On the search for the best sushi in CT brings us to Feng Chophouse in Hartford.
Feng is part of the Ginza group (see review of Ginza here), and is often listed as among the best sushi in CT.
While this is also a chophouse, with supposedly amazing steaks, we will only focus on the sushi for now.
Steaks come later.
There are a lot of things we tried here.
The highlight is the jalapeno roll, but we’ll review everything we tried so we can get a feel for this place.
First thing to notice is that the rice used in all of the sushi and rolls (makki) is slightly brown.
It could be because it is steeped in either tea or sou sauce, but the rice is noticeably tastier than standard sushi rice.
Let’s start at what didn’t work well, as we move up to the highlights.
Feng Chef Roll
A5 Wagyu Nigiri
A5 Wagyu is the ultimate top quality of wagyu.
This is decided by how fatty the meat is and from which breed of cows.
A5 is the best.
It is also insanely expensive. $300 per pound here at Ginza, level expensive.
But, you can try it as a single piece of sushi (nigiri) draped over rice for much cheaper.
So why not?
This might not be the best way to try this steak.
With such a small thin piece, cooking it becomes difficult.
You can’t eat this steak anything more than rare (no problem for me).
But to take a tiny piece and make it rare they basically just smoke it.
What this does is give the beef a massive smoky flavor.
One that is so strong it overpowers anything else.
All you taste is smoke.
It feels great in your mouth, super tender. But it just tastes like fatty smoke.
Maybe try and get it as the cooked steak instead.
The Rating: A5 Wagyu Nigiri
6.5/10
Tuna Roll
This straightforward roll is just fish and rice.
The rice is very chewy, and with no sauces or anything else the umami flavor of the rice can come through.
The tuna has a deep flavor to it, with only a slight fishy taste.
The Rating: Tuna roll
6.5/10
Spicy Geisha Roll
This roll has spicy salmon inside with little bits of mango, topped with spicy tuna and a spicy aioli.
It has a good heat overall to it.
The roll has an insane amount of umami flavor.
Like a pure umami roll.
The spicy fish has minimal mayo inside as well, giving the roll more weight.
The mango gets lost in all of this, but still a very good roll.
The Rating: Spicy Geisha Roll
7/10
Spicy tuna roll
These types of rolls have a great flavor.
There are large chunks of fish and minimal mayo in the mix.
The spice level is also higher than normal, with a hot spicy kick in the back of the throat at the end.
There is less fishy taste than in the straight fish rolls.
A wonderful version of a spicy fish roll.
The Rating: Spicy tuna roll
7.5/10
Eel Avocado Roll
Okay, this roll is is wonderful.
But it is very odd.
The avocado inside doesn’t add much flavor, but a creamy texture.
But the eel…the eel is phenomenal.
Every bite it changes flavor.
The bites that have the meaty flesh have the deepest eel flavor I’ve ever had.
The bites that have the crispy skin, and I’m not joking here, tastes like campfire roasted marshmallow.
It’s odd and fun and wonderful.
Also, we’ve had this as both a hand roll and a traditionally cut roll and the hand roll is better.
The Rating: Eel avocado (hand) roll
8/10
Jalapeno Roll
This roll has absolutely wonderful flavor.
The fresh jalapeno is deep throughout without ever being overpowering of too spicy.
The fish on top (yellowtail) is incredibly fresh without any fishy taste at all.
The inside tuna and salmon add a meatier flavor.
And throughout there are little bits of chopped fresh jalapeno.
It’s a wonderful blend of deep flavor and fresh whitefish and jalapeno.
The Rating: Jalapeno Roll
8.5/10
The recommendaiton:
Go crazy here. The sushi and rolls all have a deep umami flavor to them. The highlights are definitely the jalapeno roll as a specialty roll, and large chunks of eel (e.g. hand rolls). The things that are least interesting are just simply fish. Overall, this might be among the best sushi in Connecticut.
Address: 93 Asylum St, Hartford, CT 06103
Hours:
Closed Sundays and Mondays; open for dinner only.
Menus
Phone: (860) 549-3364