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Sushi and Sashimi Fish Guide

A sushi menu is mostly a list of fish names, and most people order from it by guesswork. That is a pity, because the names carry real information: where on the fish a cut comes from, which species it is, whether it has been cured or aged, and whether this is the right month to eat it at all.

This guide explains the fish you will actually meet at Hong Kong counters, belt chains and supermarkets — what each tastes like, what it costs, what to watch for, and the handful of labelling traps that catch almost everyone.

Order light to rich. Start with white fish such as hirame, move to shellfish such as hotate and amaebi, then silver fish such as aji and saba, then lean tuna, then fatty tuna, then roe and uni, and finish with cooked eel, tamago and rolls. Starting with otoro is the single most common mistake: everything afterwards tastes muted.

Tuna: the cuts

The three words on every menu — akami, chutoro and otoro — describe where on the fish the meat came from, not a quality grade. Fat rises as you move from the spine into the belly, and that single gradient explains price, texture and serving order. Typical fat content runs roughly 1–2% in lean akami from the loin, 15–20% in chutoro from the outer belly, and 25–30% in otoro from the lower belly, reaching towards 40% at the winter peak.

Akami is deep red, firm and faintly iron-tinged, and often marinated in soy as zuke at Edomae counters. Chutoro balances lean umami with melting richness and is the best value of the three for most diners. Otoro is pale, heavily marbled and melts at body temperature; one piece is usually enough. There is no official boundary between chutoro and otoro — it is the chef's judgement. The cuts, the rarer sub-cuts and how to order them are in otoro, chutoro and akami: tuna cuts explained.

Tuna: the species

Bluefin is the fatty, expensive tuna behind the best otoro. Yellowfin is leaner, cheaper and cleaner-tasting, and it is the tuna in most chain sushi and supermarket packs. Bigeye sits between them and produces good toro cuts. If a menu says only ""toro"" without naming the species, it may well be bigeye rather than bluefin — ask.

The species also matters for mercury, which accumulates with size and age. Published regulatory data places bigeye at about 0.689 ppm, the highest of the commonly eaten tunas, and yellowfin at about 0.354 ppm, classified as a ""Good Choice"" at roughly one serving a week for adults. Bluefin populations have also been heavily overfished. The trade-offs are in bluefin versus yellowfin tuna in sushi.

Salmon

Salmon is the backbone of Hong Kong's everyday sushi, almost all of it farmed Atlantic salmon, with major chains naming Norwegian sourcing. Standard nigiri comes from the loin: firm, bright orange and clean. Salmon belly, sometimes called sake toro, comes from the underside: paler, softer, oilier and closer to tuna belly in texture. At Genki Sushi that is roughly HKD 18 against HKD 24 a plate.

Belly is the better piece seared, because heat renders the fat, and the worse piece for takeaway, because it softens fast. Salmon is also a recent arrival in Japanese sushi rather than an Edomae tradition, which is why you see far more of it at chains than at classical counters. The comparison is in salmon versus salmon belly sushi.

Yellowtail: hamachi, kanpachi and buri

English menus translate several different fish as ""yellowtail"", and they are not the same. Hamachi is young, mostly farmed Japanese amberjack — soft, buttery and high in fat. Kanpachi is greater amberjack, a different species — firmer, leaner, cleaner, often more expensive, and frequently preferred in summer. Buri is the mature wild adult of the hamachi species, at its best in winter.

Because ""yellowtail"" covers several species, it is not specific enough to order on; ask which fish it is. How to tell them apart, and when to choose each, is in hamachi and kanpachi yellowtail explained.

White fish and flatfish

Lean white fish is where a kitchen's handling shows most clearly, because there is no fat to flatter it. Hirame, olive flounder, is at its best from roughly December to February, when winter fish turns translucent and glassy; summer hirame is leaner and can taste muddy. Engawa is not a separate fish but the collagen-rich fin muscle of a flatfish — springy, faintly crunchy, and excellent lightly seared.

Cheap engawa is usually not flounder. At a good counter, engawa generally means hirame. At cheaper restaurants and on belts it frequently means imported halibut, which is available year-round and tracks no real season. That is not fraud, but it is a different product. If engawa is cheap and always available, ask which fish it came from.

Both are explained in engawa and hirame flatfish sushi explained.

Silver and oily fish

These three are the backbone of everyday Japanese sushi and the most misunderstood items on a menu. Aji, horse mackerel, is usually served raw with ginger and spring onion and is gentle enough for beginners. Saba, mackerel, almost always arrives cured in salt and vinegar as shime saba. Iwashi, sardine, is intensely flavoured and highly perishable, so it appears mainly at counters that buy daily.

One correction matters: the vinegar cure on mackerel is about speed and flavour, not safety. Japan's health ministry states that vinegar, salt, soy sauce and wasabi used in ordinary cooking do not kill Anisakis larvae, and it names mackerel among the fish most associated with them. Parasite control comes from proper freezing by the supplier. The three fish, and how to judge them, are in aji, saba and iwashi: oily fish sushi guide.

Shellfish

Hotate, scallop, is one of the few toppings genuinely better in two forms. Raw, it is clean, sweet and yielding; seared as aburi, the surface caramelises and the sweetness turns savoury. Hokkaido and Aomori are the origins most often named in Hong Kong, and Sushiro has sold whole or grilled Japanese scallops at HKD 17 a plate during a promotion. Remember that searing does not cook the centre. See hotate scallop sushi: raw versus seared.

Amaebi, the small northern sweet shrimp, is served raw and soft, and — counter-intuitively — very fresh amaebi is not the sweetest; sweetness develops over hours under refrigeration. Botan ebi is larger and firmer. The fried heads are often the best part. See amaebi sweet shrimp and botan ebi guide.

Uni

Uni is the most expensive thing on most menus and the easiest to get wrong. Two variables decide what you get: the type, principally richer bafun or lighter murasaki, and the grade, which runs from intact gold lobes down to broken pieces used in sauces. Hokkaido is the reference origin, with the main harvest generally described as June to August, though published calendars disagree.

Good uni is plump, bright, dry-looking and smells of clean sea. Bitter or ammoniated uni is a fault; send it back. Cheap uni is the single worst value order in Hong Kong sushi, so spend the money at a counter instead. Grades, seasons and how to judge it are in uni sea urchin sushi guide: grades and season.

Roe

Three roes dominate sushi menus, and size tells them apart instantly. Ikura, salmon roe, forms large pearls of roughly 5 to 9mm that burst. Tobiko, flying fish roe, is tiny and crunchy, often coloured black with squid ink or green with wasabi. Masago, capelin roe, is smaller, softer and cheaper, and frequently dyed to pass as tobiko on budget rolls.

Ikura is served as gunkan or over rice, already cured in soy and sake at good restaurants, so do not dip it. The differences are in ikura and tobiko roe sushi differences.

Eel

Two eels, two traditions. Unagi is freshwater eel, fatty and dense, grilled and lacquered with a sweet kabayaki sauce. Anago is saltwater conger eel, leaner and softer, gently simmered and finished with a light glaze, and often the closing savoury piece at an Edomae counter. Both are cooked, which makes them good choices for cautious diners.

There is a conservation dimension most menus do not mention: Japanese freshwater eel is classified as endangered, while anago populations are currently healthier. Choosing anago is the clearest sustainability swap in Japanese dining. See unagi versus anago eel sushi.

When each fish is at its best

Seasonality is the main reason two visits to the same counter taste different. As a rough rule, winter — December to February — is the time for hirame, engawa, buri and the fattiest tuna. Summer is the time for Hokkaido uni, kanpachi and aji. Autumn brings oily fish forward and tuna begins building winter fat. Farmed salmon, farmed hamachi and frozen-at-sea scallop do not follow a meaningful season in Hong Kong.

Published calendars conflict, particularly on uni, so the practical approach is to ask two questions at the counter: where is today's fish from, and when did it arrive. The calendar, with the disagreements flagged, is in the seasonal Japanese fish calendar for sushi lovers.

Choosing fish responsibly

You can eat sushi responsibly without giving it up, and three swaps cover most of what is problematic on a Hong Kong menu: anago over unagi, kanpachi over hamachi where both are offered, and yellowfin over bluefin or bigeye for regular eating. Small, fast-growing species such as aji, saba and iwashi carry less mercury and less stock pressure than large predators.

Do not mistake premium for sustainable. A platter built on wild bluefin otoro is the least defensible order on the menu; a salmon plate is among the most. The questions worth asking a restaurant are in sustainable seafood choices when eating sushi.

Where to taste the difference

Chains and supermarkets serve standardised fish, which is fine for everyday eating but hides most of what this guide describes. Seasonal white fish, aged tuna, graded uni and properly cured mackerel live at counters that buy daily. For the best raw fish in the city, see the best sashimi in Hong Kong; for counters that work in the traditional style, Edomae style omakase explained and the best omakase in Hong Kong.

If you want to buy fish and prepare it yourself, buy product sold specifically for raw consumption. ""Sashimi grade"" is a commercial description rather than a regulated standard, so the supplier's handling matters more than the label; see where to buy sashimi grade fish in Hong Kong and how to slice sashimi at home.

Safety, mercury and who should be careful

Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety classifies sushi and sashimi as high-risk foods, because no heat treatment kills pathogens or parasites before eating, and identifies 4°C to 60°C as the temperature danger zone. It advises that women who are pregnant, planning pregnancy or breastfeeding avoid large predatory fish because methylmercury can harm the developing nervous system, and that susceptible groups avoid raw seafood altogether.

The parasite controls suppliers use, including freezing protocols, and the mercury figures by species are in is it safe to eat raw fish. Pregnancy-specific advice is in sushi for pregnant women, shellfish allergy in shellfish allergy at sushi restaurants, and the wider picture in our Japanese seafood safety guide.

Common questions

What is the best fish for a sushi beginner?

Salmon, then lean tuna, then aji. All three are mild and familiar. Save uni and oily fish for later.

Is otoro always the best tuna?

No. It is the fattiest, not the finest. Many experienced diners prefer chutoro or well-aged akami.

Is hamachi the same as yellowtail?

Hamachi is one kind of yellowtail, but kanpachi and buri are also sold under that name. Ask which fish it is.

Which fish are lowest in mercury?

Small, short-lived species such as aji, saba and iwashi, plus salmon. Large tuna, particularly bigeye, carries the most.

How do I learn the menu words?

See Japanese sushi menu words and how to pronounce them and how to order sushi like a local.

Compiled by our editorial team from chef-informed fish cutting and grading guides, fish-market and species references, Japanese Ministry of Health guidance on Anisakis as cited in published sushi references, published regulatory mercury data, conservation status reporting, Hong Kong chain and restaurant menu listings, and Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety guidance. Last reviewed September 2026. Fat percentages and seasonal windows are typical ranges that vary by fish, origin and year, and published sources disagree on several seasonal windows. Conservation assessments vary by stock and authority. This article is general information, not medical or dietary advice.

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