raji

It's definitely the fattooth more than anything else that brings me back there. Thankfully if there's a wait involved, I just go to Eisenberg's and get a corned beef/pastrami on rye with russian, which probably has a lot less fat than the Shake shack burger.

OK they're not THAT good! Maybe expectations are low because it's coming from a shack in a park. They're great but this is really getting out of hand.

I was in the area last week around 12:30pm and saw a ridiculous, Sunday-morning Magnolia-type line. Looked like all local office workers and mostly women, who I think will get their fix and then things will die down, because when I've gone last year when it started getting cold out, it was not a bad wait... I guess I just answered my own question, didn't I... pork I hear what you're saying but I enjoy Tabla and 11 madison very much and i think it's great what he does during restaurant week. As for the shack, i guess it's a good thing that they're not changing their formula despite the popularity?

agreed 3X Snakeeater Yeah it's all here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate And I agree I think Chinese restaurant syndrome is a peanut oil overdose - i haven't had a problem with chuuka and properly cooked Chinese food

I would too but sushi and kaiseki are very different meals. For everything I've heard about Morimoto, safe to say I am happy to avoid the entire mess and spend my money at Sugiyama. Alternately, I would still recommend Megu. Although it is in that class of restaurant, it actually has the culinary chops to live up to it. Koji Imai is an amazing restauranteur not a tv personality...

Weekdays too? I was going to go before work someday, which is the only way I approach Century 21...

Yeah, that's right, pretend to complain about being young. ← Not that green mind you. When did that fairway open? Koch? I seem to have only taken notice when they were joking with the big electronic sign that looks on to the west side highway

Yeah that's the one - friend of mine manages a few of the piano (hostess) bars in the neighborhood - all those mysterious Japanese places with a single chinese character on the door and a buzzer, and they go through a lot of sake and schochu - so if I ever need either he told me he gets 20% off...

I think the redeeming quality of the posters here is they'd lie with a gun to their head if only in the pursuit of epicurian excellence, ESPECIALLY in the NY forum.

Take them to Sugiyama! Lie and tell them he won Iron Chef Japan.

yup my bad... showing my age...

I think Sakagura is only the sake lounge/restaurant...

Does it really matter? I would guess that most food shopping in Manhattan is done with convenience being a major factor. Places near home or work. ← It's more like 130something.. isn't the selection at the original one so much better? (I think the Harlem one is the original...)

Not sure if you can do better than Mitsuwa in Edgewater. Worth the trip for the price savings... But, there are a few liquor stores in Midtown east that stock Sake extensively to serve that neighborhood - I'll get an address for you....

What if you factor in that Fairway is pretty inconvenient unless you've got a car?

Yeah sorry that was a bit of a confusing post by me. As the capitol moved east to Tokyo sushi became a fast-food served out of carts and small sushi bars, and nigirizushi, for aesthetic and practical reasons, and in the name of being more "modern", settled into it's current bite size. But I find it better for sushi to fit in your mouth in one go, otherwise you have to bite it and it could fall apart and what about soy distribution etc. Lots of reasons...

I'd take the 10 mile detour from JFK just to experience the culinary wilds of Flushing.... you'd save your cab fare too - Caribbean Roti sounds damn good too...

Shea Stadium!

I have to get a Wok in Chinatown (is Hung Chong still recommended?), so I guess I'll go there, I hope it doesn't get mobbed now that it's stopped raining. Mets game was postponed so I have to make a day out of it... Should I bring a camera or has this place been photoblogged to death? Wait, it's only a grocery store....

It's good to hear that the prix-fixe is on point; I've never had it, but at $32, seems like a really good deal for their quality. gaf - I always enjoy reading your prose! And I would call Sugiyama, still, THE pre-eminent kaiseki (without securing a bank loan to go to Masa) in NYC and is thankfully an experience that evokes what can be had in Japan. Great review for a great meal. As huge a fan of Sugiyama I am, I'm surprised how similar the meals were between yourself, myself, and SobaAddict a few years ago. A successful recipe not to be altered all that much??

One thing that strikes me about these photos, (besides making me really really want to eat sushi), is the gargantuan size of most of the sushi and sashimi. Either these photos are seriously zoomed in, or these are really huge. That would be a major difference between Kuruma and Yasuda - everything at Yasuda is bitesize, not that I would send big pieces back or anything... some sushi can be too small for American gullets, even I am willing to concede. However I am told by my Japanese fact-checker that in fact traditional, narezushi could be quite large, similar to onigiri, because originally it was meant for storage, fish and rice fermented... Omakase for 5, $253 each - that's about in line with what I've been hearing - Japanese or not.... However, if you are getting such large cuts of fish, well then you are in fact cutting into his stock, so, maybe the price isn't that unwarranted after all. Still overpriced, no doubt, but I'd rather have big pieces of good fish than big pieces of bad fish...

Sammy's = Sammy's Roumanian on the LES?

I think that's just a rumor, unless you're extended family I don't think you are getting out of there for $100 pp, if not, I would have gone by now. Most Japanese I know have to eschew it because it's going to be upwards of $200 pp "for the fish". But I don't know anyone going there, say, weekly or monthly, so I could be wrong...

LOL I'm pretty sure each side of the fish is one serving...

Gentlemen, pictures, please... I'll be the judge of that.... ;-)