15 Raw Fish Dishes You Need To Try That Aren't Sushi

Ask anyone to name a raw fish dish, and there's a high chance their first answer is going to be sushi. While it might be delicious, raw fish is much more the familiar realm of sushi, offering a world of unique recipes and culinary traditions that span continents and cultures. From the vibrant citrus flavors of Peruvian ceviche to the delicate savory taste of the Scandinavian gravlax, raw fish dishes showcase the pure essence of skilled culinary techniques and the flavors of the sea.

Whenever you're making a raw fish dish at home, you must buy the fish from a reliable seafood purveyor. Whether it's ceviche or carpaccio, it's crucial for the fish to be either "sushi grade" or "sashimi grade." These terms indicate that the fish is safe for raw consumption and has been handled, stored, and frozen properly to minimize the risk of a foodborne illness from parasites and bacteria. Now that you have that important information, here are 15 raw fish dishes you should try to go beyond sushi.

Often confused with tuna tartare or crudo, carpaccio is an Italian dish that consists of thinly sliced fish or beef that's dressed in extra-virgin olive oil, lemon, sea salt, and cracked black pepper. Some people also mistake carpaccio for crudo; technically, crudo refers to the preparation and category of uncooked dishes in Italian cuisine. Crudo, meaning "raw" in Italian, could range from being a platter of sliced vegetables and hummus or a plate of thinly sliced sea bream with olive oil. Essentially, carpaccio is a type of crudo due to its preparation style, ingredients, and presentation.

Carpaccio was invented by the founder of the famous Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy, Giuseppe Cipriani. It's said that a frequent customer of the establishment was placed on a strict diet of only consuming raw meat. Cipriani served her a dish consisting of thinly sliced raw beef tenderloin garnished with a mayonnaise sauce. He named the dish after the famous painter, Carpaccio, due to the resemblance of the colors of the dish to the artist's paintings — thus, carpaccio was born.

Nowadays, you can find carpaccio listed on menus throughout Venice, Northern Italy, and around the globe. Over time, it has diversified from only consisting of sliced raw beef tenderloin to also including raw fish. You can find carpaccio dishes featuring delicious bluefin tuna, salmon, sea bass, and swordfish. To get the paper-thin cut, the dish is known for the protein is often slightly frozen so it can be sliced more easily.

Other than sushi, ceviche is one of the most popular preparations of raw fish. This Peruvian dish typically consists of cubed raw fish that's been marinated in citrus juice — typically lime or lemon — and then combined with onions, chiles, and other ingredients. The citrus juice essentially "cooks' the raw fish due to the citric acid slowly denaturing the fish's proteins in the same way that direct heat cooks the fish. This causes the fish's color to turn opaque and its texture to become slightly firmer. It's important to buy your seafood from a reliable fishmonger who specifically states it's safe for raw consumption, since marinating fish in citrus juice doesn't kill bacteria that cause food poisoning.

Firm, white-fleshed fish like tilapia, sea bass, halibut, mahi-mahi, and red snapper are the most commonly used proteins for ceviche. It's typically served alongside a basket of fried tortilla chips or plantains. Depending on the country, you can find numerous variations of ceviche throughout Latin America. In Mexico, ceviche is traditionally made with more ingredients than the Peruvian style, typically containing white fish, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, avocados, and jalapeños. In Ecuador, you can find "ceviche de camarón ecuatoriano," where it's made with shrimp instead of white fish and more citrus juice.

Beyond the popular Spam musubi, another Hawaiian specialty is the raw fish dish, poke. It typically consists of diced yellowtail tuna or salmon that's been marinated with an array of seasonings, including soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, scallions, garlic, and rice wine vinegar. Poke is almost always served over a bowl of steamed sushi rice as a main dish or served on its own for a snack or appetizer. People typically garnish their poke bowls with either nori, sesame seeds, seaweed salad, edamame beans, avocado, cucumbers, and sometimes even chopped kimchi.

Many people believe poke is an offshoot dish from Japanese cuisine; however, it has been a fundamental element of Hawaiian food culture for centuries. The original form of poke quite simply only consisted of raw fish seasoned with sea salt, seaweed, and crushed kukui nuts. When Japanese immigrants settled in the Hawaiian Islands in the 1970s and 1980s, poke evolved due to the new influence of culinary traditions, resulting in the modern poke we know today.

If you've ever traveled to any Scandinavian nation, you may have had a bite of delicious gravlax. This well-known Scandinavian delicacy consists of thinly sliced salmon that's been cured with a mixture of salt, sugar, and herbs — typically dill. You find it throughout the Scandi nation being served on a slice of hearty rye bread with a side of chopped dill, boiled potatoes, and mustard sauce called hovmästarsås. It can also be enjoyed simply on its own or with crackers.

The name "gravlax" translates to "buried salmon," which reflects the ancient Scandinavian culinary practices of burying the salmon underground with ingredients like malt, barley, and berries. This creates a lacto-fermentation environment to preserve the fish. The technique was frequently used to preserve salmon during the long, cold winter season.

Some people commonly mistake gravlax for the Jewish specialty, lox; however, the two salmon dishes are different in both preparation style and ingredients. Lox is solely cured with sea salt, resulting in a milder flavor compared to gravlax's complex herbaceous flavor.

Mulhoe is a popular and refreshing Korean cold raw fish soup. It's particularly enjoyed during the hot, sweltering summer months in Korea and is often referred to as the ceviche of Korean cuisine due to the raw fish being marinated in a tangy and acidic broth. The cold, tangy, spicy broth is what sets mulhoe apart from the other marinated raw fish dishes. It's typically a water or rice water broth with a base of gochujang (Korean red chili paste), offering a pleasant amount of spiciness and subtle sweetness alongside the salty, umami boosting flavor of the soy sauce, white vinegar, and fish sauce. Similar to the delicious Korean cold noodle dish, naengmyeon, mulhoe is served with crushed ice cubes to keep the broth cold and refreshing.

Raw fish like halibut, rockfish, mackerel, sea bream, and flounder are typically the stars of the dish. You can also find a few variations, including tuna, salmon, albacore, or even sea urchin. To add a bit of crunchy texture, mulhoe includes an assortment of julienne vegetables like cucumbers, carrots, green onions, daikon radishes, and sometimes even apple or Asian pear. It's a delightful dish, and you should definitely give it a try if you're ever taking a trip to Korea.

E'ia ota is a traditional Tahitian dish made with raw fish, lime juice, coconut milk, and sliced vegetables. It's considered the national dish of Tahiti and the islands of French Polynesia, with islands across the region having different variations. E'ia Ota, also referred to as "possion cru," perfectly reflects the common and traditional Polynesian practice of eating raw fish. Just like ceviche, the lime juice helps "cook" this fish, denaturing its proteins, giving the raw fish an opaque color and firm, meaty texture.

The dish is well-known for having a zingy acidic flavor from the lime juice, an intense floral richness from the coconut milk, and a beautiful natural fish flavor. The most common fish used in e'ia ota is what's native to the Polynesian islands. Oftentimes, you'll find it on menus being made with either yellowtail tuna, mahi-mahi, or swordfish. It can be combined with a variety of vegetables, including tomatoes, cucumber, bell peppers, and onions, providing a crunchy freshness to the firm texture of the fish. After spending a long, relaxing day under the Tahitian sun, nothing is more refreshing and comforting than a bite of e'ia ota.

Oftentimes, sashimi is mistaken for sushi; however, it's completely different. Sushi typically consists of seasoned, vinegared white rice and often includes raw or cooked seafood and vegetables. Sashimi is sliced raw fish or seafood served without any rice. The purpose of sashimi is to focus on the quality and freshness of the fish itself. It allows diners to taste the natural flavors without any interference from other ingredients.

Sashimi can be cut in a variety of ways, ranging from hira-zukuri (flat slice), kaku-zukuri (square slice), ito-zukuri (thread slice), and usu-zukuri (thin slice). Tuna, salmon, and yellowtail are the most common sashimi options on sushi bar menus, along with sea bream, halibut, and mackerel. The specific type and cut of tuna, such as bluefin, bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin, can vary as well. Typically, sashimi is accompanied by a side of soy sauce, wasabi, pickled ginger, or grated daikon radish.

If you're obsessed with toro, fatty, succulent belly cut of tuna, you're gonna love the Japanese tartare dish, negitoro. This traditional Japanese dish consists of finely minced toro tuna and freshly sliced green onions. It can be used as a topping for sushi, served on its own, or on a bed of steamed white rice. The combination of the rich, fatty, buttery toro tuna mixed with the sharp freshness of the sliced green onions complements each other perfectly.

When you want to make negitoro at home, it's key to use a premium cut of toro tuna. The toro — especially the otoro — is the most prized cut due to its excellent fat marbling and limited portion on the fish. If you don't want to break the bank on the toro, you can also try using a less expensive cut, like the chutoro. It's generally sold in greater quantity and is widely available compared to its fat counterpart, allowing you to get more bang for your buck. Oftentimes, Asian supermarkets and Japanese grocery stores will sell all of the ingredients for you to make this delicious dish at home.

Hoe-deopbap, also known as raw fish bibimbap, is a Korean dish consisting of steamed rice mixed with various sliced vegetables, sliced or minced raw fish, sesame oil, and a tangy, spicy sauce called chogochujang. For those unfamiliar with Korean cuisine, bibimbap is a classic rice bowl dish, translating to "mixed rice" since all of the ingredients are mixed together before eating. A bibimap bowl typically includes a variety of ingredients like steamed rice, raw or sauteed vegetables, protein like beef or seafood, a fried egg, a drizzle of roasted sesame oil, and spicy sauce made from gochujang. 

This cool and refreshing dish is a beloved meal in the various coastal regions of Korea with numerous regional adaptations. Since Korea is a peninsula, it has a great abundance of wonderful fish and seafood, making a bibimbap like hoe-deopbap the ultimate platform to highlight the natural flavors of raw fish. This delightful dish is typically made with either halibut, sea bass, mackerel, rockfish, bluefin tuna, or salmon. In some regions, you can even find it being made with oysters, abalone, squid, or with the briny filter-feeder sea pineapple.

Hollandse Nieuwe or "new Dutch herring" is a traditional Dutch specialty that consists of herring topped with either chopped white onions or pickles. You can find it either being served raw in a mild pickle brine or lightly salted and cured. In order for it to be considered Hollandse Nieuwe, the herring has to be caught and sold during the months of mid-May and early July, specifically calling for a young or "virgin" herring. During the season, the young herring have a unique, buttery, briny flavor due to their high levels of fat content.

You can find street vendors throughout the canals of Amsterdam and Rotterdam selling this Dutch specialty. It's tradition to always eat Hollandse Nieuwe straight from your hands. People typically will dip it in chopped white onions, hold it above their heads, and take a bite. While you can have it sliced up and served with toothpicks, why wouldn't you join the fun? If you're planning a summer vacation to the Netherlands, lean into the unique food culture and be sure to give Hollandse Nieuwe a try.

Yusheng, also known as lo hei, is a traditional Chinese raw fish dish that's eaten during Lunar New Year celebrations throughout China and Southeast Asia. The dish usually consists of raw fish — either salmon or wolf herring — served with a variety of colorful shredded vegetables, sauces, and pickled side dishes. Yusheng is particularly popular with the Cantonese communities in Malaysia and the tiny city-state nation of Singapore. You can find it being served in households and restaurants throughout these two countries on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, known as a renri.

The best part of eating yusheng during the Lunar New Year season is the unique ritual where family members and friends gather around the dish, using their chopsticks to toss ingredients together while making wishes for the future. During this mixing process, people shout out phrases, quotes, and anecdotes associated with good fortune and prosperity. Furthermore, each ingredient symbolizes a special meaning in the dish; for example, the shredded carrots welcome good luck into your life, while the sliced raw fish signifies growing abundance.

Nowadays, most people are familiar with a few staple Vietnamese dishes like pho, banh mi, bun cha, and com tam. Although there is much more to this delicious Southeast Asian cuisine than just a steaming bowl of pho or a crispy banh mi. Meet goi cá trích, a Vietnamese raw fish salad made with sliced raw herring, toasted rice powder, a plethora of fresh herbs, green mango, and sweet, tangy citrus dressing. The core ingredient of the dish, herring fish, provides the salad with a mouthwatering, briny, and fatty flavor. The citrus juices, often lime or lemon, slightly cure the herring in a similar way to ceviche, giving the dish a prominent sour flavor and a firm texture. The green mango is incorporated to sweeten the salad up a bit while providing a pleasant, fresh, and crunchy bite.

Goi cá trích originates from the island of Phu Quoc in the Gulf of Thailand — however, it's quite a popular menu item throughout the country. Remember, goi cá trích is just one of many tasty Vietnamese fish dishes. The country's long coastline and beautiful rivers hold a vast seafood culture that is just waiting for your taste buds to discover.

Other than poke bowls, Hawaii has a plethora of other tasty raw fish dishes, like lomi lomi. This classic Hawaiian dish consists of cubed raw salmon, diced tomatoes, minced sweet Maui onion, and sliced green onions. Lomi lomi translates to "massage" in Hawaiian, referring to the hand-mixing used to combine ingredients. The salmon is typically massaged with a dash of salt before adding the other ingredients. This helps slightly cure the fish, giving it a more nuanced salty flavor and firmer texture. It might seem a little odd to add diced tomatoes into a raw salmon salad. However, the sweet, juicy, and slightly acidic flavor of the fruit complements the richness of the salmon perfectly. Plus, cool, crisp, sweet, and almost pungent flavor is provided by the famed Maui onion, and sliced green onions wrap the whole dish together.

Lomi lomi is often served as a side dish at Hawaiian luaus alongside succulent kalua pork, poi, haupia, and, of course, poke. While the ingredients like the salmon, green onions, and tomatoes aren't indigenous to Hawaii, this dish has developed and evolved similarly to other recipes in Hawaiian cuisine — however, the "lomi" technique used in its preparation is indigenous.

Looking for your new summertime staple dish that's perfect for barbeques and picnics? You should try making the delicious Catalan raw fish dish, esqueixada. Essentially, esqueixada raw fish salad features shredded salt-cured cod, diced tomatoes, bell peppers, hard-boiled eggs, onions, and black olives that are dressed in olive oil. The word "esqueixada" in Catalan means "shredded," which refers to the way the cod is prepared in the dish. The cod is typically rinsed under cold water to remove any excess salt, and then it is flaked or shredded by hand, resulting in its unique tender and slightly chewy texture.

You can find esqueixada being served as tapas throughout the Catalan region of Spain. It's often paired with a crusty baguette to mop up the delicious juices from the crunchy vegetables and soak up any leftover olive oil. Whether or not you're in Spain, it's the perfect excuse to eat this scrumptious raw fish dish with a nice cold glass of the Spanish sparkling wine, cava.

Often referred to as the "Indonesian sashimi" or "Indonesian ceviche," gohu ikan is a mouthwatering citrus-marinated raw fish dish. Like so many citrus-based raw fish dishes, the fish in gohu ikan is "cooked" by the citrus juices in the dressing, turning the bright red tuna used in its preparation opaque. You can find gohu ikan being made with either skipjack or bluefin tuna, occasionally king salmon or mackerel.

The dish is known for its distinctive fresh, tangy spiciness due to its wide range of aromatics. In a typical gohu ikan, you'll find minced bird's eye chili peppers, basil leaves, shallots, and roasted peanuts. To add even more flavor, hot coconut oil is often poured on top of it to further bloom the aromatics. Besides its tasty and unique flavor, this dish can easily be made at home. You can serve it as an appetizer with a basket of tortilla chips or as a main course with a side of steamed jasmine rice.