Tag Archives: japanese

March 4, 2013 · 6:29 pm

Rockmeisha Izakaya: trusty hole in the wall Japanese

rockmeisha

I’ve been bed ridden with what I’ve self-diagnosed as bronchitis for the last 5 days, so my cravings have narrowed to hot liquids and ice cream. That’s not to say that I want to eat every meal in my cave-like apartment, though – after three days of being cooped up in a blanket, I’ve been desperate for New York civilization, and I refused to stay in on a Saturday night for my throat-soothing meal. I needed to feel the sense of adventure. I wanted to go somewhere new. I scoured the internet for nearby ramen places, and knowing that most would be crowded at 8pm, I took a risk  and selected one with a few reviews and one promising write-up: Rockmeisha in the West Village. It was time for a crazy Saturday!

This place is a hole in the wall. Look up at the ceiling and you may start worrying that an exposed pipe will come crashing down on you. There’s minimal decor, music from a juke box playing below audible volume level, a horribly jenky type-written menu and far too many waitstaff for the few tables squeezed together. But amidst the oddities, there is a promising list of unique Japanese food that looked good enough to shift my desire for just soup to a desire for soup and much more. I ordered the house grilled chicken wings, the mushroom tofu slab, and a big, hot bowl of pork ramen to get what I came here for. I loved everything. The chicken wings were served charred with generous pieces of tender, miso-marinated meat on the bone. The thick, breaded slap of silky tofu that lay on a bed of luscious sake gravy, hearty wild mushrooms and garlicky green onions was absolutely divine on top of purple rice. The ramen broth was rich, earthy, and steaming with pork essence – the perfect base for the thin, long noodles, which while over-cooked. were slurp-worthy and delicious.

chicken wings

chicken wings

tofu

tofu steak

ramen

ramen

Rockmeisha is living proof that you can’t judge a book by its cover. The waitstaff may be awkward, the place itself may need a serious makeover, but the food is 100% solid. A dark mysterious sushi bar is the perfect setting for a meal out with illness. There’s much more on the menu I want to try (fried chicken, miso brussel sprouts, fried squid), so I’ll be back in a heartbeat. And, if you’re up for it, you can walk just a block for a Big Gay Ice Cream Truck cone – if a sick person can muster up the energy post-meal, you can too! 

Salty Pimp Cone

Salty Pimp Cone – my happy place

Grade: A-
Location: 11 Barrow Street btwn West 4th and 7th Ave
Website

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November 25, 2012 · 2:21 am

Gari: High quality raw fish on Columbus Ave

My first meal at Blue Ribbon Sushi was an eye opening experience for me. First, it made me realize that for 25 years I had been eating bad sushi. Second, along with the movie Jiro Dreams of Sushi, it helped me understand that bad sushi is practically an entirely different food group than fresh, artfully-prepared sushi. Sushi prepared by a skilled chef is a beautiful, delicious thing. It takes more than slicing a raw fish – sushi-making is a craft that that must be continuously perfected. Realizing this, along with getting sick from an inedible tray of take-out sashimi last month, I recently pledged to never eat bad sushi again.

Thus began my quest to try the city’s greatest Sushi restaurants, and there are many. I’d be content eating at Blue Ribbon every night, but interesting blog that does not make! So, in an effort to be grease-free before Thanksgiving and diversify my posts, this past Wednesday I tried Gari on Columbus, one of the five restaurants of the Sushi of Gari family. It’s everything people hype it up to be, and unlike some of its competitors, it takes reservations. The restaurant is brightly lit and no more interestingly-decorated than the next sushi joint, but you can really feel the sushi love and Japanese tradition emanating from each waiter.

The menu is standard aside from Gari’s signature dish: the Omakase,  which is the chef’s innovative preparations of  sushi, and what Zagat calls “a religious experience.” If I were P Diddy, I would have ordered the $100+ option, but given that I’m a struggling non-rapper I went for the Omakase appetizer: four pieces of tuna, four pieces of salmon, and an impeccably crispy salmon skin roll (my favorite). I wish I could list off the different variations of each of the uniquely prepared pieces, but I was too enamored by the plate’s beauty to really absorb the waiter’s descriptions. I do recall a salmon with roasted tomato, a tuna with scallions, and a tuna with blended tofu. Trust me when I say it was awesome, and along with a great green salad and the perfect gingery dressing, a fresh and bursting salmon roe nigiri, a piece of hamachi, and a delicious fried oyster roll, I felt like I was in Jiro’s Tokyo subway shop. The sushi performance warranted celebratory dessert, so we picked the fried bean cake special served with green tea ice cream after learning the bad news that they were out of the Lady M Green Tea Mille Crepes cake. While the dessert didn’t compare to Blue Ribbon’s green tea ice cream with red bean sauce, it was definitely interesting and tasty.

omakase

tuna with jalapeno

Lady M Green Tea Mille Crepes Cake – we didn’t eat this, but they serve it and it’s amazing.

So much for eating light the night before Thanksgiving! And here’s to always intending to eat healthy at a sushi restaurant, but more often than not leaving incredibly full. I just love it too much to care.

Grade: A+
Location: Multiple; this was 370 Columbus Ave between 77th and 78th Streets

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August 22, 2012 · 5:39 am

Okoze Sushi

Given it’s 10:30pm and I’m only half way through today’s to-dos (say that 10 times fast) I have negative 20 minutes to write this post. I just couldn’t deny Okoze sushi a solid review considering I’ve always professed that there’s no better neighborhood San Francisco Japanese restaurant than Ten-Ichi on Fillmore. I still believe that sentiment, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of sushi at this tiny shop on Union and Hyde. In fact, I’ll probably now go here for sushi, and reserve Ten-Ichi for my cravings for donburi or Asian fried food like chicken kara-age. Okoze is, like most Japanese restaurants, subdued, tranquil, and somewhat unexciting, and although it serves wine in horrible stemware on red paper napkins, it has a clean and sophisticated presence that assures you its relatively small menu is well thought-out. There are a few things they could improve (more than 10 edamame please, and a little more crisp to my tempura shrimp), but the raw fish was great. My favorite dish, however, was the fried shrimp head. As a Filipino, shrimp heads and tails are not the thing I avoid – they’re like a bundle of crack that I can’t get enough of. Drugs aside (for those who don’t know me, this is a joke), I’ll definitely be back for a low key sushi night, and will most likely follow it up with a Swensen’s chocolate-dipped ice cream. Tradition started ce soir!

delish sushi

fried ebi

Grade: B+
Location: 1207 Union Street @ Hyde
Website

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April 16, 2012 · 12:27 am

Blue Ribbon Sushi

 

I’ve neglected the blog these past two weeks and I really have no better excuse than to say that I’ve been busy with work and a social life, like any normal person. That’s not to say I haven’t visited a ton of great restaurants worth reporting. Quite the opposite. The standout of the bunch, however, is Blue Ribbon Sushi, which was so breathtakingly delicious that it triggered me to see the movie chronicling a man in Tokyo who’s been improving his sushi making skills for 75 years, Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

hamachi collar

Blue Ribbon is tucked away on Sullivan Street in Soho. It’s intimate. It’s special. You really feel like you’re embarking on a spiritual sushi experience when entering the low-ceiling, cozy space, which hosts just a few tables and a tiny sushi bar as the work space for multiple sushi chefs. The menu is filled with an overwhelming number of both hot and cold food, so to make the ordering process easier, strategize on what you want before our actual investigation. The green salad is colder, fresher, crunchier, and more flavorful than any other ginger-dressed Japanese starter salad I’ve had. The Hamachi Kama, broiled yellowtail collar, was rich, perfectly seasoned and meaty. The fried oyster roll was living proof that fried seafood can be nourishing and refreshing. And as for the sashimi…you never really realize how much bad sushi you’re tasting until you eat stuff like this – how can a piece of fish have so much intense flavor with absolutely nothing on it? It was perfect.

fried oyster roll (upon request)

fried oyster roll (upon request)

I love this place. And, the wines by the glass are great and hefty. Expect to wait for a table but it’s 100% worth it.

Grade: A
Location: 119 Sullivan btwn Prince and Spring
Website: http://www.blueribbonrestaurants.com/rests_sushi_man_main

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November 4, 2011 · 2:57 am

Morimoto

lounge

Yes, there may be a $10 markup on every menu item at Morimoto considering this Iron Chef’s recent rise to celebrity, but that doesn’t mean the food isn’t worth it. My friend Jillian and I had an amazing meal there last night in the lounge. Though our server was forced to divide his attention between us and ten other tables, we seemed to get our food in a timely manner and enjoyed a calm, steadily paced meal. We started with the toro tartare, which I learned is the highest grade of bluefin tuna possible. Along with a mini bamboo tray of perfectly piped wasabi, creme fraiche, avocado, little crunchies, and dark fish paste, each little spatula scraping of the fresh, melt in your mouth fish is a new experience. With a dollop of rich black caviar, this dish couldn’t be more luscious.

toro tartare with the fixings

We then shared the crispy calamari salad, which I expected to be a wilted green salad beneath a scraping of delicate calamari. Instead, I was presented with copious amounts of fresh greens that lay on top of perfectly fried garlic and the crunchiest calamari I’ve tasted. It was quite an impressive rendition of such a commonplace dish at high-end Japanese restaurants.

amazing calamari salad

We then moved onto to the king crab legs, which were served with a tobiko aioli that we had asked to be served on the side. The crab legs were massive and cracked just enough to allow us to easily remove the delicious meat with our chopsticks. And though I am horrified of mayo, the aioli was garlicky and subtly creamy – a perfect partner to the large chunks of crab.

King Crab

Along with our delicious premium sashimi and a $6 side of rice, we had a meal made up of high-quality ingredients in the environment one would expect for the restaurant of a world-famous Japanese chef. As long as my 25% off Googler discount applies, I’ll make it back when I’m craving quality sushi, which is the most devastatingly lacking food in the area.

Grade: A

Location: 88 10th Avenue between 15th and 16th street

Website: http://www.morimotony.com
*pictures via flickr

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September 26, 2011 · 1:46 am

Bond Street Sushi

Hello! I have been very out of commission lately with an overwhelming amount of work, but I couldn’t resist updating everyone on the incredible Japanese meal I had at Bond Street last night. My friend and I got the personal attention of the very animated sushi chefs by sitting at the bar, which provided a much more friendly setting than the swanky dining area.

Basically the sky was our limit and we ordered everything that passed by and looked delicious. In the interest of time, I am going to preface the entry by saying every item was absolutely delicious. The mixed green salad was refreshing and flavorful, the ahi tuna pizza was smothered in amazing truffle flavor, and the addictive fried rock shrimp arrived caramelized and crispy. We also ordered the special crab legs with miso butter, which offered generous amounts of flakey, buttery crab meat. My favorite was the classic tuna on crispy rice - the pan fried block of rice complemented the soft spicy tuna immaculately. Labeled as a “roll,” it’s easy to miss this one, but definitely a must have.

After two intensely strong cucumber-gin martinis (their specialty cocktails are all subtly sweet and delicious), I was pretty much ready to float out of the restaurant, but the food was unforgettable enough to give me Japanese food cravings the very next day. While it’s not the cheapest sushi restaurant in the area, it’s definitely the best!

green salad

tuna pizza

fried rock shrimp

crispy tuna

eggplant

crab with miso

Grade: A+

Location: 6 Bond Street at Lafayette (go up stairs for entrance)

Website: http://www.bondrestaurant.com

 

 

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August 20, 2011 · 12:35 pm

EN Japanese Brasserie

I was shocked with stage fright when my friend Thais suggested Japanese for dinner. I couldn’t remember the last time that I enjoyed a Japanese meal in New York, especially in the West Village. But after thorough online investigation, it suddenly occurred to me that I had yet to visit the mysterious, grandiose, shrine-like restaurant on Hudson and Leroy, EN Japanese Brasserie. Their reviews confirm that it won’t necessarily appeal to those seeking out Rainbow and Philadelphia-rolls – instead, inventive yet inherently Japanese items like freshly made tofu, “devil’s tongue,” chicken sausages and house-made ginger ale can be found on the neatly organized and surprisingly manageable two page menu.  They may not offer your favorite fried sushi rolls, but there’s no way you’ll leave feeling cheated out of a solid Japanese experience. And if it’s good enough for Woody Harrelson, whom we saw hanging with his eclectic crew, it must be good enough for the rest of us.

We started off with an incredible cocktail called the Ginger with homemade ginger ale, rice shochu shiro, lime juice, and soda – incredibly light, subtly flavored with the spicy ginger, and served in a black ceramic cup.

Ginger

And though I would have been happy eating anything here, we finally made a decision on a wide assortment of cold and hot specialties, which got progressively better as they came out. The crab and miso soup came with the shells of a baby crab which gave the typically simple soup a deep, soothing flavor. Even the house salad, served with a simple soy milk dressing and a thin layer of tofu skin was addicting, but the “O-Banzai,” a selection of assorted Kyoto-style dishes, were the show stoppers – Fried eggplant soaked in dashi, royal fern sprouts with fried tofu, and asparagus and bamboo shoots soaked in sesame dressing.

crab miso soup

house salad

O-Banzai

The sashimi was the freshest that I’ve had in New York and as good as the highly acclaimed sushi that I ate in Sao Paolo, with a hamachi so soft it almost melted on my tongue. For our main course, we shared the cold soba noodles served with a hot pork flavored broth, the garlic fried rice that came rightfully recommended by our waiter, and the unimaginably buttery miso marinated black cod. Despite the incredible amount of food, at the end of the meal I felt totally zen – not stuffed, just perfectly satisfied with all of the fresh, cleanly prepared food we just consumed.

black cod

cold soba noodles

amazing fried rice

I’m always one to complain about dessert in Japanese restaurants, but EN Japanese Brasserie has some of the best ice cream I’ve tasted. The Black Sesame and the Green Tea are a must-have – house made and as creamy and wholesome as my favorite Van Leeuwan ice cream.

black sesame ice cream

The only disappointment throughout the night was the flow of service. While our waitress was incredibly sweet and accommodating, (offering Shout wipes when my cocktail dripped on my jacket), we waited 30 minutes for our food. And once we had our soup, we waited for our salad. Once we finished our salad, we had the next course. It was definitely a step by step process that I suspect was simply a result of a busy, under-staffed night. But if patience isn’t your forte and you don’t appreciate long dinners, I’d suggest ordering in.

That said, the food blocks out all service related complaints from my memory, and I can’t wait to come back. This no-doubt has been added to my list of favorites.

Grade: A (+ removed for small glitches in service)

Location: 435 Hudson Street @ Leroy

Website: http://www.enjb.com

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