raji

Nothing a well-placed "sumimasen" can't fix... _feel_ the nihongo bryan-zan Even at a "ramen brasserie" as Ippudo claims, I'd stick to the ramen, gyoza and/or items that could be toppings but arrive on the side i.e. charshuu. FYI Santouka is known for their toroniku charshuu in Japan, and while they pretty much nail the ramen, they haven't gotten that totally down yet.... You say pork gravy like it's a bad thing.... While I'll be the first to admit that it's hard not to like a broth that is SO rich, as Ippudo's is, I still think it's a much better broth than Setagaya. If they put out a well-executed seafood and salt-based broth, then it's just a matter of taste, but they don't. I was back at Setagaya last week and was even less impressed than I was the time before that. I will write up a review in the Setagaya thread but to be honest, their broth was not exactly flavorful. It was saltwater; I didn't even bother with any spices or chili oil or anything to flavor it towards the end of the bowl, because there was no point, there was no flavor to enhance. This worked out, the watery, mild-flavored broth worked on a blazing hot, sun-beating-down-on-our-shoulders Saturday afternoon last, but honestly, if I'm gonna drop 2 digits on a ramen, I'll wait for sundown and go for the animal fat. Noodles - that's a matter of taste, if you don't like hosoimen, kyuushu-style, like Ippudo's, you never well and you will prefer the nearly udon-like bouncey Setagaya noodles, but I don't factor my personal tastes, broth noodle or otherwise when I say that Ippudo is far superior than Setagaya. Needless to say I think all of us are eagerly awaiting what Santouka will do in Manhattan. If I haven't before I'll mention again that this was my favorite ramen-ya in Shibuya.

It's funny, I had a similar experience to what is a very similar restaurant, Marseilles in Hell's Kitchen, just Monday night. Everything was expertly prepared and very, very tasty and their wine program still benefits from several GREAT sommeliers they have had..

LOL stinky foreigners! Besides Sushi Dai, how much were the other meals? And in ¥en if you remember? (the dollar is _normally_ around 1 to 120 yen...) Even though I love Yasuda, I'd consider them overrated too. I mean, I do have to convince people that there _are_ other worthy sushiya in NYC.

Looks like they're having another gourmet fair! http://openpub.realread.com/rrserver/brows...e=/mitsuwa/njad Yakiniku, Shabu-shabu, sukiyaki, nabe, beef negimaki (in order of preference...)

Yeah... TOO nice, by ramen standards - I mean a true Tokyo experience would be a seriously fine ramen served out of an utter shithole

Warm day = shio or shoyuramen - you want an "assari" ramen with the sun out. liquid lard would definitely drag you down Cold day and/or drunk = tonkotsu ramen which is what you had If that was ikura instead of mentaiko, I'd say that lunch special is a decent deal. Ikuradon rocks my world. Santouka offers a special with their shioramen, ikuradon and an egg, I think it's $13? And spoony bard is saying they'll be open in Manhattan by the end of the year?? Where oh where?!?!?!

No, she was talking about price. She was saying that although it's not inexpensive, it's not in the the top eschelon of expense of New York. (At least I think that's what she was saying.) ← Maybe. Anyway, Tokyo and NYC are sister cities and one of the benefits we enjoy is authentic Japanese food of every type. I consider it a quintessential NYC experience to get Japanese food.

I second the Eisenberg's recommendation. That's old NY and the owner intends to keep it that way. Get an egg cream. Wish the automats were still open. Grimaldi's gets a bad rap on here because of it's popularity but I still get the consistently best margherita there than anywhere else. I haven't been to Difara's lately. Mind you this is a couple decade's sample size. But whatever, even if it was only #3 or #5, it is a must-go because you can enjoy the Brooklyn promenade after that. Every visitor to NYC should walk the brooklyn bridge and end with a Grimaldi's margherita jesikka you mean "deserves" to be in the upper echelon, right? Ushi's easily in the top 3 in the city, and you can expect a pretty eclectic mix of fish there. Hideo's great, go there.

I was. I assume Dinosaur and Daisy Mae's are able to do because they got cheap space on the west side, which you need for those big cookers and smokers. Good barbeque, wherever, is always destination dining - it's always on the outskirts of town somewhere at some dump, it's almost never in the center of town. I enjoy Blue Smoke but I think that's mostly due to the Danny Meyer influence, and the standard is great

I highly doubt that they are serving the same ingredient quality at the same level of execution as when they first opened. Some friends have told me about their visits and they're over it - I don't know why but certain Japanese restauranteurs feel like they need to offer a spectacle along with the food because Americans will simply not be excited by good Japanese food alone. i.e. Benihana, Ninja, Megu, Morimoto - that, and NY offers a venue for their flagship where they will really display the cajones That said, an initial visit to Megu will be marvelous. A 2nd visit will be decent if you order nothing you ordered the first time. After that, there's a severe dropoff when you start to actually get actively pissed that you're paying for an ice sculpture bhudda and over $10 for asparagus. Here's the perfect situation for Megu: you have clients in from out of town, say, the midwest, and you really want to score a good impression. They might be back in a year at which point again you'll be forced to shell out the exorbitant sum for a visit there. First few times I went there I always saw members of the NY Knicks there. Nuff said.

I think a good uni demands simplicity - therefore the best I've had is at, say, Yasuda or Sushi Seki, topped with their best sea, gray or mineral salt. Nothing more.

Why does NYC BBQ need to be so goddamn expensive... because it can be? I assume That's part of the reason I'm so fond of Daisy Mae's, it's not cheap but not expensive, you don't feel like you're eating a $13 bowl of ramen or anything ;-) I feel like the pricey ones in Gramercy and Chelsea are there for out-of-town or expat Southerners

Do you mean American Wagyu/Kobe-Style, Japanese Wagyu/Kobe-style, or meat that is actually from the Hyogo prefecture? The best beef of Japan is actually Matsuzaka - yes, like the pitcher. But any of the Tajima strain will be very very good - the climates of Kyushu, Shikoku and parts of Kansai really produce the best. With Seryna closed I would suggest the Wagyu kaiseki at Sugiyama for the penultimate ishiyaki Wagyu experience http://www.sugiyama-nyc.com/11701.html (the ultimate, of course, a flight to Japan... or at least Hawaii...) http://www.ebisu-toraji.com/EN/hawai/index.html

try Sea Breeze @ 40th and 9th Avenue. Go there at 11am and you'll have the pick of the litter.

Mm you should just go for the old guy, I forgot his name. I haven't heard anything else about a 2nd kuruma, but she _was_ told that last year... guess they decided against it....

Yah you are echoing the standard "jury duty" request that comes up every few months. IMO The problem with NYC's chinatown is that the more upmarket side of Chinese and SE Asian food is just not well represented. Most of the kitchen workers are Fukienese migrants and a lot of the places are cheap with cheap ingredients for people who don't want to spend a lot of money. Which is why you can find consistently better in Vancouver and even the 'burbs. It's kind of the same situation with NY's Indian food - the best and worst are represented, the worst being 6th street Bangladeshi row, but if you go out to Edison you find a huge well-off Indian population who built an oasis out there. There's also a lot of incredible deals to find among that mess, but it's almost mind-numbing for a NYer over the years to keep track of which dive is good when. Which is why we have Pan! Non-scary places you might try - Ping's Seafood - This is as close to a pre-97 HK restaurant as you'll find http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/pings-seafood/ Look who wrote the review! Dim Sum Go Go - I'm not a fan cuz you can piece together better cheaper around Chinatown, so it's a luxury item http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/dim-sum-gogo/ X.O. Kitchen - It's no Chinatown Brasserie but if you go and see what other people are ordering, you can do quite well there - everything there is for the most part freshly made which is a big plus

So, Ko is "ghetto fabulous" and L'Atelier is "haute couture", but they each have their own merits

AYCE, but, Mussels? That's one of those things that can get real sickening in excess. As much as I like Uni, I can't imagine AYCE Uni.

BXL! "SUNDAY AND MONDAY NIGHT ALL YOU CAN EAT MUSSELS PLUS ONE STELLA ARTOIS 17.00 PER PERSON - NO SHARING" http://bxlcafe.bravehost.com/our_menus.html

No but they have $17 all you can eat moules frites with a beer on Mondays. You might wanna try that out

Agreed here - I grew up in Westchester, so much has changed there dining-wise, but certainly not that. I will find out what's good for Japanese up there. Besides White Plains, I believe Yonkers is a bit of a hot spot too, mostly do to Peter Kelly opening up there last year (FWIW he beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef) http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/x2o-x...-on-the-hudson/

Some of my Japanese friends suggest that Inagiku should be the best, it's been so long since I've had it. Nobu's is technically very very good. Not sure why DeChellis didn't push the Japanese angle more, even though there are more than enough stylized Japanese "scenes" open on the west side of manhattan...

LOL

I'd love to know what you remember of what you ate

I don't know for you ladies if Grand Central holds sentimental value, if so Metrazur could be pretty cool, altho it's south of the area you prescribed. 10-20 people means most places will try to rope you into some kind of prixe fixe.