NYCReview
photo credit: David A. Lee
Rosella
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Note: Rosella no longer has an omakase option, however the same team opened an omakase counter, Bar Miller, in September 2023.
Much of the sushi-grade fish we eat in restaurants travels Odyssey-level lengths in order to make it onto our plates. Upscale spots fly in otoro on Wednesdays from Tokyo Bay, and Hokkaido scallops rack up an impressive number of airline miles. On the off chance your neighborhood sushi place is selling something from America, it’s going to be uni from Santa Barbara or maybe even Philadelphia Cream Cheese, confusingly manufactured in Lowville, New York. Rosella on Avenue A is trying a different sourcing model, one that focuses on fish who swim closer to the East Village than they do to Tokyo, and eating here will change the way you crave and think about sushi.
photo credit: David A. Lee
This restaurant almost exclusively uses ingredients found within the United States. They dole out bigeye tuna from North Carolina, striper grown in Bushwick, and incredible fluke sashimi that was caught so close to Rosella it could have taken the afternoon train from Montauk while enjoying a tallboy in a brown paper bag. If you’re a sushi snob, you might be thinking, “Is striped bass from Texas actually delicious?” We get it. But we wouldn’t be emphatically recommending Rosella if the fish didn’t taste just as (if not more) luxurious than what’s being served at your favorite sushi spot.
An à la carte meal at Rosella will be the highlight of your week (and run you around $50), but the $150 omakase is particularly impressive as it paces through 15-18 dishes. Some, like the Maine oyster doused in Thai fish sauce, are served in tiny shooter glasses, and others arrive in shallow bowls that you’ll want to pick up and slurp from. (A lightly-cooked British Columbia spot prawn in a butter dashi comes to mind.) The chefs also curate five or six nigiri with the best fish they have on hand, often topped with yuzu zest, soy sauce, or finger lime beads. If you’re lucky, you’ll be handed a warm mug of broth to drink before dessert. It’s made from the restaurant’s fish leftovers, and each slurp drinks cloudy and rich. This soup is a little like Rosella’s version of a musical finale, reprising all of the fish that made the show possible.
photo credit: David A. Lee
As you eat each piece of dolled-up American sea creature, you might overhear the cooks tease the head chef about a playlist best described as Enthusiastic Dad Rock or notice a pair of commemorative Beavis and Butt-Head socks hanging among the cookbooks on the wall. Rosella’s space is high-brow and low-brow all at once, and, given the fact that you can go weeknight-á-la-carte or full-on-special-occasion here, that just makes sense.
If you’re anxious about how soon mama earth is going to cross her arms and declare “It’s time to leave, humans,” you probably already know that we’re late in questioning our transcontinental sushi-sourcing practices. But Rosella makes the future of sushi significantly easier to swallow. So if you’ve been carrying around the misconception that American fish isn’t good enough to enjoy raw, come to Rosella and be proven wrong.
A tip: Reservations can be hard to come by, but Rosella keeps the bar by the window open for walk-ins. So arrive around six, and put your name in if you’re determined to eat here tonight.