In other days, I made pub crawls, now I crawl sushi bars. A proper pub crawl is alphabetical: start with a bar beginning with the letter A and progress as far as possible. Last Saturday night saw 5 sushi bars (with 5 nigiri sushi pieces each) in 5 hours, traversing St. Louis from east to west over 25 miles. There were more sushi bars on the list (Nippon Tei and Oishi Sushi to name two), but we collapsed like a bloated fish after 25 pieces. All we said to the sushi chefs was “feed us”; they picked their best items. And all the sushi chefs served toro (fatty tuna) as one of the pieces. Here are the sober results of a very enjoyable, but informal poll:

• The sushi bar with the most colorful patrons: Seki
• The place where Mama may throw you out on your ear: Seki
• The sushi bar most in need of a garage sale: Tachibana
• The best sushi bar to chat up other patrons: Nobu
• The best place for a first date: Wasabi
• Sushi bar least affected by Highway 40 closures: Tachibana
• The bar with the chattiest sushi chef: Sansui
• Hardest clam to open: Seki at Seki
• Best clam sushi: Sansui
• Most like a neighborhood bar: Nobu
• The sushi restaurant with the most attractive china: Nobu
• The best hot hand towels: Nobu
• The best toro (fatty tuna): Seki
• The best wasabi: Seki
• The best pickled ginger: Nobu
• The most creative sushi: Seki (one fish; two different presentations)
• Where the sushi required a knife and a fork: Wasabi
• The best fish-to-rice ratio: Sansui, Seki, and Nobu
• Tastiest fish: Seki
• Most like home: Nobu
• Shiniest surfaces: Wasabi
• Best value for money: Sansui
• Where I will eat next: Nobu

Where to find the restaurants visited:

• Nobu
• Sansui
• Seki
• Tachibana
• Wasabi

And more importantly, where to find the next sushi-making class at Kitchen Conservatory: Monday, August 20, 6:30 to 9 pm, Sushi in the Sky with Diamonds. Make your own sushi and it’s always just the way you like it.

Anyone else up for a crawl?

What other type of food makes for a such a comparison?