raji

What did you think of the interview?

Hey guys - just by accident I caught this on one of WNBC's digital multicast channels, then navigated to this after they provided a URL http://www.1stlookny.com/people/2008/03/01...th-frank-bruni/ Have we _heard_ Bruni before? I guess the thing about an anonymous reviewer, especially someone who self-admittedly doesn't care what fellow diners think, is that their reviews lack context.

Oh, there are a bunch in Westchester, which are better than average, Gasho, Nodo in White Plains, but some of those places I haven't been in 20 years. SO, I'm going to venture to say the best you might find would be the Teppanyaki located at Matsushima restaurant, due to it's proximity to the Mitsuwa, which means it's privvy to a pretty high-quality source of ingredients http://www.mitsuwanj.com/en/store/matsushima.htm

Well, I think then this is a case of New York being "too cool for school" because I'm simply not aware of one, certainly not owned by Japanese, other than Benihana, which, for what it's worth, is the original, so, it should be the best of circus acts and most mediocre of foods. ;-) That, and you need a relatively LARGE Japanese restaurant to pull this off, i.e. a house, because the whole teppan setup and seats and whatnot. There are large-box Japanese restaurants in NY, but they're not doing teppanyaki. If you want more circus, check out Ninja. Impeccable wagyu & vegetables, Sugiyama's wagyu kaiseki A great Japanese steak and very modern Japanese cuisinse, LAN but, sorry boss, no teppan!

Hey John! I met you at Jimmy Buff's! Fort Greene is indeed in Brooklyn. My favorite dog is what you fed me! I think we even talked about how there's not much of a hot dog culture in the city. Shit, many people consider dirty water dogs "NY dogs", or perhaps the papaya king, which I don't mind all that much because you can suck down like, 4 of them, and you get a very high char to tender ratio because they're the skinny little sabretts... My favorite in NYC is probably at Lederhosen, which is a German bier garden which sell frankfurters on rolls with sauer kraut and mustard. Some austrian and scandanavian places have very good sausages too, but not sure if any are frankfurters. Perhaps some of our Brooklyn guys can report back - don't think many would commute to Fort Greene for a hot dog but you never know!

My question to you would be - what was your experience in Japan like? High-quality beef and vegetables cooked on a large flat grill in front of you by a Japanese men in a French chef's hat? Teppanyaki in Japan initially came about as a result of the presence of and to cater to all the occupying American forces; beef had only in the country several decades by then anyway. Then, a lot of the theatrics that you see at Benihana were largely the invention of Rocky Aoki. Another angle on that is teppanyaki as conceived by Taiwan - they're everywhere over there, and I bet there is a Taiwanese teppanyaki joint in Flushing. I mention Taiwan because of what we think of "teppanyaki" theirs is probably the tastiest, thanks in part to prodigious amounts of various kinds of black pepper used. I know where to get a really good Japanese steak (check Kamui Den thread for instance), but when I think Japanese TEPPAN cooking, I think okonomiyaki, monjya, yakisoba, OR Yakiniku or Korean BBQ. Or you may want ishiyaki. But I think teppanyaki as we know it is largely uninteresting food covered in sesame oil...

meh

I had no idea, so I called - their hours are 7pm - 2am, 5:30 - 11 on Sundays. TWO FREAKIN' A M. Thank you! Nice to know I there's a much better option than the St. Marks set. I ended up at Yokocho 2am Saturday night because that was one of few places open, and it was so hit-or-miss that I almost hopped the yakitori counter and slapped it's young "chefs". But, no lunch. For lunch, I'd see who's holding teishoku lunches - they also just opened a GO!GO!CURRY at 2nd and 7th, should be a pretty good Katsu Curry Anyway, KAMUI DEN, I'm there like white on rice

It was brick cold Thursday night... was with my buddy at 14 and A, after debating and not wanting to wait at the Momofukus (I don't know if I'll ever make it to one at this point, I might have missed the whole damn scene) or even Shabu Tatsu, he remembered that there was a Japanese BYOB (a relative rarity) across the street from him. Kamui Den is very much the type of restaurant you'd encounter in Japan; a familiar half-a-menu, the other half occupied by their own inventions/specialities, but consistently top notch ingredient quality and execution. The only exception might be the presence of a Rainbow or Spicy roll on their sushi menu - American sushi inventions which now Japanese customers order and enjoy probably more than Americans. It's a dark wood room with mismatched colonial-style antique furniture, and I swear I've been in a dozen dining rooms that looked like this in Japan, like in Shimo-Kitazawa, Naka-Meguro and parts of Shibuya, where American antiques are harder to come by so people like this sort of decor. Waitresses were in the conservative whites you'd see at a Sushiya, and is prompt and friendly. Thankfully, there is a korean liquor store half a block way. My recommendation; tell them you're buying a bottle of Iichiko, and by the time you pop back in with it, the ice and lemon will be there waiting for you. I also like Korean chamisul or sansouju. If you can get some imoshochu, that is some smooth drinking there. We started with their salmon tartar and mentaiko - delicious, server with some crackers, might have been better served with some baked nori or shrimp chips. Ebi shinjo were lightly fried, essentially shrimp meatballs. If you've had fishballs before in any sort o asian food, imagine an exquisite and deepfried version of this - Perhaps my only mistake was ordering a course of Shabu-shabu, which was pretty average - altho a very good dashi. I had just checked in at Shabu-Tatsu, so had that smell stuck in my head. But I would highly recommend doing sukiyaki, nabe or mizutaki if you don't know how to do these at home; this is Japanese cold-weather comfort food at it's best. Their rib-eye steak was seriously delicious... this would easily be the most flavorful steak on any top steakhouses menu. Cooked perfectly rare/medium-rare, it had a nice bit of char on the outside, and is served, apparently, having been constantly basted in a sublime mix of sake, wine, butter, and soy sauce. Seriously good eats right there - A long table of middle-aged Japanese women were enjoying their sushi rolls - they all looked delicious and I'm going to order some next time. The risk with sushi rolls that have a lot of elements is that so many places get one of those elements just plain wrong, and it just ruins the whole shebang for me. Shochu is dangerous - it's very much a "slippery-slope" kind of liquor, and the buzz really creeps up on you and before you know it, you're hammered... so we were having a good old time and ordered an additional course of tempura - shiso, yam, shiitake, etc. - the tempura was perfect. i'm glad i did. Anyway, for those looking for a completely non-pretentious, affordable, _comfortable_ Japanese restaurant, this place may be for you. And the BYOB certainly helps because, well, just go and try to get happy ordering sake and shochu by the glass at any Japanese restaurant. They're not exactly known for the long-pour....

Thanks for all the reccs guys. This will be a common scenario so they will certainly come in handy down the road. I ended up going with Devi - they have a RW-type deal going year 'round, the menu looks damn good, and recently I've been cooking Suvir's recipes so I probably need to re-acquaint myself - thanks again!

Yeah, I know Pongal very well - I prefer Madras Mahal, but now Saravanaas kicks both their asses, and at the southern end of Lex at 26th, there are several places offering dosai and thali lunches that are all really good - maybe Baluchi's best for delivery

Ah - good call! My kneejerk reaction was A Voce, which I've been meaning to try, or perhaps Tabla bread bar. EMP is probably out of reach... then again, most Danny Meyer restaurants have something similar to a restaurant week prix fixe, like ~$28, year round - that being the case, that would just sneak in I think... a Prix fixe up to $28 still makes ~$100 tax and tip - Was also thinking hill country, but these are 2 FujiTV execs, i'm not sure the TX style will win them over. Maarkt is hella loud... but maybe not so at lunch...

2 people I'm helping out are taking me out for lunch on Friday, should be within, say, an 8-block radius of 23rd and 6th avenue, and the limit is around $100 for 3. No booze will be consumed. It's like a business lunch but not business guys. This is the diametric opposite of the all-too-common "coming to NY for a few days, where should I go" threads - a very specific set of conditions. So, where should I book a table for 3 @ 1? and.... go

Cheap eats are where it's at. Thanks for the suggestions! I get the feeling that I may only be able to afford iceberg lettuce and saltines for a while after this trip. Bryan did a week-long liquid diet after his European crash course that I found horrifying; I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. The funny thing about that post on chowhound, is that I'm pretty sure Setagaya hasn't changed much at all; people were just slurping up the hype, as it were, when it first opened. laughable ← That's a shame because all I had seen was hype about the place. What do Totto or Boba offer that are particularly cool? Also, if you guys have suggestions about certain dishes at any of these restaurants that you feel are too good to pass up, by all means, please let me know! I've heard rumors of tasty sweet bread at Casa Mono, for example. ← Boba Fett? Boba Fett? Totto, check the thread for Yakitori Totto. Soba Totto just opened and offers superb soba AND yakitori. You could kill 2 birds with one stone, altho those are 2 cuisines Japanese don't normally ingest in one sitting -

Vegetarian?

You're not imagining, I was there Friday night (I guess you were there Saturday night), and was similarly impressed - everything we had was just a notch better than usual. I think it goes like this; everytime they open a new restaurant, I think the lot of them get an overall review and upgrade - that seems to have been the trend over the past 4 years. Our order included - yakitori - kawa, tsukune, eringi, nasu dengaku, aspara bacon, nagaimo, shisomaki, kurumaegi, gyutan - we went at midnight and all the "limited" stuff was long gone... there was more but it must have been off the specials menu - the shochu was pouring so it's a little hazy - even had some maccha purin to end, delicious

The funny thing about that post on chowhound, is that I'm pretty sure Setagaya hasn't changed much at all; people were just slurping up the hype, as it were, when it first opened. laughable

Setagaya's ramen will probably underwhelm you. Go to Soba Totto - you'll get a soba specialist as well as the magic behind the Totto empire who is currently in residence there, rather than the other 2, Totto/Torys. No sushi eh

No but I'll certainly give it a try! I didn't know there was ANY good Indian in my neighborhood. I'm making masal dosais tonight for dinner...

Metrotech - right - well I'd definitely hit Junior's weekly - you and Marty Markowitz If you had a bicycle you could roll downhill - Grimaldi's is definitely worth it, and there's a lot more options in DUMBO. There's a Rice, which is good, but try the steak sandwich at Superfine, it's worth the trip.

I might add that it may even be worth it to flop into a cab and hit Junior's, cuz Junior's in Brooklyn is still relatively cheap

They rave about it over on CH, either that or they're saying it's way too expensive. Prices are the same as BLT. But, it doesn't have the "BLT" moniker! I can't possibly feel cool there

I knew you'd mention Crispo. but you get my point. It's as if 14th street is zoned for "SHIT" like cheap DVD stores and 99 cent outlets. Noodle Pudding is the best. Fascati's is killer pizza, top notch slices. Then you have Grimaldi's and Pete's downtown down the block. The Thai restaurant on Henry is also not bad. Henry's end is very good.

I've gotten takeout from BLT burger a few times, only if I happened to be walking by. I don't eat-in there mostly do to the douchebag quotient. Their combo, burger, fries and a shake is $16. Shake Shack = $14 for the same thing and no matter what you are standing on that godawful line. It's not like they're saving lives there, isn't there anything they can do to quicken it up? To Dan, I'd say, what's a NY burger? I think that's a tough one. If anything, I think it's a pub burger, of the Piper's Kilt, Corner Bistro ilk. I don't like fast food burgers. Leave those for the in'n'out set of the west coast. Anyway, I found the burger perfectly good, for what it was, which is another blend of cuts, fresh-ground, with high-quality toppings - the shake was good and so were the fries. Not worth going out of the way for, but if you want to splurge a little on a classed-up fast food meal, go for it...

Hmm, perhaps some tofu chigae from Seoul Garden, bibimbap, bulgogi, maybe one of those big kimbaps but I don't really like those