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Todd36

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Everything posted by Todd36

  1. I'd put that in a different category: Very expensive. I don't consider $100/person "mid-priced." So we differ on this. But we can still get along. ← There is a bit of compresion going on. If I go to a local place, All State Cafe near where I live, a full dinner is $7 for app, $15 for main, $7 for dessert and say $10 for beverage. Add in tax and tip, and we're around $50 pp. In an ordinary local place. It's tough to get a decent real three course meal with drinks, tax and tip for under $50 a pp. I can get three courses plus two glasses of wine plus tax and tip at Daniel for under $200 pp. Strange isn't it? Probably a 5:1 ratio between the price of a full meal at a modest place, say $40 all inclusive and $200 at a four star. That's the amazing thing to me, small range of restaurant prices as comapred to say apaprtment prices, which operate in something more like a 100:1 ratio.
  2. Two comments: 1. To me, high end restaurant means I have to spend in excess of $200 a person for food and modest drink. That is a short list of restaurants, less than 50 in Manhattan and perhaps less than 25. Assuming $50 pp for drink and $40 for tax and tip, that leaves around $110 pp for food. Not many prix fixes in town reach that point. Heck, Daniel didn't reach that high last time I was there, unless you start ordering the 6 course menu. There might be 10 sushi places in town where you can crack that level without doing something stupid, like ordering 10 pieces of toro. I think the wrong question is being asked. What should be asked is: why is it so hard to spend over $200 pp on food in NYC? It's easier in Paris or Tokyo and my one London steak house experience made Sparks look as cheap as McDonald's. NB I'm not talking about finding ways to run up the check, I'm talking about a normal order. 2. People with high disposable incomes often may not look like they have one. Without going into gory details, I work at an investment bank. I'm a lawyer, so my comp is not like a multi-million trader. I know someone who on Fridays wears chinos and a polo shirt, looks very ordinary, and probably makes well over $10 million a year, he heads a very large business. Many people at my employer who make a great deal of money and are Ivy league do not look like the TV version of a banker.
  3. At least at the lower end of the market, this isn't new. Horn & Hardart, the classic NYC Automat, first opened in 1912, after first opening in Phildelphia. Schrafft's seems to have started in Boston, although you would think of it as a NYC chain.
  4. ← Nice to see that I'm not completely crazy with my experience there.
  5. I read the review. You might want to go back and re-read the review, it doesn't say what you think it says. It starts off by saying some things are wonderful, followed by "more than a few" dishes are not so wonderful, followed by the kitchen is very inconsistent, burned blini is given as an example, followed by the restaurant is very expensive (which is true, a full meal approaches the prix fix at say Danie). Big surprise that something priced almost as high as Daniel with inconsistent food and a significant number of not so good dishes gets one star. Read my review post about the place, those bones in the halibut, and it wasn't very good excluding the bones. Perry Street has pretensions, the build out is fairly nice actually, and there is a high staff to customer ratio, it has also things like nice dinnerware. You can argue what Perry Street is, but it doesn't feel downscale to me. RTR feels like something that belongs in the Grand Hyatt at Grand Central.....it does not feel right.
  6. Having eaten recently at the RTR, which I didn't like, and having eaten twice at the Biltmore Room, which I liked, I think Bruni's review was on. I don't think it was downgraded becuase of service, frankly the food wasn't that good in my opinion. And I think its clear from the review that the food isn't very good. To compare to the Perry Street review is off, Perry Street has both a physical built-out and staffing that suggests an attempt at a high end restaurant, Bruni was probably trying to compare Perrt Street to a four star restaurant, not unreasonable considering who runs the place and what the target audience appears to be.
  7. Todd36

    BondSt

    I didn't order it, but it was listed as a special of the night. It just came. I am still alive.
  8. Todd36

    BondSt

    Had dinner there tonight, $80 a person omakase at the sushi bar. It was fine, but not worth $80. It did include a piece of Fugu. Total was around 6 pieces each of sashami (all pre-sauced) and sushi, not pre-sauced. It was all fine, but nothing impressive. Any one of a number of places in town are better.
  9. I have not been to Kuruma in a very long time, so I can't comment.
  10. I liked Robins' food at the Biltmore room and this wasn't it. I also know eastern European food. The tea smoked sturgen was fine, it was my main too, but not remarkable. The striped bass at Daniel the same week was much better and I find the bones in the Halibut to be inexcuseable, multiple bones in a small, overcooked piece of fish. Something is sloppy in the kitehcn.
  11. Yup, it's Taste/Share...had dinner there the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and it was pretty over-priced for what it was. But enjoyable none the less. ← Yes, it is a little pricey for what it is.
  12. Todd36

    Perry Street

    I have a friend who keeps going there for lunch and she considers it a steal. She works in the World Fincial Center and considers taxi fare split 4 ways to be very well spent.
  13. I liked Awash on east sixth. I don't claim to be an expert on Ethiopian food, I've had it maybe 25 times in Boston, NYC and DC. Never with an expert.
  14. I've only eaten at the bar under the new regime, but that was quite good. I have to stop in for lunch. I work in the same building, so we usually want to escape....
  15. Some of the items are presauced, but he doesn't put things like tomato on top. I'd call it pretty tradional. We didn't each that much, damage was around $80 a head. Now that I am remembering a bit more---started with sliced abalone in the shell (smallish one) and a generous plate of white tuna sashami in a citrus-soy sauce. We ended with the uni and ikura and yes, it was better than Yasuda, although I don't eat at Yasuda very often---it was better than the uni at Sugiyama and you know how much I like that place. In between, we had tai, giant claim and several kinds of yellowtail and relatives. And a piece of salmon.
  16. I ate there Friday night. The best uni I've had in NY, also very good Ikura, they were clearly proud of both. Giant clam is not my favorite, but this was different, and according to my Japanese dining friend, very good. Several types of kampachi and yellowtail were also very good. Style is not quite traditional, but close. Rice style is soft and warm.
  17. Todd36

    Daniel

    Had dinner there last Tuesday. It's very good, perhaps at the border of three and four stars. Nothing really, really stood out. Starters were the foie gras and the chicken consomme. The piece of foie gras was very large and very good. Maybe the best thing we had. The consomme was good. My friend wanted a glass of something sweet with the foie gras but didn't want to drink too much. Daniel offered a half glass (not on the menu) of Tokai for $6.50, which I thought was excellent customer service. My friend had the fricesse of Dover Sole, whcih was a triffle overcooked. Fine, but not remarkable. I don't quite get the dish, it seems to hide the sole, which is not the point with Dover sole. I had the stripped bass with Matsutake mushrooms, probably the second best dish of the night, very good. For dessert I had the spiced pears, which were very good but not remarkable and my friend had a chestnut thing that I think was made with fresh cheshnuts and not pre-made paste. That was the third best thing we had. Overall, it was very solid, with some very good dishes.
  18. This appears to be related to the famous LA place. They only serve sushi, nothing cooked, not even miso soup. I know the space has a kitchen, it used to be Y's Place, which served very good sushi and good cooked food. Sasabune is a different level. Fish choices are not exotic, it not like say Ushwakamaru. But what they have is top notch. Competes with the best sushi in the city. It's a tiny place, veru modest looking. No set menu, it's basically omakase. Price range is reasonable for what you are getting, Waiter told us $70-100 for dinner and that seems accurate based on our experience. Fish appears to be fresh, as in fresh and not frozen clam, that sort of thing. I don't know what no one has noticed this place yet, its been open for about two weeks. A friend of mine lives across the street...... 401 East 73rd St., at 1st Ave.
  19. It should stay closed. Was dragged there by a frend last Wednesday. Prices are very high, $35-45 for mains, for mediocre food. We had the mixed Russian apps for $20 a head, which were fine bot but special, the Halibut, which is something like $45 and both overcooked and full of bones and the smoked sturgen, which was fine. Dessert was a passable pumpkin something. A three course meal approaches $80, which puts it dangerous close to say Daniel. Minus the Halibut, it was overpriced one star food.
  20. Had dinner there Friday night with a friend known to the chef. It was fine, but not memorable. In fact, I can't remember what we had!!! They are back to the taste/share menu. Our mains were the tile fish, duck and ham. All were good, solid two star. They added, without asking, as a comp, large plates of oyster musrooms, I think they were oyster mushrooms. Probably the best dish of the night. We also had a squash soup, and another mushroom dish. Can't remember the rest. Cocktails were good, wine list favors American and red at the moment. Food was good, but Perry Street and Blue Hill are both more memorable in a roughly similar price range.
  21. Todd36

    Soba Koh

    Sobaya is not really a direct competitor, its cheaper and not as serious. They do make their own noodles. Difficult for me to describe what they are supposed to be like. They taste like something, buckweat, the flavor is not as neutral as wheat noodles. But the flavor shouldn't be too strong. They have a firmness to them, and a texture to them, similar to bronze die Italian pasta. THe broth/dipping sauce shouln't be that salty and shouldn't taste like it came from a jar.
  22. I think the place is run as a hobby, or something weird is going on. It seems to have no plausable source of revenue great enough to cover the rent. Drinks are strong. I wouldn't call it jazz btw, it's more voval pop, folk really.
  23. Todd36

    Soba Koh

    Honmura An is their main competitor. Sobaya is below them (they also burnt a friend of mine with hot water and failed to appolgize). I think Soba Nippon is gone, they were pretty good.
  24. Last time I was there, food didn't look bad, but this is not a food oriented place. It's not a professionally run restaurant. World's smallest mens room, with a door that opens inward, you may have trouble getting out!
  25. There doesn't seem to be any thread with respect to Soba Koh, which is surprising since it is probably the second best soba place in NY, and is cheaper than its main competitor. I've eaten at Soba Koh roughly ten times, and I like it. I've eaten there with several different Japanese friends, and they all think it is pretty good, and very good by NY standards. Soba Koh was favorably reviewed in last week's $25 and under NYT piece, and I didn't notice anyone here mentioning that fact.
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