raji

Well, "Little" Shimizu-san doesn't seem to need my support any longer; you can take my advice objectively. A table-ordered omakase would not be impressive, and the set-price "omakase" on the menu is a common practice among Japanese sushi-bar owners but is a bit misleading - it's not the adventure, it's the packaged tour. It's essentially a chef's assortment of the day on a single platter; hard to be impressed by cooked shrimp, omelette and salmon, but Shimizu should have delivered standards and then some more delicate specials more than competently, but it's not going to be exciting - it's almost akin to an expanded "sushi lunch" assortment - did you get the one that's $59 for 2? Or I think they have per person around $55? Anyway, at a table, ordering in rounds is the best way to let them know what kinds of fish you like and approximate what you get ordering omakase. For that matter, it's still not like the sushi chefs have secret stashes of exotic fish that they refuse to have delivered to a table, just find out the specials, and the more you eat sushi the more you will really explore the species. Usually almost everything in the omakase is right there on the a la carte menu. Anyway, Shimizu's is still the sleeper top echelon omakase - and they've got a great selection of shochu. So your decision might rest on your drinking and dessert-ing plans..

Best vegetarian cuisine in NYC is on curry hill! You need 30 spices for an indian cupboard!

That's a fantastically genius-level idear there, cuz I thought of it too! I had already done a map of Jackson Heights, had one going for NYC and doing one up for Tokyo on behalf of tupac

And Chinatown Brasserie for dim sum - I guess we'd want to know your reasons and feel you've chosen poorly. Are you using citysearch for research?

You didn't really do anything wrong. Theres a big long post on ordering omakase that answers all your questions. search for 'omakase' and 'raji'. ill write more in an hour when I'm off this godforsaken thumbkeyboard. In terms of Yasuda's idiosyncracies and secret passwords, 2006 and 2008 are night and day. the cats outta the bag, since yasuda earned top food rating in all of nyc.

I've always had to host a lot of friends from the UK - I'll post more later, but definitely play to NYCs strengths. If you've never been to Japan, then you should focus on that inasmuch as you enjoy Japanese food; NYC is the best Japanese outside of Japan and Japanese is the new French. A tour of Masa, Yasuda, Aburiya Kinnosuke, Yakitori Totto and perhaps Sugiyama might completely change your outlook on Japanese cuisiine, this has been my experience with friends from the UK, and they're all within a 15 block radius. Same goes for most of the rest of Asia, you can find outposts with oustanding examples of a specific region of a specific country. I would mostly skip European cuisine. Indian will also disappoint you; our best can't be better than London's best. Jewish soul food and Latin American/fusion are 2 categories that would probably be newer and more exciting to you. Where yo ubeen?

Wow they're still going strong? Good to hear that they're still better than all those other places, how about the Astoria beer garden and the new place in williamsburg? It was first opened by Felix from Hallo Berlin, but he's not part of it anymore - we're buddies so I was there a lot before it ever even opened, which means something to some people.... That said it's a good crew that care about the food quality and have raised standards while the food quality really dropped at hallo berlin I haven't been in maybe a year or so, but it was first opened it was consistently great and beer cheap to attract customers. Good to hear they kept them down - I love beer, their standards and open lines are outstanding and they've even took me on a tour of their taproom which is really nice. I'm quite fond of the Homer Simpson state where there are visible bubbles popping around of me

International Grocery at 40 and 9th has like 20 to 30 kinds of flour, most in open bins, and their prices make any commute worth it

I still love Hell's Kitchen, and they have great vegetarian options. Marseilles too. Some are quite fond of the pasta at Becco, it's a Lidia Bastianach restaurant

Po too no? Wow that sentence sounds like Thai food! what time is it?

No! Let's just drop our pants and get the measuring tape already... Ushiwaka Maru was slapped due to a vendetta - there are 100 sushiya in NYC with worse conditions than theirs. Plus it's the village, the space is smaller and funkier compared to midtown. Anyway, the place was always clean and to my eye I wouldn't say there were any issues that were "health" issues.

What happened at Yasuda, did you feel rushed? Kuruma costs enough to put a damper on your birthday buzz... If you already have a reservation at 15 East, sounds like you're set, Masato Shimizu seems to be keeping his rep up at the new spot. If it would were my birthday, though, I'd have dinner at Shimizu. Everyone I've sent there recently has reported back extremely positively. You can read about it in the Shimizu thread here and in others http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...9671&hl=Shimizu Reason I say so, though, is because then you can round the corner and hit Kyotofu for birthday drinks and desserts, and still have cab fare home vs. the entire meal at 15 East. A sushi bar can never get all that festive, unless you hang out until the end and get drunk with all the sushi chefs, and can also speak some really vulgar Japanese. Kyotofu is a revelation.

Damn dude you beat me too it - Noodlebot reminds me to mention NOODLE PUDDING, which has always been very very good and even worth a trip from Manhattan to Brooklyn. BUT, I've never been to Al di la. Still, Noodle Pudding is just right - seemingly eternally wine-soaked, jovial everpresent North Italian owner and consistently great food

A friend here PMmed "Do you have a favorite St. Marks/EV izakaya? Food quality is most important, but something unique would be good too. Ideas? Thanks for the help." You'd be surprised how often I get asked this, so I'm replying here - St. Marks is tough to navigate for the uninitiated, and several places have their merits. I'm also still kind of shocked that Morimoto says he goes to Kenka - it's really cheap so fun to drink at, but the ingredients used are really low quality - this has unfortunately happened to Taisho too and a lot of the places down St. Marks and the area - so, not necessarily the best examples of Japanese food, moreso, cheap drinking food cooked by young Japanese FOR young people Typhoon has always been my all around favorite - 10 years on and they've been pretty reliably cooking of all your izakaya favorites and have a good selection of specials and drinks Village Yokocho will always be my sentimental favorite, one of the trailblazers of the neighborhood and a very wide selection, of course Totto makes their yakitori look lame now, but yakitori, kushiyaki, yakiniku, all sorts of Japanese delicacies are all still done reliably well there, remarkably... For something different, I recommend Umi no iie (beach house)- Japanese standards all done very well there as well as a smattering of Okinawan specialties prepared by one of the owners; she's from the island. Good shochu selection if I recall. She's also a really warm hostess and will happily make recommendations there - If you are digging Okonomiyaki or any teppanyaki, GO has a dedicated grill for that, so theirs is the best. Yokocho's is pretty good too. At this point I make it better at home, but it's a pain in the ass to make properly from scratch, so don't order it unless they tell you it will take 30 minutes, because otherwise it's coming from a freezer There are some newer places, and some older ones still hanging on, but those 3 are consistently the ones that my Japanese friends head for over the past 15 years (uminoiie more recently), both ex-pats and guests from the homeland. All 3 of those places also offer a respite from the other places packed with NYU kiddies and B&Ters

How about Banh? They approach korean food the way Devi approaches Indian food. I've heard it's very very good but have not been recently.

The strength of the sushi and sashimi creations makes sense to me - it's a continuation of what he was doing at Sumile. Which is co-owned by Miwa Yoshida of the Japanese pop supergroup Dreams Come True. Which I mention because if you saw her, you'd see it was pretty obvious she's not eating any fried food. Been meaning to check out the non-fried food there, but if I was involved with that restaurant, I would run a proper, authentic Japanese tempura station. This is where the oil is usually heated in a huge wok, fresh ingredients at arm's length like a Robatayaki like Aburiya Kinnosuke, everything cooked to order and delivered immediately - are they doing anything like that?

I haven't noticed that - but the captain at Beacon commented that they were booked up through March by almost exclusively Egullet users and their friends...

nono - I was addressing Vinotas. Homeboy's going to jersey today, I hope he goes by Mitsuwa, no debate! argh!

Well, for what that's worth, I first ate at Ushiwaka Maru shortly after they first opened - I just didn't post about it on here. I don't mind oshibori out of a rice cooker, they do that in Japan all the time - at least they arrive warm! Men's room? give me a hole in the wall. You said it yourself - "much as you liked their sushi". Hideo-san is singularly obsessed with the quality of his sushi, but his operation is on a scale where perhaps there isn't the budget for more management. I'd rather have my dollars focused on the sushi anyway; some of the best sushi I've ever had in Tokyo were at relative holes-in-the-wall under railstations in Kanda and Nishishinjuku. Ushiwaka Maru is more in that spirit which I consider more Japanese and authentic. His room was hardly a hole-in-the-wall, but indeed many Japanese dine at sushiya in NYC because they are in awe of the spacious room, decor and over-the-top service, when a lot of these places should really be focusing on the product they are putting out.

Vino - Perhaps... Ownership has changed since then - Todd - I know I've made it a habit to disagree with your assertions, but here too That's the aisle at Mitsuwa. The sake importers have gotten a lot better at their marketing so now the displays often have "Wine Enthusiast" type tags

I'd disagree with that assertion. Everything there is Japanese, which costs more, but you get a much higher quality. for booze, it should be cheaper than anywhere in the city. they are simply the Costco of Japanese groceries. if you buy stuff on sale and in bulk, you can save really big bucks! but even small stuff is cheap. you end up buying more there because the variety is so great. Read the 'get thee to NJ' thread for more on mitsuwa

Yes the larger retail stores have a selection. Also, some liquor stores in the east 40s and 50s around lex and 3rd have expanded sake selections to service all the japanese night businesses around there. But I would say it's totally worth the toll to hit the Mitsuwa in Edgewater, they have an entire aisle and much better prices. for that one in particular just google the name and buy it mail order, but I would find an analogue at Mitsuwa

Oh - well I love the Malecon. Is Washington Heights considered close enough? If so, Hispaniola is the best restaurant in the hood and I believe fits docs original request "I would like for Dominican or Cuban-Chinese places with emphasis on the3 Cuban parts of the menu"

I know it's December now, but today I opened the Japanese newspaper and found some good news - Ushiwakamaru hiring waitresses. So they should be open any day now.

At Bway and 103rd there is a "Yakitori Sun-chan" - I've never been there but at least it is authentic and you can probably eat well there as long as you stick to robatayaki and yakitori and don't go off and order sushi - should be somewhere between the places a Village Yokocho and a Totto -