If ever a food needed a brand overhaul, it is salt cod. Because nothing about that name inspires cravings. It actually sounds like something you spread on an icy walkway to keep people from slipping.

Jeffrey Kim’s sashimi bowls are perhaps the least flashy in town—but for good reason. The lunchtime bowls at his Aji Fish Butchery are composed of sliced, dry-aged sashimi topped with only maldon ...