This meal has been occupying the most space in my brain since I have started DanEats. My Mom sent me a card and some money to go out to eat with Nat for Halloween. It was Monday and I had had a big lunch, so I wasn’t looking for a heavy meal.  Nat ate lunch late, so her stomach was telling her the same thing. We decided on sushi, but I wanted to go to a place that we had never been.

Whenever I read about the best sushi in New York, the articles talked about omakase. I don’t consider myself a true sushi eater because I am afraid to order the omakase. The idea of the sushi chef deciding on what ten or so pieces of sushi I eat is terrifying.  I have had the sushi chef feed me things like uni and octopus and I have ended up running to the bathroom to spit out the fish and to control my dry heaving so as not to vomit. (Editors Note: I have not thrown up for at least twelve years. These bad experiences were during this drought.) In short, I don’t trust the sushi chef to give me ten pieces of sushi I can eat. I don’t think it is cute or funny to serve things that I can’t swallow.

On this night I decided to sack up and go for an omakase somewhere. My first choice was Sushi Yasuda but they didn’t have a table available until too late. Nat got a recommendation for Tomoe and Takahachi. Takahachi is one of our favorite places to go, so in the spirit of trying something new we decided to go to Tomoe. Unfortunately, Tomoe was closed even though the sign read that they were open seven nights a week. This is when I started to panic. I don’t really do well when forced to come up with a third option on the fly for a specific cuisine in New York. I must admit that I got flustered.  To prevent me from going any more mental, Nat suggested that we  should just go to Takahachi. Well, I just couldn’t let this night defeat me, so I racked my brain for every sushi restaurant within reasonable distance of Thompson and Houston. I remembered hearing good things about BONDST and Nat was ready to try anything to stop my madness, so she was down.

When we walked into BONDST you could tell that it was the type of place that people don’t usually just show up. We waited awkwardly for a few minutes in front of the hostess’ desk (I don’t know the proper term), and then walked to our table. Most of the people in the restaurant were ten years older than us at the least, which is always a good sign that you have blown it. I am psyched when I go to a restaurant and people are thirty years older, or the ages or more mixed.

The food at BONDST was the real let down. The first dish I had was a fish soup with a lobster claw, a shrimp, and maybe a scallop in a spicy broth with a fish egg roll on the side. The lobster claw and the shrimp had to be removed from the soup and eaten by hand, so I couldn’t taste much broth on them. This left extra broth, and after eating the two best components of the soup I was bored. I finished it like any good Pappas would do, but in the future I would space out the shell fish with some broth. I looked at the menu for a long time trying deciding what to get for the rest of my meal, all the while I knew in the back of my head that I wanted the omakase. I don’t know why I wasted my time looking at anything else. Nat was down for the omakase, and so we ordered sushi, as opposed to both sushi and sashimi. We also ordered a yellowtail scallion roll because this might be one of the best rolls at any sushi spot. If you look at the picture, the yellowtail scallion divided our identical orders of sushi. I apologize for the even poorer than usual quality of the photo, but my phone was dead, so Nat had to bbm me her photos. For the most part, the fish was bad. It didn’t taste fresh. Nothing melted in your mouth. Everyone always likes to describe good sushi as the kind that melts in your mouth, so every time I eat it I wait for the fish to melt. This rarely happens but at BONDST the fish was tough. The best piece was the toro which you can identify by the “edible gold leaf” on top of it. The rest of the fish had special pronunciations but none of them were special enough to remember.

As far as finding the best sushi that night goes, I was defeated. I did manage to overcome my fear of omakase, which may lead to the easing of the iron fist that I have clenched around my palette. I also, despite the near mental breakdown, enjoyed the whole experience. BONDST taught me that if I am not trying Sushi Yasuda I will be eating sushi at Takahachi. Also, I have bigger things to stress about in my life than where to eat a free meal. Like getting a job. Thanks for the meal Mom.