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Ranking: 1Read Full Review
- Restaurant Name:Harney
- Location:San Diego, CA
- Websitewww.harneysushi.com
- Address:3964 Harney Street,
San Diego, CA 92110 - Special OffersRequest Special Offers And Coupons
Ratings:
The Review
So we escaped the cold of New York and got a real treat in California, not just plenty of sunshine and being able to run outside at night in shorts, no the real treat was Harney Sushi. Before I even get to the amazing food, let me just say that Harney Sushi is one of the best sushi establishments we have been to. You can tell they run a very efficient business, are ahead of the ball when it comes to a fusion menu and believe in true customer service - we witnessed them handling a slight problem in the most professional manner. That being said let me take you through our visit to their San Diego location. We walk into an adorable cozy, yet modern sushi restaurant with a bright giant fish tank dividing the place with a sushi bar on one side and a full alcoholic bar on the other. If you want to enjoy the weather, they have a very cool tropical looking area with plenty of room for your party or date. The gracious manager David escorts us to our booth, the whole place is decked with modern art and bright red colors, and we are shortly greeted by our talented chef Anthony who informs us he'll take care of us for the night.
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The Dragon
He starts us with a dish he calls the dragon - a homemade rice krispy treat that's dropped into a bowl of liquid nitrogen. We are instructed to take the treat, bite down & the blow through our noses, effectively turning us into dragons. See the video for my best imitation, hey I tried. -
Happy Hamachi
Next was a delicious sashimi dish called Happy Hamachi with orange ponzu and jalapeno salsa which was light with the perfect mix of flavors. -
Aji Sashimi This was followed by Aji Sashimi - tender slices of raw fish, with the entire edible skeleton frame garnishing the dish (yes, yes we tried a piece of that, pure crunchy goodness) with freshly homemade grated ginger and wasabi. The fish tasted like they had literally just caught it out back in the bay.
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Chopped Toro and Tabiko Roll Next was a chopped toro and tabiko roll and "not your everyday nachos" This delicious appetizer was where we got our first taste of fusion. They were wonton based chips with manchego cheese, sausage and shrimp and a ever changing homemade salsa, todays was onion & Asian pear and was sensational, but overall the dish was a little heavy. Harney's San Diego has a great way of combing Japanese flavors with a Mexican twist.
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Maui Waui
How about some sushi. An awesome thing about Harney Sushi is they have competitions between their chefs who create different rolls and a winner is chosen based whose roll is ordered the most. The winner was the Mike Check- lobster, kani, cucumber topped with salmon, yellowtail, garlic ponzu, avocado salsa, which was alright.
. . . but we preferred the Maui Waui - shrimp tempura, crab, w/ albacore, avocado, eel sauce, chilli, ponsu & onion. -
Rollz Royce Our first favorite roll was the Rollz Royce, a spicy roll of lobster tempura and cucumber topped with tuna, jalapenos, money sauce & then hand seared and covered with a garic ponzu & eel sauce. Garlic is a flavor not often used & the mix of that with the eel sauce was a truly different and tasty treat.
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Vietname-so-Harney Other favorite was the unique Vietname-so-Harney. What made this so good were the sprouts, micro greens, strawberries, jalapenos and sweet citrus chili sauce, with fresh pomegranate seeds which gave the roll a great crunch.
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Roll with shrimp and crab inside topped with salmon, eel sauce & sriracha One great thing about Harney is that they will build any roll you want & we tested their skills on roll with shrimp and crab inside topped with salmon, eel sauce & sriracha. They added pepper, giving the whole roll a seared taste. Look how thick their salmon slices are.
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Tempura Cheesecake For dessert the tempura cheesecake was good, but rich.
- Final Thoughts: There's one thing that very few sushi restaurants stock that we hope harneys will soon -- mango chunks. One out of several dozen restaurants will actually have a peach or mango option so we weren't surprised. . . but we sure missed our mangos. It's possible they do have mango, just not on that day.
What about the rice/stickiness. At restaurants we consider sub-par, our soy sauce bowl fills up with fallen soldiers from each roll. This is usually an indication that someone didn't take the rice preparation too seriously or hasn't mastered the rolling technique. At Harneys, I found not one casualty sitting in our soy sauce bowls at the end of the night. I know this may sound a bit silly, but, you'd be surprised how many california roll level sushi eaters complain about the same thing every single day.
Harney's was incredibly friendly, accommodating and attentive, our glasses were always full. Their overall presentation was outstanding and they use high quality, fresh fish and it is clear they put lots of thought and creativity into their menu. They are a little pricey, but they focus on sustainability and use higher end materials. Trust me, a visit here is well worth the splurge. - Recommendations: Order the Dragon, Tatter Todds, Vietname-so-Harney and Rollz Royce
- Cities Located Near: Downtown San Diego, Little Italy, Gaslamp Quarter, Marina District, Seaport Village, Porto Siena, East Village, Cortez Hill, Horton Plaza, Coronado, La Mesa, Rancho, National City, La Presa, Santee, Chula Vista, Spring Valley, Bostonia, Lemon Grove, Imperial Beach, Tijuana Mexico, Bonita, El Cajon, Lakeside, La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Del Mar, Fashion Valley, Mission Valley, Carlsbad, El Cajon, Encinitas, Escondido, Imperial Beach, Poway, San Marcos, Solana Beach, Vista
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