Fave the Way

REVIEW: Jay's Favorite Sushi Bar

by Drew Lazor

If Jay Zou had a “favorite” sushi bar other than his own, the bare-bones operation that materialized on Sansom Street in the winter, I’d be worried. While it’s certainly not my No. 1 raw-fish palace in the city, there’s plenty to eat on the chef’s insanely affordable menu — just keep in mind your experience might vary wildly depending on the night you visit.

The wine-tote-armed diners who frequent Philly’s many mom-and-pop BYOs always hold the experience of feeling like you’re dining “inside someone’s home” in high regard. It definitely feels this way at Jay’s, too, but that’s just because the staff hangs their street clothes from pegs in the bathroom, dish-filled bus pans tend to linger in the dining room and the raw-and-uncooked-food posting required by the Health Department is hand-scrawled and fastened to the wall with Scotch tape. But who stresses about ambiance at a low-key sushi spot like this, anyway? Just give us some nice, fresh fish.

During my first visit, on a slow Wednesday night, we watched in muted horror as the friendly chef on duty (not Zou) drowned many of the rolls he prepared in Great Wave Off Kanagawa-size helpings of spicy mayo sauce. (Seriously, he was squeezing the bottle so hard that it repeatedly made fart noises that bounced like flatulent pinballs around the desk drawer-size restaurant. He’d apologize with a smile and a sheepish “My bad!”)

A meal that started out superbly with an $8.50 trio of shimmering laser-sliced sashimi (octopus, hamachi and scallop) went off track when this heavy hand doused the potential of what could’ve been some tasty maki. The gorgeous “Romantic” roll — tuna, avocado, pineapple and masago, wrapped in soy paper so pink, enough of it could be sewn into a sexy nightie — had great flavors, but the glop on top overrode everything. The fried-on-the-outside “Oh My Goodness” came with a mayo-heavy kani salad that was guilt-trip great, but rendered the sauce-buried roll itself redundant. The bass-wrapped “Volcano” was the most successful novelty of the three, but its wings were again clipped by over-saucing.

A second visit, with Zou behind the bar, was a tire-screeching 180 from that initial mayo party. Appetizers of yellowtail “Holopilo” (par-seared slices of fish dressed with sriracha, roe and ponzu) and Rockefeller-esque New Zealand mussels baked with a mayo/cream-cheese mix met varying verdicts at our table, but all the maki this time around was smashing — and dirt-cheap, too, since we took advantage of a $10.25 three-roll special. The cooling, straightforward pleasure of a hyper-fresh yellowtail/scallion combo (a true sushi yardstick for me) made the salty crunch of a salmon skin roll — dressed with the perfect amount of eel sauce! — that much more appealing. And how surprised am I to share that my favorite roll this time around contained no fish at all? The Green Tree (pictured above), a twist-up of silky sweet potato, avocado, cucumber and panko, topped with a glistening raincoat of kiwi and plated with a smooth mango sauce the color of egg yolks, is the best vegetarian sushi I’ve ever tried. Definitely my favorite.

(drew.lazor@citypaper.net)

Jay's Favorite Sushi Bar | 1526 Sansom St., 215-564-0526, jayfavorite.com. Mon.-Thu., 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fri., 10 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sat., noon-11 p.m.; Sun., 1-10 p.m. Soups and appetizers, $2-$7.50; maki and hand rolls, $3-$5.75; sushi and sashimi, $3.75-$5.75; specialty rolls, $8.25-$28.95. BYOB.