Here's Philadelphia's Best Sushi

The Daily Meal recently published our Best Sushi in America roundup for 2014, and in order to compile our ranking, we started by reaching out to leading culinary authorities to ask what their favorite sushi restaurants are, and we supplemented those suggestions with sushi restaurants featured in local reviews and pre-existing regional and local rankings. Although many of these restaurants also serve a menu of traditional Japanese food, we stressed that the primary focus must be on sushi. We then took that list of 112 restaurants from across the country and built a survey, with the restaurants separated by region. We invited our group of trusted panelists, comprising chefs, bloggers, journalists, and other culinary authorities, to vote for their favorites. Our final list showcased the 35 best, with one from Philadelphia scoring the #5 spot.

Masaharu Morimoto — you might have heard of him? Here at the legendary Iron Chef's Philadelphia flagship, he's creating magic every night, with appetizers including sautéed foie gras with grilled eel, 10-hour braised pork belly, and tofu made tableside, noodle sides like uni carbonara (with quail egg, bacon, and Parmigiano Reggiano), and entrées like crispy whole rainbow trout with mapo tofu sauce, and the "Morimoto surf and turf" with Wagyu filet, Hamachi ribbons, and avocado salad. The sushi and sashimi are the best you'll find in the city as well: you can take your pick of everything from shrimp pound cake (kasutera) to oh-toro (fatty tuna), mirugai (geoduck clam), or golden big eye snapper (kinmedai), but you know what? You should probably just leave you meal in Morimoto's (very talented) hands. 

The restaurant snagged the very high #5 spot in our compilation, and without any local competition mentioned on the list, it is unequivocally the best sushi in Philadelphia.

Kate Kolenda is the Restaurant and City Guide Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @BeefWerky and @theconversant.