raji

I think you should expect to pay around $35 - $40 for a lobster of that size...I had a lobster roll 2 weeks ago - $25. ← I think they're even cheaper at FCV. Very cheap, very very good. Check it out

Francisco Centro Vasco.. yeah it's funny I'd walked by it 100 times at 23rd... I wanna say... 7th? with it's neon lobster in the window, and only finally went in 5 years ago. It's an otherwise unremarkable Spanish vinyl-seated dressed-up-waiters type restaurant, but it's lobsters are huge and delish. The other food there is just meh, so you go there for lobster and pig out.

How did you feel was the pacing - too quick? Where you there for lunch? As for your question... you know the sushi bar tipping thing is a uniquely extro-Japanese thing. I've never tipped at a sushi bar in Japan but then again you don't tip ANYWHERE in Japan. The rule in FG's book "Turning the Tables" is to after a good meal, tip your sushi chef a 20 unless it's the owner. I think that's a hard and fast rule you can follow... A few years in Japan and my habits are the same as a native Japanese, who is unaccustomed to tipping, even the non-restaurant-owning sushi chef... However, one situation where I'll tip the sushi chef is a sushi bar-within-a-restaurant which is common in America. Then I feel like it's worth it to reward someone who has personally fulfilled my needs...

for lobster def go to Francisco - it's their speciality and it's quite affordable there -

I'm assuming your "old friend" picked up the bill? Did you get a peek at how much such an experience might cost (just the food)? ← Yes he did, but I'm taking him out to dinner at Aburiya Kinnosuke to expand his Japanese culinary horizons...which is always an eye-opening, educational and wonderful experience as I can demonstrate how there is so so much more to Japanese food than sushi; presentations, traditions and certainly flavors that they've simply never experienced before. Of course I snuck a peak. While the sashimi platters alone could have easily costs us $40 each, the whole tab for fish was $222 for 2, plus a $38 bottle of testuyo-something sake.. I think I remarked the Soto thread about how, for the most part, sushi bar tabs are calculated pretty accurately based on their la carte prices. Ushi just tends to have a per-piece price decently lower than the other places with no appreciable dip in quality or quantity. Keep in mind the salesmanship of sushi, where many other sushi chefs have a story behind each fish. Hideo-san is a man of fewer words and might not upsell his fish, even if it's the same exact thing as the well-storied fish. I would say the same meal midtown would have cost another $100.

So, in a unique confluence of sushi-eating on my part (I crave sushi like I crave a steak, meaning it's a once a month occurrence), I had bumped into an old friend of mine at his event right after my wonderful dinner with FG at Ushi last week. He proclaimed himself to be a Japanese-food devotee and Seki his favorite in the city and go-to omakase (especially as it's open until 3am and he's often working at night). We got to talking and agreed he must try Ushi. I called a few days ahead of time and we were stationed in front of Hideo-san. My friend plainly stated "I don't care how much it costs, I want the best". I translated this into japanese as "OK we'll order omakase. this guy here loves sushi and Japanese food. give us the good stuff" After a few quick amuses, octopus, cooked and marinated giant clam, we were each presented with a mouthwatering sashimi platter, and the little wooden table contained 3-4 pieces each of saury, amaebi (sweet shrimp), otoro, kanpachi, and giant clam. My friend took notice to the care and precision that went into cutting the sashimi, as, like a good steak, how exactly it is cut against the grain can determine the texture and in some ways, the taste of the resulting sashimi piece. It was all outstanding. But my friend was not yet overly impressed... he was about to be - Moving to sushi, the first piece alone let us know that we were putty in Hideo's masterful hands. It was a shiba-ebi, a mid-size raw grey shrimp, but it was filleted/butterflied/frenched, I don't even know, but in a way as to resemble a gleaming, lump scallop. Atop an expertly formed mound of delicious rice (not warm, but not cold - the perfect temperature is the one you do not notice, which is why I don't get the obsession over warm rice... do you want the rice poaching your fish???) which, as Hideo-san promises, breaks up in your mouth, not in your hands ™. The sweetness, texture and finish atop the raw shrimp flavor was something I'll be back for. After another piece, this time Alaskan King Crab, my friend knew he had his new haunt, as he said to me "While Seki and Gari do the new-style sushi, you can tell that this guy does the authentic incredible well. It just tastes better". What followed was a properly programmed, consistently delicious course through tai, saury, aji, ikura, uni, abalone, torigai, anago, and of course my final request of aburiengawa and negitoro. As usual my sushi bar memory retention hovers between 60-80% and I forgot a bunch of pieces of sushi. It also felt like we had toro several different ways. I was kind of embroiled catching up with my friend of 12 years, after a 2 year hiatus, and neglected both Hideo-san and proper IDing of all the fish, and that my friend was driving, I was responsible for 80% of the bottle of sake that we "shared"

In our omakase, we had both toro and regular tuna, however the regular tuna was soy cured, as was the Copper River salmon. One thing I noticed in Frank Bruni's review of Ushi was the statement . . . . . . which got me thinking that maybe he had the soy cured Copper River salmon without knowing it. In our case, the Copper River salmon was simply presented and announced as "Copper River salmon." I tasted it and was like, "This tastes wrong." I think our chef noticed my look of confusion and only at that point did he explain that it had been soy cured. As soon as my brain got the signal that the piece of salmon had been manipulated, it totally changed the way I processed the sensory inputs. I went from being alarmed to loving it. Ditto for the tuna: had I not known it was soy cured, I'd have thought there was something wrong with it, because the soy curing gives it a totally different texture and flavor that can easily be confused with all sorts of negative associations if you're expecting one thing but you taste another. Just one possible theory. ← Hardly a theory! I'm SURE that's what happened to Bruni. To look at the fish, it's obvious to me that it's been cured as the density and color has been changed by curing, but I could see someone mistaking it for bad tuna. The sushi chefs do a good job of announcing what each piece is and if not, you should ask, so I think it's irresponsible of Bruni to write what he wrote. It also further reinforces to me that Bruni does not, and will never, understand Japanese food.

Most sushi bars, if open for lunch, offer some sort of a sushi lunch in the $12-$25 range...year round... Shimizu's is very good too. Yasuda's is about 8-12 pieces, right? with a standard assortment tuna, yellowtail/kanpachi, egg, shrimp, eel, mackeral... like that. You'll do well with Yasuda because their level of sushi, even doing the basics, is among the top few in the city.

Francisco's Centro Vasca?

The Congee Village on Allen is bigger and better. Haven't been to Oriental Garden, but I know Ping's is significantly more expensive than other restaurants in the neighborhood, but as a result you get a well-known chef and really top notch specimens

And I don't dole out "amazings". In fact, I think I ended a relationship of my brothers by really getting into it about his girlfriend. She'd be like "this is an amazing cookie". Amazing this, amazing that. Can a cookie really truly be amazing? I didn't think so. She's a 'tard, kick her to the curb!

I've had amazing meals there. Still dream about their pineapple fried rice and dim sum items, and ohhhh the seafood..... It's funny, it's just a little bit off the map because it's not dirt cheap and they probably pay their help appropriately....

If the staff is Japanese, they will know from your accent alone how good your Japanese is. My accent is nearly native, and the situation Robin describes has happened to me, where I am spoken to as a native Japanese, and my vocabulary is just not that good anymore. Keep in mind that even Japanese owned and run restaurants, japanese-"looking" waitress who are chinese and korean are employed. They usually learn some basic Japanese phrases to deal with the Japanese clientele, of which a good Japanese restaurant should and will have many. Robin is for the most part right, but at the same time, but you will get major brownie points by applying well-timed phrases. It's not just out of respect to Japanese culture and culinary practice, but it shows that you are well-heeled in the ways of Asian dining. korean restaurants will be blown away if you know any korean whatsoever; it's just not a language studied by non-koreans much at all... my anyanghaseo and yoboseyo are good enough by now... Key japanese phrases would certainly be greetings: "Konnicha, konbanwa - good day, good evening" "Mata yoroshiku onegaishimasu" - is a good one as you're leaving, meaning kind of, please do your favor next time, it just kind of indicated, hey, I'll be back... "jya mata ne" might be a little course for that situation think of "itadakimasu" as something you'd do at a temple when receiving your bowl of rice - it's just your little way of saying grace "gochiso sama" is a standard good one as hiroyuki indicated. Girls can be cute and say "oiichi" instead of oishii, said lolita-style, that might get a kick out of the chefs If you can proncounce all these phrases and they understand you, you are ready to learn Japanese. If not, then it's time to dig up some youtube instructional videos and practice the Japanese vowel sounds (there are only 5) as this will increase the understandability of your Japanese phrases by leaps and bounds.

A friend from high school is one of the cooks/chefs there... I really ought to go...

I'm not sure if I had the same bartender in question, but I too was there a few months ago. I arrived late to my friend who had been there for 30 minutes already. We had seats right at the bar, and despite the questionable crowds, the dates and B&Ts, and amongst all the chaos, he still took quiet good care of us. We were only drinking wine and order different plates of cheeses and meats. He was the large jovial latin-looking fellow...

I'd list price ranges - I mean, if you have a little to spend, Ping's Seafood is some of the best chinese food in Ctown.... if I have $9 to spend, I'd probably spend it at NY Noodletown. Congee Village is great in between there. And I'm not sure who is dim sum king - Dim Sum a Go Go?

Are you still checking this thread with ample time left? If so, post, and I'll reply with a full list of my haunts in Tokyo.

SAT word! Yes it's Hideo, Mako, and Yuutaka is the guy you had. They're like the 3 stooges. Nice mix!

What time were you there? me and FG were there late like 10:30

I should also add, that if opinions diverge and there's a question of consistency, I'll be back Thursday night, and this time in front of Hideo-san, so I'll post again. As FG remarked, we were even in front of, essentially, the 3rd string quarterback, and did as well as we did. Needless to say I'm looking forward to Thursday night.

I try not to judge any restaurant too harshly based on Friday/Saturday nights, Valentine's day... etc..... but that's friggin ridiculous at 20 minutes I would have gotten up and informed the hostess at 45 minutes I would have chewed out the manager

Yeah I should have preface by saying I still haven't been to Momofuku, but I also still maintain it's apple's and oranges, and I don't really compare the 2. Unless you are grouping all noodle soups, be they japanese, korean, vietnamese, thai, chinese, together, then there's no point. Yes, ramen is actually a chinese import, but it's a Japanese phenomenon. the funniest thing I forgot to mention is that once I jumped out the cab and saw the big Setagaya sign, I just laughed... they're all over Tokyo and I've been to them plenty enough times in Japan. I just didn't ever bother translating the kanji. Here's the thing; usually, I'd walk past Setagaya ramen and go get a style of ramen I much more like. Can't do that here. As I remarked to FG, the bestest thing that could happen would that Setagaya's opening would spark a ramen war. Then we'd really get some good ramen going in NYC, and it's too bad there hasn't been already, there's certainly enough of a japanese population to support it,but, let's just say that Japanese companies are not known for taking risks. Maybe the styles of ramen I like are what more NYers will like. I wasn't completely brainwashed over a few short years in japan, I'm as much a NYer as they come. BTW, no gyoza is a capitol crime in Japan. No gyoza!!!!!

I too was underwhelmed by Setagaya. I wouldn't have been if it was $6 and I liked their style of shioramen more than I do. But it wasn't and I don't... It would be REALLY great if it was open until 6am or 24 hours and was less expensive. Ramen is what you stumble in drunk to get... THENNNN it really hits the spot Thing is, ramen is supposed to be a cheap food - Hiroyuki speaks the truth here: "Another thing I want to say is that ramen should be cheap, something that you can get for 400 to 600 yen per bowl. I really don't understand all the fuss about recent, more expensive (> 1000 yen) ramen. If I decide to pay more than 1000 yen for a meal, I will defininitely have something more decent and healthy!"

Well prixe fixe lunches have long been around.... i also believe that RW prompted many restaurants to offer a RW lunch "all-year-round", or at least that was my observation... So beyond those restaurants on the RW radar, I think FG is looking for the real standouts. AK does not participate in RW but does something that any and every authentic Japanese restaurant does - offer a fairly cheap but nonetheless high quality lunch deal, and AK probably does that concept the best out of NY's japanese. That said, which is the best Indian buffet? Chinese buffet/lunch deal? A perfect example for me would have been chikubu's friday lunch ramen - it was better than any ramen you could have in the city and while pricey for a ramen, it was a great value at 12. But chikubu has since closed I'd be really curious to know what the best Italian lunch special is...

After a period where I didn't have a clear favorite, I have to agree that Ushi is now my favorite Manhattan sushiya. Where it is technically the "best" is debatable - if it wasn't a bit of a "find" and became more popular, would it be able to scale up? And if you do go there to spend a TON of money, similarly, is there a glass ceiling? I say the answers are "yes" and "no"... Someplace like Masa or Kuruma or Yasuda to a certain extent, they're like that 6 foot hot blonde - they might technically be more attractive, but you don't get to hang out with her all that much. Ushi is someplace I can go on a more regular basis, and not just because of the cost. Most western restaurants, you know how much you're going to need for an app, entree, dessert and a glass of wine, meanwhile at a sushi bar you can spend a certain amount of money in 2 different ways and be starving or stuffed. I guess I would assign which is best in given cost ranges, I do this in Tokyo too. If I have $30 to spend, I'm not going to go to a sushi bar that is normally $150 per person, I will go to an outstanding kaitenzushi, but that same place would not be appropriate if I'm spending 5 times that. Here's the approximate order and what we had - I'm missing about 3-5 pieces. _Sashimi_ Tako Saury Abalone Otoro Kanpachi _Sushi_ Red Snapper Shimaaji Soy Cured River Salmon Soy Cured Tuna Otoro Saba Sannma Uni Ikura Aburiengawa Anago Negitoro