So most of this is actually actionable advice. Things like use your hands, savor but don't get distracted, don't use sauce/wasabi all are easy. But what I want to know is how do I find good places that serve sushi quickly in the states. Every restaurants that I have been to takes forever and serves it on a huge platter all at once. Don't get me wrong, some of these places seem excellent to my unrefined pallet, but where should I look for a more authentic experience?
The easiest way to get sushi quick is to order it a la carte, at the bar, when they're not busy.
Ever go to a place and see a little card and pencil with a column each for Nigiri and Maki, with individual fish listed and a quantity line next to it? There you mark down what you want and how many pieces each. Fill out like three of them and submit them to your server after you've got your drinks settled, and you should get them pretty quick. If they don't have these cards, you may not get your order quickly.
Sometimes it's hit or miss; check the reviews online first. Back where I grew up in Florida there was a place where you'd get your order in less than two minutes, but the quality wasn't very good.
For an 'authentic experience', you want a simple place with an old japanese guy or two behind a bar watching a baseball game on a tiny tube TV, possibly with some shouting going on. This is super rare in the US from my perspective, but I have found a few places like this in south florida, so you may have luck elsewhere too.
For just a 'good sushi' experience, you want either a japanese convenience store that makes sushi to order, a super pretentious expensive place pretending to be a high end sushi/sake bar, or a place that randomly has a really well trained chef that imports really quality ingredients [which is typically only pretentious expensive places]. Food blogs are a good resource, though they can often be more pretentious than the restaurants.
I like to try out new places and order either chirashi or whatever the chef's nigiri special is, maybe with tuna or beef tataki beforehand to see their prep skills. Most places that don't have japanese chefs fuck up the tataki, and you can usually predict the rest of the quality from there. If you don't get paper thin slices or they come back over-seared, your sushi is gonna be sub-par.
Note: the best sushi i've ever eaten in my life was last year at the now-closed Barracuda in the Castro, so don't overthink it, just order some nigiri and see what happens.
The next time you're looking for sushi in the Castro, I suggest going a dozen steps past the old Barracuda spot and down the stairs next to the fitness shop. Down in the lower level is my favorite neighborhood sushi joint - Sushi Time. Alternatively, try Eiji (next to Kitchen Story at 16th/Sanchez), or Amasia Hide's Sushi Bar at 14th/Noe. All reasonably priced (think like $20-30/person and be stuffed) and far better than Barracuda IMO.
All those places pale in comparison to some of the best sushi (IMO) in town though, if you're willing to spend quite a bit more. Check out Kusakabe in the Financial District :)
silencio gave some great suggestions, but I just wanted to say that, in general, pretty much any sushi place you can find in the city is probably better than Barracuda. That place served sushi that would have been appropriate if it was one of those really cheap sushi places, but they charged quite a bit more than the sushi was worth. I even tried getting Omakase there once and was served sushi that was worse than a normal sushi combo order from any other place I've been to.
To be fair, I haven't been to every sushi place in the city (or even every sushi place in the Castro), so maybe you can find worse places, but overall I was just very disappointed with Barracuda.
I've heard people say this. But did they get the chef's choice of nigiri? Every piece I tasted was like a totally different animal and the pieces were gorgeous, grade 1- to 1+, properly prepped. It was stupefying considering how corny the place was.
Yes, that's what Omakase is. The phrase literally means "I'll leave it to you" but it's used in sushi restaurants in the US to mean chef's choice. Everywhere else that I've gotten Omakase it was fantastic, but at Barracuda I was served a meal that is easily bested by Sushi Combination A from Sushi Time (and that would have been much cheaper too).
> Every piece I tasted was like a totally different animal
Assuming that you were getting different types of fish with each piece, then I certainly hope they tasted different! If the sushi restaurant you're eating at serves up different fish and they all taste the same (or, god forbid, they all "taste like fish") then that's not a very good sushi restaurant.
