The Upper East Side is getting another reason to make dinner plans. Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill is planning an Upper East Side location, bringing the longtime New York restaurant brand uptown for the first time. The planned restaurant is expected to land in Lenox Hill, according to a report published September 26.
For New Yorkers who already know Blue Ribbon, the arrival is less “new restaurant” and more “finally, it’s coming to our neighborhood.”
The Blue Ribbon family has been part of New York’s dining scene since 1992, when brothers Bruce and Eric Bromberg opened the original Blue Ribbon. The brand eventually expanded into a collection of restaurants, including its sushi concepts.
And what can Upper East Siders expect? Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill is known for combining Japanese sushi and sashimi with signature cooked dishes, creating a menu that works for both the raw-fish enthusiast and the person at the table who thinks sushi should come with a side of something cooked.
At its existing Columbus Circle location, the menu includes sushi, sashimi, sake and shochu cocktails alongside Blue Ribbon favorites such as its famous fried chicken.
That fried chicken is particularly important because it means you can technically go to a sushi restaurant without ordering sushi. New York dining has officially entered its “everyone gets what they want” era.
The Upper East Side already has plenty of Japanese restaurants, but a Blue Ribbon arrival adds a recognizable downtown-born name to the neighborhood’s dining mix. For residents, it means another potential destination for dinner, drinks, date night or the increasingly popular “let’s order a little bit of everything” strategy.
For anyone searching for Blue Ribbon Sushi Upper East Side, new Upper East Side restaurants, sushi NYC or Japanese restaurants on the UES, this is one opening to watch.
The only question now is when the first reservation drops.
Because uptown may soon have a new reason to order sushi—and fried chicken in the same sitting.
