LPShanet

The probable reason that many have been less than glowing about Jewel Bako in recent years is that the sushi chef who made it so good originally has been gone for quite a while. Once he left, he was replaced by a less talented and less ambitious itamae, and the overall experience there declined, both in terms of creativity and in ingredient quality. Which brings me to the good news and my recommendation. 15 East. The original chef from Jewel Bako, Masato Shimizu, is now there, and if you sit at the bar, he'll give you an omakase every bit as good as what he used to serve at Jewel Bako, but in a nicer setting. Enjoy.

I had kangaroo skewers at Eight Mile Creek recently. That's a regular menu item, and they sometimes add a special 'roo dish as well.

I'll second Esashi as being good value. However, Esashi is a place that foodies appreciate as being good value, but will seem like regular price or expensive to those who aren't serious sushi eaters, as the upgrade in quality will be lost on them. The biggest concern with cheap sushi is, of course, safety, so you can't go TOO low end. I have a hunch that they'll be very happy at Sandobe or Jeollado in the East Village...same owners for both, I believe, although Jeollado has a cooler looking space. They're both VERY cheap but still more than decent enough to eat, and might fit the bill better based on what you're describing. They also have more of a fun atmosphere, since the solemnity of serious sushi bars if often just boring to younger folk. Their menu is set up so that you get double quantities when you order most stuff, effectively making it all "half price". For the record, I'm against cheap sushi on principle...it's something that should be discouraged at every turn. (You could also go in search of the best 400 lb. jockey you could find, but it kind of defeats the purpose of trying to win a race. But there comes a point when you just find another means of transport.) I considered making this post under another screenname, so as not to compromise my credibility as a judge of serious sushi:)

Docsconz makes a good point. Forgot that Tailor finally opened. Definitely in that category. As for Public, they're very streaky...good days and bad. More fun is their semi-hidden Monday Room. If you want to give it a second shot, go there. And once you've tried Tailor, it's off to Chicago with you, which has at least 4 really good options.

Nathan makes a strong point. With that in mind, I think the best places to do a group dinner in Chinatown (based mostly on food, and only slightly on ambience, which tends to be lacking in all) are: Oriental Garden, Fuleen Seafood, Kam Chueh and Congee Village. Those are in no particular order. Mandarin Court can also be very good on a good day.

Gilt now, though still of decent quality, is NOTHING like it was before the chef (Paul Liebrandt) left. The replacement chef Chris Lee (formerly of Striped Bass in Philly) is good, but not exactly groundbreaking. If you're in search of innovative food, don't bother going there anymore. The good news is that there's a very strong rumor that Paul will return to NYC quite soon in the old Montrachet space in Tribeca, in partnership with Drew Nieporent's group (who own Nobu, Tribeca Grill, Mai House, Centrico, etc.). Expect good things if that venture does come about. In the meantime, there's a surprising lack of truly innovative food in NYC, aside from Wylie's great work at WD-50. And while Alex Urena will still be in his old space, you can expect the new venture (a Basque cafe) to be much less adventurous than the old. Some places with good food that has at least a little innovation (though certainly nothing on the old Gilt's level) would be P*ong and Public. But they're certainly not in the "molecular gastronomy" realm. Time to plan that trip to Chicago...

Hope you have a great meal! When I went, the popovers were the best part of the meal, so I'm eager to hear if the steak has been bumped up from pretty good. I'm sure others here on EG will be eager to hear the review as well. (And if you don't think it was "all that", try Strip House next time...great date place:))

I can't speak firsthand, but I've heard it's fairly average in the steak department, though supposedly a good experience in terms of service, wine, etc. They do a lot of couponing, which isn't usually a good sign. I'd skip it for most of the other recommendations on the board. As for Kobe/Wagyu, you might want to read the chapter entitled "Where's the Wagyu?" in Jeffrey Steingarten's book "The Man Who Ate Everything". Lots of great info on Wagyu there, and he's a very entertaining writer.

While it's Ethiopian that is depicted in Along Came Polly, there are a few cuisines that often will present food in a large communal vessel to be eaten with hands (or pieces of bread) to pick things up. A couple of Middle Eastern and North African (Moroccan, Tunisian) places do this as well. A good Middle Eastern option is Mamlouk in the East Village. They have a prix fixe menu that at last check included at least one course served in a giant metal vessel that you eat in the way described.

Another addition in Chintown, that might be worth trying. The Thailand Restaurant on Baxter and Bayard was quite good at last check. Based on my visits to Bangkok, this is one of the most authentic in Manhattan, and the service is slightly less surly than some others in Chinatown. Also, although it doesn't nearly live up to the better markets in other parts of town, I think you'll find the Jubilee Market on John Street and Gold quite useful, if you haven't already, since it's only a few blocks from Wall Street. It's open 24 hours, and has a MUCH larger selection of things than a standard 24 hour store. Sort of a hybrid of 24 hour convenience store/gourmet market/small supermarket.

Another thing to keep in mind when dealing with real Kobe (and to some extent with any Wagyu) is that just because it's the highest grade (read: fattiest/most marbled) doesn't mean that it will always be best tasting in any form or dish. Kobe beef is best appreciated not in the American slab form that most steakhouses serve, as this doesn't really bring out its best qualities. In Japan, the highest grades of Wagyu (Raji, as the board's resident Japanese food expert, please either back me up or correct me on this) are generally thought to be best appreciated when sliced somewhat thinner than you'd usually expect for an American steak and then quickly cooked over fairly high heat, so that the fat is just rendered/caramelized. Because of its exceptionally high fat content, the typical steakhouse cooking procedure will either undercook it in parts (a waste as the fat just stays raw/cold) or totally overcook it (which loses the great flavor that the fat is there to produce), rendering it a colossal waste of money (and beef). So even if the beef quality is very high, I'd generally steer away from American steakhouses serving "Kobe" in the American format. I'd also not bother eating it at any temperature other than what they recommend (medium rare-ish). If you're going to bother with the money and effort, get it prepared as it should be at one of the various Japanese places in town that do this. I'm sure there are specific places that do high end Japanese steak, but I also know that Sugiyama does a very good job of serving it correctly. That aside, if you're looking for a more typical American steakhouse experience, I'd choose between Peter Luger (the Brooklyn original only!) and Strip House. Others (Mark Joseph, etc.) might be good compromises, but if this is going to be special, why not have the real quintessential NY steak experience and go to PL already! You can't really speak critically to any of the other NY steakhouses without using Luger as the benchmark. And if it's Porterhouse you're after, PL is the choice to make, as Strip House specializes in the rib chop.

I second Raji's suggestion of Kinnosuke. Also worth checking out are two non-Chinese places in Chinatown: Doyers Vietnamese and Thailand Restaurant. Both are good, but have no useful wine lists. Then again, beer goes better with this type of food anyway.

I guess it's my day to dissent... I was at Del Posto recently, and found the bartenders there so incompetent that I was shocked they were working at ANY restaurant, let alone one of that supposed caliber. There may be plenty of very solid ones on their staff, but the ones that night were clueless. And I'm not talking about esoteric cocktail requests or anything out of the ordinary. The main bartender in question that night started out by leaving the bar unattended for over 10 mintues while he took a smoke break, and left no one but barbacks behind the bar. So no one waiting could order. When he returned, I asked a question about a wine on the "by the glass" list (I asked a question about the region it was from), and not only did he not know its region, but he happily told me that he didn't even know what COUNTRY it was from!!!!!!! Here's a hint for him: GUESS ITALY. It's a Batali joint...even if you're totally incompetent, I'd say you're in pretty good shape if you guess that a wine on the list is from Italy. The other bartender that night managed to forget our entire food order and never put it in, then he didn't apologize, and later poured a glass of white wine when a barolo had been ordered. I'm not sure which is worse: not knowing what country a frequently ordered wine is from, or thinking that barolo is a white wine. ← wow! I haven't been there in about six months or so...they were competent then and had the best cocktails of any Batali bartenders I'd seen to that point.... ← To be fair, I didn't have cocktails that night...I usually leave that for more cocktail-centric places. Then again, with so little wine knowledge, it didn't bode well for drinks requiring actual skill.

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... ← Different guy. I'm guessing the two I dealt with were in danger of being canned, and may no longer be there, although I'm not rushing back to check. Plenty of other better meals to be had, even within Mario's empire.

I strongly disagree. And its certainly not reasonably priced (for the quality) Mary's fish camp, pearl, mermaid inn, hearth.... ← I strongly agree with your disagreement. City Crab doesn't belong alongside most of the names on this list. Pearl, Ed's Lobster Bar and Mary's Fish Camp are several levels better, and probably cheaper, too. It's amazing City Crab stays open in this town, and I think it does so mostly on tourist dollars and people who recently moved to Gramercy, etc.

Tough call, since they each have their strengths and weaknesses. PL definitely has the best meat...on any given day, there are variances, but for porterhouse, they get first pick from the suppliers. I've never seen it unsliced, but who knows? Craftsteak will in all likelihood disappoint, since until recently, they didn't even grill their steaks to a char. I've heard they've improved their act of late, but this is unverified. BLT Prime is solid, but I've never been impressed with the meat itself there. The sides, etc. are the stars and the meat pretty standard. Sparks is a classic and has a great atmosphere to it (I guess that's what a long history and a famous gangland execution will do), but the food is pretty average for a high end NY steak house. Pretty hard on any given day to differentiate from The Palm, Smith and Wollensky, Keen's, etc. So in the end, PL will give you the best meat of the bunch, and even if it's not tops for the other items, that may make it worthwhile. I will throw a few options at you that are not on your list, that may satisfy what you're looking for: Strip House: The steak to get here is the bone-in rib, rather than porterhouse, but the food is very good, and it's a better looking spot than Luger's. Any of several PL spin-offs, such as Ben and Jacks, Wolfgang's or Mark Joseph, may have comparable porterhouse to PL on a given night (depending on how much good beef is in the supply line at the time), and some of those have more interesting sides and desserts. Good luck!

I concur. I got a last minute table there for a special occasion I had forgotten about by calling earlier the same day.

I guess it's my day to dissent... I was at Del Posto recently, and found the bartenders there so incompetent that I was shocked they were working at ANY restaurant, let alone one of that supposed caliber. There may be plenty of very solid ones on their staff, but the ones that night were clueless. And I'm not talking about esoteric cocktail requests or anything out of the ordinary. The main bartender in question that night started out by leaving the bar unattended for over 10 mintues while he took a smoke break, and left no one but barbacks behind the bar. So no one waiting could order. When he returned, I asked a question about a wine on the "by the glass" list (I asked a question about the region it was from), and not only did he not know its region, but he happily told me that he didn't even know what COUNTRY it was from!!!!!!! Here's a hint for him: GUESS ITALY. It's a Batali joint...even if you're totally incompetent, I'd say you're in pretty good shape if you guess that a wine on the list is from Italy. The other bartender that night managed to forget our entire food order and never put it in, then he didn't apologize, and later poured a glass of white wine when a barolo had been ordered. I'm not sure which is worse: not knowing what country a frequently ordered wine is from, or thinking that barolo is a white wine.

While I agree with your comment about the hit or miss service, I think you're being overly kind about the excellent food. Babbo and Lupa certainly have excellent food, but to say the same as a general statement about Otto seems VERY generous. They have a few excellent items and frequent mediocrity with most of the others.

Seems you (and everyone else) will have to wait. Room 4 Dessert is now officially closed, and will definitely not be reopening in the current location. Will has said it'll be about 6 months until his new place opens, and it probably won't be exactly the same (in name or structure) as Room 4 Dessert. Here's the link from a related article: http://nymag.com/daily/food/2007/08/room_4....html#gs-digest Best of luck to Will...we'll all be eagerly awaiting the new place!

Nice. Guess I'll be seeing you guys there. And just to cover the bases, I'll be bringing at 6 foot hot blonde.

I expected the same thing. Sadly, the food didn't reflect the Japanese aspect in the flavors or ingredients nearly as much as I expected (or wanted). Will definitely check out Saburi, though. Thanks for the recco.

Meaning eventually none?...66 is closed now, after all I was hoping the place would be more "serious" than other Schraeger stuff, but it seems not. Once it's no longer new, he'll either have to replace it, or resign himself to its being mostly for B&T and hotel guests. I guess that's really semantics, and I think they try to have you think of it as both, if that makes any sense. When we were ordering, the waiter referred to them as small plates and suggested how many we might want to order. That said, they were served family style, meaning that they were put in the middle for all to share. Glad to hear that I wasn't just there on a bad night, and that there are others out there who felt the same way I did. Cheers, L

Although it seems a subtlety, I think the location was, in fact, an issue, for a couple of reasons. First of all, the location, despite being close to A Voce, isn't nearly as desirable. There is essentially NO foot traffic of worth on its block. A Voce is a large space that includes the corner lot, and borders Madison Square Park. It's also near a couple of other top high end restaurants (EMP and Tabla). There's a lot more foot traffic, and it's right off the avenue. Even though Urena is only two blocks up, it's in the middle of a block with no other restaurants or places of interest, and while A Voce is on the upper edge of Flatiron, Urena is officially in no man's land. Those few blocks make a difference. (Country is the closest restaurant in the 'hood, and it's not doing that well, plus it has hotel traffic to support it.) More immportantly, Urena is smaller, less attractive and not really visible clearly from the street, since it has so little frontage. More important than any of that, though, is the type of cuisine they're trying to peddle in that neighborhood. Urena's food is less mainstream, and it's in an even less "hip" 'hood by a little bit. The type of food they proffer is more geared to a downtown crowd. Meanwhile, A Voce has a more populist (if much better prepared) kind of menu. I do think all that is a factor, along with A Voce having much more PR and being a more ambitious (and overall better) restaurant.

This string is for discussion of the new "haute Chinese" restaurant, Wakiya, in the Gramercy Park Hotel and featuring the cuisine of Japanese-born/trained chef Yuji Wakiya. Since I was surprised not to have seen any prior reviews or discussion on the spot, which opened a little over a week ago, I'd be very curious to hear if anyone else has eaten there and what their impressions are. I had dinner at Wakiya (which was supposed to be a VERY tough reservation) on July 29th (last Sunday), and was able to get in by calling earlier that same night. Admittedly, it was a Sunday, but for a place all the bloggers have been saying would be impossible to get into, I think the reality may have more to do with the PR people than reality. Furthermore, the person who answered the phone seemed so clueless that I suspect this may be her first restaurant job. While any restaurant needs to find its way after opening, there was the definite sense that the front-of-house (people answering the phones, the hostess and most of the front-of-house staff) didn't really know what it was doing. Once inside the restaurant, I found that while it was relatively full, it was hardly the jam-packed scene it had been made out to be in the press. But on to the food: There has been a lot of ink lately on the coming revolution/rediscovery of Chinese cuisine. Many a blog and article has talked about how new chefs were going to elevate Chinese to its deserved place among the world's great cuisines, by (re)discovering the flavors of all of its provinces (as opposed to the largely lowbrow Cantonese fare we're used to here). Supposedly, Wakiya was to be one of these new-guard places. Ian Schraeger had searched far and wide (and had been summarily turned down by Hakkasan's Alan Yau) before settling on the refined cooking of Yuji Wakiya. For those who remember the food at Jean Georges' now-closed 66, the results here are fairly similar, although not quite as refined, and served to a thumping trance soundtrack. The end result was sort of like a less creative Tao or a smaller, less attractive Buddakan. In other words, those who typically fear or avoid Chinese food will "discover" really nice flavors and unexpected balance and attractive execution/plating. However, those who have even occasionally eaten in Chinatown will recognize the food here as sweetly dressed-up versions of very standard Chinese fare, served in embarassingly tiny portions at roughly 4-6 times the price. There was nothing wrong with any of the dishes, but none of them were well prepared enough to warrant much more than a shrug at the familiar flavors and nice plating. And there was certainly no innovation of any kind in terms of ingredients, preparation or flavor. While none of it was bad, it's hard to leave a place like this without a vague feeling of having been bilked. A specific summary of some of the dishes I tasted follows. Note that they are all tapas-sized "small plates", despite some being quite expensive: Shrimp and Chive dumplings: Almost indistinguishable from their Chinatown counterparts. Quite pleasant, though not as flavorful as those at Ping's, etc. Four to a portion for about 8 or 10 bucks. Vegetarian dumplings: Similar to the above, with chopped veggie stuffing. Pleasant, but not really memorable in any way. Slightly bland. Shanghai Soup dumplings: Again, quite well executed, but certainly no better than those at Joe's, New Green Bo, etc. The flavor was nice, and well-balanced. One of the better dishes. Four for $12 Bang Bang Chicken: A very pleasant version of the Szechuan standard. Good sesame and complementary flavors and very tender chicken. Slightly spicy, but could have used a tad more. (Probably a concession to the Western palates they're courting.) $15 for about 5 forkfulls (can you say "chopsticksfull"?) Crispy Yuba Shrimp: These are jumbo shrimp that are wrapped in yuba (bean curd skin) and deep fried. The result is very similar to tempura or other standard fried preparation. They were large and juicy. Very well executed by the kitchen, if a bit lacking in flavor. The dipping sauce was helped a bit. $16 for four shrimp. Tong Tsu Sea Bass: A fairly obscure way of saying sweet and sour to make it seem more haute. Sadly, it wasn't. Chunks of mild fried fish, served with a sticky sweet and sour sauce that was a little unbalanced, leaning too heavily on the sour side, not enough on the sweet or savory. $26 for an appetizer-sized portion. Peking Duck: This dish sort of summarizes the strengths and failings of Wakiya in one fell swoop. The plate ($24) consisted of a small pile of julienned scallions, four rectangles (about 1" x 2") of perfectly crisped duck skin, a small dish of hoisin sauce, and a mound....no a tuft, since mound sounds much too large...of shredded duck meat. This was served with four crepe-like pancakes, that were much better than the standard mushu style pancakes they visually resembled, and much thinner than the spongier bun-style pancakes some places serve Peking duck on. Now, I'm not one of those people who bitches about how small dishes are at nice restaurants, but the amount of duck they serve with this dish is RIDICULOUS...to the point where I thought they had accidentally dropped most of it by accident while plating or something. The mound/tuft of duck, meant to serve 4 people, or at least create four pancakes worth of the dish, was maybe an inch across, and about an inch and a half long. If you took, say ten small wooden matches and held them in your hand, that should give you an idea of the amount in question. About enough for one moderately prepared pancake. When I asked about this, they replied, "yes, but this is so we can give you the best possible kind of duck". A totally infuriating and unsatisfying explanation in my book. As for the taste, it was very nice...as good as any in Chinatown, but not enough better in execution to be measurable when compared to the best versions in town. While the aforementioned "best possible kind of duck" was nothing out of the ordinary (though commendably lacking in extraneous fat), the skin was great, and really made the dish in terms of taste. I just still can't get over how they didn't even give enough material to "build" more than one little pancake out of. Grrrr. At this point (if you have enough free time that you're still reading this posting), you're probably saying one of two things to yourself: 1. "Boy, he must have had a large group to try all those dishes!" To which I'd say, nope, just three of us. or 2. "Boy, they must have been really full after all that!" To which I'd have to say, sadly, nope, we were still so hungry that we had to order another dish. And the group included me (an admittedly voracious eater), my girlfriend (who has a pretty moderate appetite, as evidenced by being a size 4 at 6 feet tall), and my mother (who typically orders two appetizers at most restaurants rather than an app and a main...not exactly Kobayashi.) At this point, we asked our waiter what was the largest/most filling dish on the menu, something I hate to do normally, but it was a necessity in this case. We ended up with: Shanghainese Fried Noodles: Not a particularly large portion...about half the size you get at a regular Asian eatery...but at this point it was enough to make us feel satisfied enough that we didn't need to go eat dinner again immediately. A bit on the oily and bland side, but not bad. $14 for the order. I think this gives a general idea of what to expect at Wakiya. Is the food bad? Absolutely not. Is it worth a serious eater's time? Also, absolutely not. I don't think this is a matter of "getting the kinks worked out"...I didn't really see any way that improved execution and subtle modifications could have made the experience wow me. However, I'm ready to hear dissenting opinions from anyone else who had a different experience. N.B.: The cocktails, while admittedly of the typical trendy Asian eatery ilk (see Buddakan, Tao, Spice Market, etc.), were very good. The highlight of the meal, in fact. Well-balanced and well conceived. Maybe they should hire the mixologist to go back into the kitchen and shake things up.