The Birthday Celebration: Sasabune, Flex Mussels, Lady M

This year, the boy took me to Sasabune, a tiny little sushi place in the Upper East side that serves only omakase.



No menus, just pure trust in the sushi chefs.



I won't pretend to remember most of the meal, but I thought I would just share what your meal would look like if you're interested in coming here.  Our omakase came with three appetizers, four plates of nigiri and a duo of handrolls.  If you find yourself full at any time, you can tell them to stop, and they will adjust your tab accordingly.

Little tuna sashimi plate in soy

Oysrers and crab stuffed octopus (the best!)

Melty chunks of monkfish liver (special of the day, and an add-on to the omakase)

Mackerel

What is immediately different, after you eat the first bite of nigiri, is how warm the rice is, compared to the room temperature rice served at most sushi places.  The result is unexpected, enjoyable and makes the fish more tender.

Tuna, cod, fluke and mackerel

That eel tho.

Butterfish.

Sasabune is also very strict on what is to be eaten with soy and what is not.  Often, the non-soy nigiri rice has already been kissed by soy and seasoning and does not need more.  It's hard to remember which ones not to do what with, so I just eat the plate as is, and everything tastes just fine.

Fattest roe this side of the Mississippi River !

Scallop and hamachi

The two handrolls at the end of the meal were blue crab and toro.  The crab is my favorite, but the fattiness of toro also always wins me over every single time.

At this point, you can choose to order more of your favorites, or end the meal.  And though the meal was relatively quick (less than an hour), our bellies had become completely pregnant with hot rice and fish, so we called it quits for sushi.

But we had to press on, for birthday celebration sake.  We walked a few blocks over to Flex Mussels where the boy had dutifully researched desserts to find made to order donuts with fillings of choice !

The donuts come 4 or 6 to an order with a variety of filling options, including: fluffernutter, PB&J, salted caramel, s'mores, Meyer lemon, blueberry and more.  Yes, more !  Oh the humanity !

The donuts come standing tall in these cute wooden trays, made just for donuts, of course, and they are so hot, so airy and so bloody brilliant.   We inhaled them all.

Then it was time for a quick stroll through Central Park (you know, to help our stomachs digest the night's feast),

so that we could make more room for Diana's surprise gift, Lady M's banana mille feuille.  A whole one.  All for me - she's simply the best !!

So we cut ourselves some huge fat slices, sunk into the couch, and let that duhlicious cream melt into our mouths before passing out from food exhaustion.

What a great birthday!

Han's Nonsensical Rating: While Sasabune is a pretty good value, Nakazawa is still supreme when it comes to omakase, and the price points are pretty close to make the latter a better buy.  The mussels I've had at Flex are merely okay, but I'd return for those donuts any day, and Lady M.  Duh.  Delish.

Sasabune
401 E 73rd St, New York, NY 10021


Flex Mussels
multiple locations
174 E 82nd St, New York, NY 10028


Lady M
41 E 78th St, New York, NY 10075