Sneakeater

I am FAR from an expert on Korean food, but this place is my favorite of all that I've tried in New York. It's off the beaten path (by a whole block!), so people might tend to miss it. But it's really worth that strenuous one-block detour.

Tunas have two necks?

(A warning that Frank Bruni could creditably give every time he's about to embark upon another discussion of toilets or his dining companions' dating preferences.)

"Too Much Information"

You know, thinking about it [warning: TMI ahead], I was not only there for the first time, but there I was with a very attractive woman much younger than myself. I must have had "easy mark" written all over me.

Lots of water along with the alcohol REALLY is key.

This is very interesting to me. Because when I first went to WD-50, shortly after it opened, I didn't really like it much. Over repeated visits, I've come to like it a lot. I've wondered whether the difference was that I was coming to better appreciate DuFresne's style and aesthetic, or that his cooking was getting more sensual (my initial objection having been that the cooking was too cerebral, not bothering enough with such minutia as tasting good). This last exchange makes me think that maybe I've changed more than Wylie has.

I've noticed a lack of consistency at Devi, too. It's troubling, because when it's good, it's so very great.

I want to be clear that I absolutely didn't mean to imply that I thought the cost was an "automatic mark-up" that has nothing to do with quality (although I can easily see how you'd think I meant to imply that).

I guess I've always assumed that top-level sushi places were about the most expensive places possible in New York. I think part of that assumption is based on the fact that, to the exent they cater to expatriate Japenese rather than to Americans, they can get away with charging more because of exchange rates and also because of expectations about how much things will cost. (Just like Americans working for American companies in Europe used to be able to live like kings.) (Or, for that matter, just like first-year law associates working at the Boston branch of Skadden Arps were able to live like kings in the early 80s, because that branch paid New York "going rate" salaries even though the Boston market was much less.) Think of how expensive everything in Japan is reported to be. Masa, on the other hand, is pitched much more to locals than to the Japanese expatriate crowd.

And, of course, it goes without saying that it's very possible to eat cheaper at Karuma than I did.

FWIW, I don't really find it surprising that a place like Karuma Zushi would be as or more expensive than Masa. In fact, I'd kind of expect that.

Haven't been to Masa. My comparison of Karuma Zushi and Sushi Yasuda is upthread (I think on the previous page -- it was posted sometime in January 2006).

I think it's apt to quote something posted here by the person who is my own personal favorite restaurant critic of all time: It might be argued that this site isn't really a forum for restaurant criticism, but rather a community where food professionals and consumers can hang out together. I suppose it's some of one and some of the other -- but to me if the "happy community" forestalls the useful criticism, this site becomes fairly useless. Of course, that's just my view.

Just fish, rice, and sake, pretty much.

OK, Fat Guy nailed it (yet again) with his distinction between "consumer complaints" and "food criticism." One should learn to read the whole tread before replying to early posts.

I am a happy capitalist. I agree with most of what you write. "...I owe the restaurant and its personnel nothing..." You have invested in that establishment, they have invested in you. If your experience was below expectation, it makes more sense to inform them than to inform us but of course there's no obligation for you to do so. It seems fair to do that though before we wax eloquent elsewhere. And then when we come together as a cyber food force to be reckoned with here on egullet, we need to be discreet in our negative reports because it's recorded permanently and is so much bigger than any one person or place. We would all want bad establishments to close but that is not any part of my personal mission statement, to help it (the closure) be accomplished. Certainly not a goal of egullet's. If in each of our professions at any given moment we were observed and our work was measured and judged, put up for scrutiny and this information was posted for all to see, our bosses, our friends, our everybody--might this affect our next raise, our standing in the community, our interaction with co-workers, etc. This might affect a great many things. There's a privilege and power in the medium thus the irrefutable and tremendous responsibility. ← I honestly don't understand what you think the point of a forum like this is.

IMO, this kind of thinking, while quite humane, renders criticism useless.

I'm not confusing "bitter" and "sour" in this case. I meant "bitter."

I know this isn't a contest -- and that if it is some kind of contest, I'm on the losing side -- but I managed to spend $750 for two at Karuma (pre-tax-and-tip), so I've got cchen beat by a mile on the awful steepness scale.

And here's an RIP for two recently deceased good cheap Italian places in the Garment District: Veronica and the place near the west end of the block between 6th & 7th Aves. on the north side of W. 39th St. which is now a Kosher pizza place.

Thinking about Amarone and Via Emilia (or Emiliana: I forget), the thing that springs to mind is that neither is so great that I'd call them "the best" anything. There must be hundreds of similar places in Manhattan that are about as good. But that's kind of the point. In many parts of Manhattan, it's hard to be more than a block away from a decent, cheap Italian place. You could almost walk into them at random and do better than the disgusting glop pictured in Daniel's Olive Garden review.

(Ooops, sorry. I missed the "in Manhattan." Forget Rocco's and DiFara.)

The non-pizza food dishes at DiFara?

Via Emilia (or Emiliana, I can't remember) on Park Avenue South for the lasagna?