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Not letting presentation and ceremony trump substance, Japanese mainstay Choshi delivers without a hint of the pretense sometimes associated with its Gramercy address. Knotted pine table tops and natural wood blinds accent a spare backdrop for the mixed, casually dressed crowd, whose banter adds color to the generic mix of R&B pumped over the speakers. But it’s the staff—professional and efficient, if not solicitous—that sets the tone here: T-shirt-clad servers take your order, answer questions, and promptly get out of the way, as if they might otherwise upstage the chef’s creations. That would be a difficult feat, as the open kitchen produces some of the freshest sushi this side of Blue Ribbon (and at more affordable prices). Tender slabs of orange-marbled salmon, melt-in-your-mouth yellowtail, and lightly glazed eel make for a perfect rejoinder to the crisp and flaky tempura appetizers. For more bite opt for one of the menu’s seven spicy hand rolls, most of which come wrapped in lively red pepper, mayo, scallion and cucumber. Choshi’s hard wood chairs may deter you from lingering, but at these prices you’ll have enough left in your wallet for a dessert or after-dinner cocktail nearby. — John Vorwald

Tempura appetizer, $8; eel kinuta (broiled eel and avocado wrapped in cucumber), $10; sushi dinner, $17