At a non-kosher restaurant, is thinly-sliced raw fish kosher?
Let's assume one sees the preparer clean the knife and cut from the whole fish.
Also, let's assume this raw fish is sashimi — minus the usual rice, and minus the usual Asian white radish.
(I'm not asking whether or not it's permissible to eat it: if I were, we'd have to consider maris ayin. I'm only asking whether or not it's kosher.)
Answer
If the fish is kosher (i.e. you can identify it as a kosher species in an acceptable way, e.g. you see the scales on the whole fish, or for skinless salmon by the red color of its flesh which is a sign of kashrus), and everything is cold and clean (fish and utensils), then the fish can be eaten l'chatchila. This is based on the Shach in Yoreh Deah 91 (#3), as well as the discussion in the Aruch HaShulchan in Yoreh Deah 91:6, where it is clear that one may use cold, non-kosher utensils to eat kosher food, as long as it is done only occasionally.
Since nothing is hot, the question of ben yomo or eino ben yomo (whether it was used in the last 24 hours) does not even matter. And as long as you are just eating the fish, then the issue of charif does not matter either. (If however, a non-kosher knife was used to cut a charif food, like an onion, then you could not eat the onion. But if it subsequently cut fish, then the fish is still fine, because fish is not considered a davar charif).
So the bottom line is that the only issue is whether the fish is kosher and cold and the knife is clean. If all you are eating is the raw fish, then there are no issues of charif or kli ben yomo.
(For more on the topic of identifying skinless salmon or other salmanoid fish based on its distinctive red color, see: http://www.oukosher.org/index.php/common/article/the_kashrus_of_skinless_salmon1/ . For white-fleshed fish, the topic becomes more complicated, whether one is expert enough to identify a fish based on its flesh and whether that expertise is valid)
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