Chef Joe Fung at 312 Fish Market inside 88 Marketplace's food court on March 1, 2024. Chef Joe Fung prepares sushi at 312 Fish Market.
“I was not expecting such high-quality freshness in such a comically casual location,” Jake Potashnick, a Chicago native behind the upcoming restaurant Feld, said over email. Potashnick is one of several in the fine-dining restaurant industry who vouches for the full experience of food court sushi; count Thomas Keller, the most Michelin-starred chef in America, as another fan.
The restaurant opened in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, with a focus on takeout and paltry seating. Chiu and Fung hadn’t worked together before; they knew each other from their time attending John C. Haines Elementary School. Chiu grew up in a restaurant industry family and Fung worked his way up from a busboy to Sushi-San.
They say they go through 200 pounds of salmon in about two days. They have ambitions to consistently offer omakase , but so far it’s been limited. I’m always looking for reliable sushi that won’t break the bank. My marriage came out of an absurd college deal: $2.75 for an order of sweet potato tempura rolls at the now-shuttered Ann Arbor campus dig, Sushi.com. At our most unhinged, we’d order nearly two dozen of this festival of carbs for under $10 dollars; they weren’t very good, but they were filling.
“You can get in and out of there for a steal,” said customer Rebecca Friedlander. “And I think that there are similar places that maybe present big platters like that who are maybe, let’s say more affordable but don’t have quite the finesse and the elegance and that the caliber of fish that 312 offers.”