big a portion, but it was a good starter. Especially refreshing on a hot day!
— Soft Shell Crab: I’ve never had soft shell crab before, but I’m glad this was my first experience! It came in a basket with some sauce on the size, which I thought was cute. The crab itself was so good and crispy! I couldn’t stop eating it.
— Bone Marrow Oxtail Fried Rice: Favorite dish of the entire meal! It may sound simple compared to the rest of the menu, but it is definitely a must-​try. The bone marrow comes wrapped in this perfectly cooked omelette. The bone marrow almost melts in your mouth! The fried rice was addicting as well. I don’t know what it was, but the rice and meat were just so tasty.
— Ginger Ice Cream w/​Ginger Bread Pudding: definitely a lot of ginger! Caramel sauce is drizzled all over it to balance some of the ginger flavor. The ice cream has a strong ginger taste, and it’s more subtle in the bread pudding. Both were very good though!
Service:
The best! Our server and server-​in-​training were attentive. Our waters were never empty. The food came out pretty quickly. What I liked most was that everyone helps out. Several people came by to clear off our table (to prepare for the next dish), even if they were just walking by and happened to notice it.

Izakaya was a detour from an expected return to Blue Ribbon on Sullivan Street. We decided to mix things up and see how Orchard Street compares. The answer there is «It does compare well» with the main difference being the size and décor of the dining area. Compared to most of the BR locations I’ve tried, Izakaya is a much larger and less intimate meal. The tables are spaced apart and I felt there was plenty of elbow room. It has access to an outdoor terrace bar.
We started with Shishito Peppers that were ab-​fab must order. We perused the menu and noted the lobster roll, an unagi option and a fried oyster roll. Instead we jumped on the Sushi and Sashimi platter for four. This was a repeat of what we have had on Sullivan — the menus are very similar. Without having made any request, we ended up with those noted as well as the usual assortment of fishes that you would recognize so I won’t bore you with all the names. For dessert, we ordered three more pieces of sushi.
Their sakes are fun and most are served cold. We had too many but it’s so easy when the fish and wasabi are swirling around.
It aint cheap but, when it comes to sushi meals, I don’t look for bargains. Since this was a detour experiment, I’ll break it down like this:
Sullivan is quaint but does not take reservations. Izakaya on Orchard is big and takes reservations. I like the fish at both.