** Sakagura (Japanese)

211 E 43rd St @ 3rd Ave, New York 10017, 212-953-7253


 
  

Update - 9/29/06 - After a lousy meal at Tsukushi, and realizing that Sakagura was just around the corner, I dragged Hong-An over for a follow-up few courses. (Somewhat inspired by Aaron's second birthday dinner at Nobu a few years back, after a lousy first dinner.) Thank the lord she agreed... it was amazing. I couldn't remember what I'd ordered last time, but we sat at the bar, and ordered just two dishes: uzaku and maguro yamakake (loosely translated: tuna and mountain yams.) we also got a carafe of fantastic cold sake, masumi nanago. tasted like plum and some wild berries. so delicious. the uzaku was fantastic. definitely better than the first time I'd been. the first bite made up for the terrible first dinner. then came the maguro yamakake. wow. weird. any wonders of the tuna were eliminated by the weird gooey white slop slopped on top. as we ate away at the tuna, the pureed mountain yam seemed to grow like a streganona monstrosity. it wasn't bad... just weird. I don't think I'd order that again. However, the experience was so perfect, I was glad we returned.

Original post: Wow.  A fantastic very-Japanese sashimi parlour in the hidden basement of a midtown office building.  I regret not writing down what we'd ordered.  But lemme see what I can cobble together....

The first (and best) dish we ordered was some kind of thinly-sliced Fluke.  Actually, I suspect it may have been HIRAME CARPACCIO (Sliced fluke w/salmon roe, plum paste, shiso leaf & olive oil).  Absolutely delicious.  Paper-thin slices of fluke.  Brought an orgasmic expression of shock and awe to my face, according to Daryl.  An amazing way to start a meal.

The Agedashi Tofu was the best I've ever had.  Three large very silken tofu blocks, served in a glorious simple ponzu sauce.  For these two dishes alone, I would definitely return.

A Daikon Salad, served with a spicy mayonnaise, wasn't very good.  I was picturing small, thick yellow slices of picked daikon.  This was a huge bowl of long and very thin clear slices of (unpickled?) daikon.  Certainly tasty, but not worth the occupied table space.

We had an $18 carafe, btw, of fresh cloudy cold sake.  It was on the springtime sake menu.  They had a huge collection, and we asked merely for a nice smooth one.  This certainly was.  Delicious.

Maguro Tar Tar (Chopped row tuna, salmon roe) - very good, but not as amazing as the two intro dishes.  There were too many competing flavors in this round stack of chopped tuna topped with small pink and black roe. 

Uzaku (Chilled broiled eel & sliced cucumber w/house vinegar dressing) - again, very good, but not great.  for the same reasons.  it was served in much the same fashion as the maguro tartar: cucumber, then eel, then cucumber, and again eel.  the best part of this dish was the cucumber at the very bottom of the dish -- which had been soaking in the vinegar for far longer than the rest of the pile.  Wonderful taste sensation.

I feel like we ordered more, but can't quite remember.  A great restaurant -- decor, food, service, toto toilet seats, etc.  I enjoyed thoroughly.  (Note: no sushi - only sashimi!)

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Bombay Dream (Indian)

257 Smith St, Brooklyn, NY 11231, 718-237-6490

How can you possibly make Indian food taste this bland and worthless?  Somehow they've succeeded.

Samosas
Chicken Saagwala
Naan

Everything was so absolutely flavorless and valueless I could have just have easily had instant mashed potatoes for dinner.  Part of me wishes I had.

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Devi (Indian)

8 E 18th St @ Broadway, New York 10003, 212-691-1300

Gorgeous high ceilings, very fancy, yadda yadda. The food was good, but not great. I've still yet to find absolutely delicious Indian in this town. (Shocking, I know. But I'm let down time and time again.) The closest I've come thus far is Brick Lane - physically adjacent but spiritually a continent away from the Curry Lane Indian restaurant row. But to Devi:

we tried the tasting menu ($60), Mom remembering being blown away the last time we'd been here. (I had more vague memories of mediocrity... one of the reasons I'd started this blog.) some of the courses offered a choice -- so we just asked for one of each dish. here's what we got...

Papad & Mung Bean Chaat - amazing. every bite of this first course, and I was sure we were on track for a fine meal.
Grilled Scallops Roasted with Manchurian cauliflower, spicy bitter-orange marmalade - and with this second appetizer, I remembered how the meal wasn't all that. the scallops were fine, but nearly tasteless. the cauliflower was odd... spicy, but somewhat unappetizing. and the bitter-orange marmalade, far more of a chutney than a marmalade, was far too bitter. instead of a palate cleanser, or a complement to the scallops, it was just difficult to swallow. (perhaps in the same way I'd considered sushi's ginger side when I was a child? or perhaps just because it was poorly-designed.)

Tandoori Stuffed Chicken Legs (spicy chicken stuffing, tomato chutney) - excellent. spicy, full of flavor, both mom and I quickly gave up on the knife and fork here, and dove in with fingers aplomb. the tomato chutney was fairly addictive... and brutally spicy in the afterglow/lingering way.
Idly Upma (Crispy rice-lentil cakes & curry leaves, mustard seeds, coconut chutney, chili-tomato chutney) - or was this the spicy chutney? I can't say. I only barely remember this dish: perhaps we didn't have it on our menu, or perhaps it was only so-so.

Veal Brain & Liver Bruschettas (Brain with green chile, quail eggs and pickled ginger, liver with onions, tomatoes and cinnamon) - I adored this. plain, but very masculine. no subtlety to it at all. meat on bread. not one bit delicate. (mom hated it.)
Parsi Halibut "Paatra Ni Machi" with mint coconut chutney, lemon rice - again, plain, but this time it didn't work so well. the halibut just wasn't interesting.

Tandoor Grilled Tiger Prawns (Eggplant pickle, chickpea flour marinated prawns, crispy okra salad) - fantastic. perfectly cooked throughout. I was very glad that we didn't have to share this dish -- it was great.

Tandoor Grilled Lamb Chops sweet & sour pear chutney, curry leaf potatoes - at this point in the meal, we were ready for it to be over. enough courses, enough food. (unlike Tsukushi, where even though we were stuffed, we still met each new dish with excitement.) it was fine, but we certainly didn't need it.

Kulfi Indian ice cream with Citrus Soup - gorgeous. the soup was so fricking sharp, and the pyramid of ice-cream was a perfect little palate cleanser.

I'd maybe go back, but I actually think I'd prefer to visit Brick Lane again...

** Balthazar (Bistro)

80 Spring St @ Broadway, New York 10012, 212-965-1414

The breakfast here was okay.  Fine.  Not great.  Standard french toast.  Generic Eggs Norweigian.  Very good coffee, great orange juice.  The prices were standard --about the same as any decent bruch place.

But the ambiance!  The atmosphere!  The sinful luxury of sitting back, enjoying the complimentary Times, and watching the affluent parade in and out.  (No celebrity sightings, but Bonnie claims they're far from rare.)  The decor -- mom insisted we'd made a wrong turn and accidentally sat down in Julienne.

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* Rice to Riches (dessert)

37 Spring St @ Mott, New York 10012; 212-274-0008

The inside of this all-rice-pudding restaurant feels like somewhere between american-chain-hell and a shibuya-wet-dream.  Beard Papa gone Tasty D'Lite.  18 or so flavors of rice pudding, most of which looked foul, but we still tried two: Caramel
and Cinammon-Raisin.  Wow.  Flavor blast.  Going from the subtleties of Tsukushi to the slap in the mouth of this was intense, but a great ride.

Fine (tho overpriced -- $5 for a single serving) fastfood deserts.  The General would be proud.

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** Tsukushi (Japanese)

300 East 41st Street, Murray Hill; (212) 599-8888

 
 
 
  

follow-up - 9/29/06 - eating at 9pm, everything was rushed and terrible. the poached eggs were nearly hard-cooked. the yellowtail was boring. the sashimi (which, as if they wanted to taunt is, included natto) was plain. [hong-an notes: we didn't have natto -- we had the uni. the foot-tasting, tongue-textured uni. I reply: ultimately, those two words/dishes/things are interchangeable to me.] and those were the best parts of the meal. I was so dismayed at this early birthday dinner that -- even though we needed to wake up at 6am the next day -- I insisted on a follow-up meal at Sakagura, around the corner. At least that went well.

Original Post
To die for.  Or, at least, to return to.  Wow.  It reminded me of Nobu (London), where every bite made me regretful that I'd squandered another bite... where by the time I a dish was gone, I missed it already.  I didn't shed a tear at this meal, but expressions of awe did cross my face repeatedly.

Chef's choice, and apparently the menu changes regularly, but tonight we had:

Oshitashi - watercress and mushroom salad -- heavenly.  clumps of perfect watercress.  thin slices of mushroom that sometimes felt like thin squid on my tongue.
Cold poached eggs with okra and wasabi - so foreign, so absolutely alien... the first taste was weird, and then divine.  This was the course that -- as I saw it appear on other tables thru the night, I felt jealous.  So simple, so plain, and yet it reminded me of a fine religion.
Sashimi plate - thick slices of octapus, another fish, and a thinner sliced fish mixed with green onion slices....  wonderful.  the octapus wasn't too chewey, and the two other fishes, although I have no idea what they were, were perfect.
Potato & ? Croquettes - again, there was something unidentifiable in these simple and delicious little fried samplings.  a small pour of bulldog sauce was on top of each croquette, but I would have loved some yellow mustard.
Grilled 1/2 Head of Yellowtail Tuna - the one part of the meal where I wa sunimpressed -- until mom told me to go for the cheek.  Don't miss the cheek.  Also, long after I'd polished the meat off the bones, I realized there was a thick sliver on the underside, hidden between two long bones.  Pulling that out with the chopsticks, it was the tenderest, most flavorful part of the fish.  Fantastic.
Deep Fried Chicken Salad - at this point in the meal, we were both starting to feel bloated, and this large bowl of chicken and (mild) onions and tomatoes seemed like far too much -- but it was the perfect amount.  it was gorgeous.  (I've run out of bland praises, but I never did pass my verbal GREs.)

Finally, dinner was formally over, but the waitress now ordered us a long list of other things we could get -- soba, udon, flavored rices (we'd been offered no rice thus far -- fortunately), and a list of other things.  She didn't mention Shumai, but I'd remembered seeing them mentioned in the NY Times review, so asked...  sure enough...

Shumai - the most bizarre shumai I've ever had.. these pork dumplings were coated in rice, and served with yellow mustard.  delicious!  the large mound of bland russian salad on the side was worthless... especially in the face of such a worthy meal... 

I would definitely return.

Kittichai (Thai Fusion)

60 Thompson St @ Spring, New York 10012; 212-219-2000

Lackluster thai fusion in an incredibly haute restaurant.  The decor was pretty magnificent -- dark walls, paper birds floating over a pool of water, orchids preserved in bottles of formaldahyde, etc.  The food?  Bites of it were awesome...  the bulk of it was a weak attempt at fancy thai. 

Crispy Rock Shrimp, Grilled Eggplant and chili lime juice - aka "popcorn shrimp".  rather, bad popcorn shrimp.  this could have been better at that nashville asian fusion chain.
Hudson Valley Seared Foie Gras with spiced pineapple marmalade - the foie was amazing.  it was also only 1/3 of the dish.  sadly, the other 2/3 were some thick-sliced deli meat (bad duck) and some unidentifiable tasteless meat in a cracker.
Braised Short Ribs Green Curry & Sweet Basil - pretty lousy, I hate to say.
Prik Vegetables - after I specifically asked "are they prik?", and the waiter insisted "very," I expected at least a modicum of spice.  and yet these were some of the most bland vegetables I've ever had.  cooked well, but hardly worth ordering.
Crispy Whole Fish with lesser-ginger & Thai hot basil - fantastic.  spicy, the presentation (we refused their offer to pre-cut the meat) was amazing, I would definitely order again.  it rivalled the spicy fish at Nyonya.

Fried Banana Slices with honey and ice cream - simple, but delicious.  reminded me so much of a childhood indian restaurant.  I only wish I could remember where it was.

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Gravy (American)

100-102 Smith St @ Pacific, Brooklyn. 

Southern Fried Chicken, the monday night blue-plate special.  I really like this restaurant, but the food just wasn't all that good.  The smaller pieces of chicken were fine -- great, even.  But the large piece -- most of the food on the plate -- was completely under-cooked in the middle.  I only tried to eat half of it before feeling somewhat nauseous.  The collard-greens -- a huge mound that reminded me of Dreyfuss' mash-potato mountain, were mostly inedible (my body wishes I didn't try so hard), tho the mashed-potatoes were bacon-ey, lumpy, and fantastic.

Whatever Pale Ale was on tap (Whitbread maybe?) was nice and lemoney.

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Bar Tabac (Bistro)

Smith Street at Dean St, Brooklyn, NY

local, normally quite good, but...

Salade Nicoise - absolutely boring. they had anchovies listed on the ingredients, but neglected to include them. even after those were added, it just lacked flavor. (Cafe Luluc serves a similarly weak Nicoise, but don't even carry anchovies. The crime!)

Lunch was improved, though, by the awkward grunts and moans of the older man sitting to my right. The table of hipster photographers, to my left, kept nervously glancing at me with each moan.

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5/16 UPDATE: returned the next day for the Caesar Salad. Again -- not very good. Definitely lacking in flavor. The chicken was overcooked, tough. My stomach hated me for the meal. I'd skip the salads here. However -- the fries were insanely good. Next time, just get the burger.

* Pipa (Spanish Tapas)

38 E 19th St (@ Bway), New York 10003, 212-677-2233

Mostly tourists and bridge-and-tunnel clientele drunkenly shouting to make themselves heard in this ABC Furniture-funished restaurant. (The ceilings are crowded with chandeliers, each boasting a multi-thousand dollar pricetag.) But the food was great. Spicy, flavorful, and absolutely reeking of garlic. (Bring gum for after!)

Started with a shrimp & crambeat catalan flatbread -- a slap to the face of flavor. An excellent tunatype pizza.

Catalan Spinach Sauteed with Garlic, Golden Raisins & Chiles
Gambas Al Ajillo Shrimp with Garlic, Olive Oil, Paprika & Chiles
Patatas a la Brava Crisp Potatoes with Spicy Mustard Aioli
Tortilla Española

everything was excellent.

Because of my vege-companion, I skipped out on a bunch of dishes... but for next time: Dates stuffed with almonds & wrapped in bacon sprinkled with Cabrales blue cheese

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The Stanton Social (Eclectic)

99 Stanton St (Orchard & Ludlow St), New York 10002, 212-995-0099

Far over-rated fancy-pants tapas. Reservations at 9:45, seated at 10:15.

French Onion Soup Dumpling - every review I'd read heralded this as the ultimate in oral orgasm. Sadly, it just burned my mouth -- I'm still scalded. This may have put a bad spin on the rest of the meal.
Duck Empanadas with blood orange dipping sauce - too much bread, too little duck. Probably my least favorite empanadas so far.
Crispy Nori Spiced Tuna Tartare Roll - okay, but not so flavorful. the texture was nice.
Baby Spinach with toasted garlic - amazing. absolutely perfect.
Kobe Beef Burgers - I agree with all the reviews saying "you can't tell it's kobe". it just tasted like a good white castle.
Rhode Island Lobster Roll - terrible, but I think I'm biased against lobster of late.
Warm Doughnuts with caramel - absolutely amazing. but, as Bonnie remarked, how can you go wrong with fresh, warm donuts? two other dipping sauces, jam and chocolate, were mostly ignored... the caramel was just perfect.

would not return.

Coco Roco (Peruvian)

139 Smith St

Terrible. 15 or 20 minutes for a Peruvian Ham Panini to-go, which ended up being a flavorless waste of $6. A few slices of processed-ham, a few slices of cheese, and some grilled onions chucked into a cold piece of pita. Served cold.

The wait were friendly -- they gave me a small free milkshake. But even that wasn't very good.

* Good World Bar & Grill (Scandinavian)

3 Orchard St (Division & Canal St), New York, 212-925-9975

The crowd was preppy, the service forgetful, the food so-so, the prices not-cheap, and yet I loved the place. Maybe it was the comfort factor -- the menu was somewhere between Helsinki's Zetor and SF's (that East German restaurant). Lots of meat, potatoes, and omega-3. And the beer list was grand. I stuck with Duvel... perhaps a mistake (and also perhaps why I enjoyed the meal so much)

Smoked Salmon Rolls - small but tasty. A blast of omega-3 that made me think of Katy's rolls down in Chapel Hill.
Swedish Meatballs with mashed potatoes, home pickled cucumbers & lingonberry sauce - about as good as Ikea's, which ain't bad.

Z had some huge sausage (made of Venison?) that I don't see on the menu now, but it was okay.

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Food

I can't keep my restaurants straight. I return to places with venemous hosts and inedible dragon rolls. and I forget about the meals I adored. here is my attempt to organize it all.