Food review: Shiro maguro toro (albacore tuna)

Restaurant: Zushi Puzzle (San Francisco)
Food description: Raw slices of white albacore tuna toro sashimi
Food rating: 2 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

I took one look at this and immediately wanted to send it back. I was expecting it to look gorgeous like this. Instead, I was served this half-pink-half-brown, greasy-looking block of fish. I was already uneasy about having more albacore tuna after the first batch was old, but it was too late to cancel the order. I attempted to bite off a little piece to test it out, but there were such huge bands of tough tendony stuff that I couldn't bite through it. It was so bad, I chewed off what fish I could, and spit out the rest. Not the best thing, especially after just having my wisdom teeth out. And after all that work, the fish itself was nasty! It tasted even older than the regular albacore sashimi, and was so greasy it was sickening. There's a big difference between being fatty, and being straight up oily. It didn't matter anyway, because it was impossible to chew and was old. The whole situation was almost comical, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Whatever you do, never ever order this, please!!

Food review: Maguro sashimi (red tuna)

Restaurant: Zushi Puzzle (San Francisco)
Food description: Raw slices of red tuna sashimi
Food rating: 6.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

You'd be surprised at how many sushi places butcher red tuna sashimi. Maguro is very lean and firm, so the cut is more critical than with a softer oilier fish. Luckily, Zushi Puzzle nailed the cut of this red tuna, which you can tell just from looking at it: the white tendony things are very thin and sparse and the color is deep red. My previous 2 maguro experiences were not up to snuff, so when this dish arrived, I was able to breathe a big sigh of relief. The flavor and texture was confirmed after the first bite--it was fresh, tender yet firm, and mild and clean. The tuna had lots of flavor and a slight metallic hint that is characteristic of maguro. Although I wasn't blown away by the tuna, I was very happy with it, considering that it's been a couple months since I've had decent maguro sashimi. However, I still think that the red tuna at Sushi Delight is better.

Food review: Maguro sashimi (red tuna)

Restaurant: Sushi Time (San Francisco)
Food description: Raw slices of red tuna sashimi
Food rating: 2 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

(Pardon me while I go off for a sec) This maguro had no business being anywhere near my stomach nor any kitchen nor any restaurant! I actually told the host on my way out my sentiments toward this barely edible dish. He blamed it on the fact that it was a sashimi cut rather than a sushi cut--but trust me--I've had enough sashimi in my life to know which cuts are just inappropriate to serve. (Ok, done ranting). But I think you get the picture. There were two major issues that prevented me from eating more than a few bites. First, you can tell just from looking at it that there's huge pieces of tendon cutting through each piece. You'd need a chainsaw for teeth in order to chew through that stuff, and I should've sent it back (I normally would have). The second issue was that half of each piece was discolored (see photo again), which meant it was getting old and tasted fishy. The shiro maguro sashimi also suffered from this problem, which is a bad sign for a sushi place when two of the fish you ordered are not fresh. This is a big problem and makes me think twice about coming back to this restaurant again. It's a shame because I thought some of their other fish was so good.

Food review: Maguro sashimi (red tuna)

(maguro is red)

Restaurant: Red Box Sushi (San Francisco)
Food description: Raw slices of red tuna sashimi
Food rating: 4.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Ok... before you flame me for giving something from Red Box Sushi a 4.5, as you can see I've only ordered this once, so I will have to check it again and update the post / post a new message if it improves. First off, I had such high hopes!! It looked so beautiful - really the presentation here is exquisite. So after admiring the layout it was extremely disheartening to bite into the maguro and get... mushy flavorlessness? I mean you know when you sometimes get that over-refrigerated or twice frozen feeling about sashimi. I got it. It was mealy and tasteless and I really don't have anything else to say about it. If you have had the Red Box maguro sashimi and it was good, please post your experience in the comments so we can get an idea if this is common with them - thanks!

Also, note for those who like Kirin beer, they do not have it here.

Food review: Maguro sashimi (red tuna)

(tuna on right)

Restaurant: Sushi Delight (San Francisco)
Food description: Raw slices of red tuna fish
Food rating: 7.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 10+

I order maguro sashimi pretty regularly here and it's one of the better tuna sashimi dishes that I've had. I enjoy tuna sashimi but I don't crave it as much as hamachi or toro. The color of the maguro sashimi is consistently good--it's always a sign of freshness when the color is a nice deep red, never brownish or pinkish. Thankfully, the cut is also great here-tuna that's cut from the wrong part of the fish has stripes of chewy tendony stuff. Proper chefs won't serve you this, and use it inside the rolls instead. I've sent tuna back at places like Sanraku for this reason. The flavor of this tuna is nice and clean, and actually has flavor compared to some other places (for amazing flavor, try the maguro at Sebo in Hayes Valley). The texture is usually very smooth, and doesn't require a lot of chewing. Overall, the maguro at Sushi Delight is pretty tasty and a great bang for the buck ($7 for 6 pieces).