Jay’s Favorite Sushi Bar

I loved this place. Anyone know why it closed?

Looks like they shut down. I’m sad, they were a good choice after Bikram Yoga for me.

Jay’s is a Philly sushi staple. The prices really cant be beat. A 2-​roll special for 8 bucks in town ?? in Rittenhouse, no less ?? Come. On !! I will admit I do not venture into the fishier rolls, but the shrimp tempura roll is allthat, and the philly, boston and ny rolls are all tied for close seconds. The staff is always friendly and accomodating. I am not sure what folks expect for inexpensive sushi located in a tiny walk-​up. Not a date spot really (i mean, depends on what you’re into.), but perfect place for quick, easy, and filfilling lunch/​dinner eats. Ive eaten here over 50 times and enjoyed (and by enjoyed, I mean i left full, satisfied, and w/​o ever getting sick or anything of the like). Oh and the spicy mayo is pretty good. Not too spicy, just how I like it. Anywhoo, Jay’s is a fave.

The place is very small, their sashimi was great and also their Philadelphia roll was on point. Service was good, chef took forever but the presentation wasnt to bad

Definitely bang for your buck at this place! Three rolls for $ 10?! I mean it’s not the best quality fish that’s forsure, but when you’re getting three rolls for $ 10 and the fish isn’t bad, then I can’t really ask for anything more.
It’s a small shop, and the two men working there are so nice! I ordered the salmon avocado roll, the lobster avocado roll, and the spicy tuna roll. My friend ordered the salmon skin roll, the futomaki roll, and I forget the last one. All the rolls for the special deals are simple rolls, but they mix and match a lot so there are tons of rolls you could choose from. The service is quick! The food is a lot for $ 10 and it’s decent. The fish isn’t bad, and it does the job to satisfy your hunger that’s for sure. This is definitely a quick sushi stop place. Cheap, good, and leaves you feeling full! No complaints here! Next time, I’ll try their other rolls and items that are not part of the special deals.

Jay’s Favorite Sushi Bar has one less fan. The acid burn from the overabundance of spicy sauce woke me up in the middle of the night. There’s too much spicy sauce in their imitation crab meat salad (really just slivered kani «crab» soaked in spicy sauce) and an overkill of Japanese panko bread crumbs. I want to basically ask WHY WHY WHY???
My friend Chris and I started with the tuna dumplings, which were huge. Lots of tuna wrapped around a huge wad of imitation crab with little bits of lobster in it. The biggest mistake any sushi joint can make is to say you get crab when it’s really imitation crab. I’m sorry, but imitation crab is not crab. It’s fish meatloaf! The dumplings were the size of baseballs. Sure, you get a lot of food for your money, but is more really better? No, not in this case. About halfway into the dumpling, I felt that Jay’s could’ve simply made a smaller tuna dumpling with real lobster and crab meat instead of this fake crab junk. The huge mound of Japanese panko bread crumbs covering the plate was just offensive. Why kill this dish with so many bread crumbs? You just need a light sprinkling of crumbs on the plate!
Chris got a sashimi platter and I got a Revive Fire roll which was supposed to be a softshell crab roll with spicy crab on top. My roll was quite possibly the worst softshell crab roll I’ve ever had. The softshell crab was heavily breaded, dry, and not the wonderful crab experience I’ve had at Shiroi Hana, Hikaru, Fuji Mountain, or Morimoto. To make matters worse, that yucky imitation crab meat salad was sitting on top of each piece. Yucky. Chris’ platter was not very attractive. It was basically a rectangular plate with five sets of sliced fish: tuna, salmon, hamachi, white fish, and white tuna. Chris also got a Sakura roll which was supposed to be Spicy Crabmeat topped with Shrimp, Spicy Mayo Sauce and Massago and wrapped in soy paper. It was just more of the same yucky imitation crab meat salad with shrimp in it. By the time I tried a piece of his roll, I had had enough of Jay’s.
I should’ve seen the clues in the pictures. Lots of «inventive» sushi rolls doused in a lot of colorful sauces. In fact, some of the rolls are swimming in a disgusting overabundance of sauce. Every roll, sushi, or sashimi is «He man-​sized» so you get big value for your money. This is not the kind of sushi I like to eat. I’d rather eat sushi that is small and delicate and seasoned just right. Jay’s Favorite Sushi Bar will certainly have its fans, those people who aim to fill their bellies with one menu item for under $ 10. It’s just not sushi as I like it.

Sushi was really good and great for the price. One of the better places in philly for sushi delivery. If your hesitant you should do it.

I haven’t been here in years, and a couple of weeks ago I decided to give it another try, since I had once praised it so highly.
The salad was iceberg and nothing else. That creamy ginger dressing I once loved? Too heavy and too mayo like.
The sushi was fine. It was edible and I didn’t get sick. However, I’d rather eat at other places in the city. It’s good on a budget, I suppose.

I’ve gotten take out from jays a few times. It’s mediocre sushi at mediocre prices. They have a large menu and are accommodating with making substitutions but the quality of sushi is not the great. Let me explain…
I ordered a spicy tuna with brown rice, a speciality roll, dumplings, and a seaweed salad. Dumplings were alright. Both Sushi rolls were mushy… And not good melt-​in-​your-​mouth mushy. I think soggy is a nice way to describe it. I was pretty grossed out, but hungry, so i finished my meal. Seaweed salad was watery.
I don’t think ill order from there again. Vic is way better, sorry Jay

Hate to do this but disclaimer: This is not a rating for the food.
Rather, it’s for their delivery service, or lack thereof. Hopefully I’ll be able to try the food sometime to amend the review but in the meantime, I ordered some sushi via Seamless, but it never got to me.
After about 40 minutes or so, Seamless contacted me to ask whether the restaurant got in touch with me via email or phone to confirm my order. Apparently Seamless had trouble contacting the restaurant and even called the manager’s cell to see what the progress was with my order. No one answered which essentially amounted to my wasting about 2 hours of my time in an effort to order dinner.
Get your act together Jay!

I am sort of a sushi snob.
I’m going to be honest. This was literally the worst sushi Ive ever had. It was warm… WARM! (and NO! it wasn’t tempura).
I also paid $ 3 for a side salad which was literally iceberg lettuce.
Nope… no spring mix… no romaine… no iceberg with slivers of carrots or even purple cabbage… LITERALLY just iceberg. I was puzzled and then angry and then i had to smirk and whisper, «well played my friend… well played».
I will never be back.
Check and Mate.

This is my absolute favorite place to get sushi. I wish it was closer to my house :(. It is such a cute small place for lunch. They make all orders right there in front of you. I think this place is perfect for a casual first date. They also have the typical sushi roll specials like 2 for 7.50…and so on. The servers are always very friendly as well.

Need to change the photo title
I have been here twice. It’s a small place. Take out one time and delivery one time. Great reasonable priced sushi. Some sushi has too much mayo and too creamy. Pick 3 sushi special is a great deal. Friendly staff. Some can’t speak English well. I will be going back soon. May be dine in this time.

NOTE: This is for their delivery service only, not dine in.
I have ordered twice and the food took over an hour to get to me. I live 1.2 miles away, which can be biked in ~10 mins.
1^st time was off peak hours: 11:30am on a Friday — 3 rolls took 1hr, 20mins.
2^nd time was off peak hours: 4:30pm on a Wednesday — 2 rolls took 1hr, 15mins.
When I called the restaurant at the one hour mark, they said «Sorry» and to wait longer. The second time, I also called at the one hour mark and they said the same thing. When I informed them that this was the 2^nd occurrence they said «Sorry». It is terrible business practice not to offer a reason, or any kind of refund, or discount for a future order.
It is a very poor delivery service. If you like warm sushi that been outside for an hour, you’ll love theirs. The delivery man speaks no english and holds his hand out for a tip before handing you your order.
Food Review:
Rolls are small but cheap. Seem fresh and are of ok quality. ³⁄₅ at best.

Jay’s serves solid sushi at very reasonable prices. Like many other little sushi bars around, Jay’s has a 3 roll special on regular maki ($ 10.25 here). One thing I appreciate about Jay’s is that they also have a special for nigirizushi/​sashimi, so you can get a variety of sushi preparations at a good price.
Maki was pretty good (American, Eel & cucumber, Lobster salad) while the nigiri was mixed. Scallop nigirizushi was great — the scallop was fresh, silky & light, but the fish (tuna & white tuna) did not seem as fresh.
If you’re careful with what you order, Jay’s is solid. Nothing really stood out for me except the scallop nigiri, which I’d happily come back for. Extra points for great selection & value.
3.5 stars

I am really happy with the sushi experience that I had at Jay’s last night! I have worked a block away for almost 4 years and just now decided to venture in after hearing about the 3 roll special.
My boyfriend and I got 3 rolls (American, Lobster Avocado, and Alaska), and 12 pieces of sushi (Yellowtail, Tuna, Masago, Ikura, Striped Bass, Squid) and it all came out to under $ 30 after tax. We were full after 6 pieces of sushi, but decided to order more because we were just so excited about the deal that we were getting.
These are not the best looking rolls I’ve ever seen or the most fresh fish I have ever had, but everything really tasted and looked good. Not only that, but they offer free delivery! Not to mention that they are a BYOB.
I’ll be back — especially for lunch!

4 stars for value. That’s one thing that Jay’s definitely has. $ 10.25 for the 3 roll special is pretty awesome. The rolls are fairly sizable so that’s pretty nice too.
— Spicy tuna sandwich — For some reason, this is really good. It’s covered in rice, kind of difficult to eat, but the flavors are there, and they are good.
— The rolls are pretty decent, I found my shrimp slightly overcooked, but the rest of the rolls were decent. Not bad.
Definitely a great value for what you get. It’s a «order delivery» place for me, and it makes me happy.

They have combination deals that make rolls and sushi super cheap! The rolls are definitely on the smaller side, so you’ll need to order up on the combination deal if you want to get full. Sashimi was actually more fresh than I thought it would be, considering the price!
Also, the joint is sort of small, and the service is slow, but the place is BYO, so you can just head downstairs and bring up some beers while you’re waiting.

Average to above average sushi, in my opinion.
I got the 3 roll special, which was only like $ 10 or so. I ordered a tuna roll, yellow tail scallion, and salmon/​avocado. They were all pretty tasty. I also got an avocado salad with ginger dressing, because I freakin love the ginger dressing. Well, the avocado and ginger dressing were good — but the lettuce was literally white. I know this is a sushi joint, but I’m pretty sure lettuce to meant to be green.
I got to watch him make my order, which was pretty cool.
Really, nothing too special about it except that it’s close by. And open on Sundays. But good enough, that the next time I want sushi on a Sunday, I’ll be back. (Or when I want free delivery)

Thanks, Jay’s, for helping me out with my diet today. How did you know I don’t like salmon sushi? You must have had some idea since you replaced my California roll with a spicy salmon roll in my take-​out. Clearly, my eyes were bigger than my stomach (yet again) when I ordered the three roll combo instead of the two roll. However, in the future, I’d like to make that decision on my own. Because you still got me for the cost of three rolls even though I only ended up receiving two out of the three that I ordered.
Who knows what that poor guy who walked in after me ended up with. Five minutes after placing his order, he was asked for his order… again.
For average-​at-​best sushi, awkward service and the California/​salmon roll switcheroo, I bestow two stars.