Bizen

Spending his spare time leading sushi-making seminars and crafting his restaurant’s ceramic dinnerware in an on-site kiln, Bizen’s Michael Marcus may come off a touch fanatical. That’s all right by us, considering that this master sushi chef’s obsessiveness also translates into the kind of rigorously fresh sashimi, nigiri, and maki that gets foodies snapping to attention. The menu names are cute-clever (Kiss My Bass, Silence of the Yams, the Bezerkshire Roll), but wholly beside the point: Food this fine can speak for itself.