I went with my family last night, Bruni's pending review posted while we were dining. It was all of our first time eating soba and had a very positive experience overall. I made the reservation day-of and was told that there was room at the communal table. When we got there, we were given a very nice, spacious round table in a corner. The waitress was very helpful in helping us order properly, and advised us to start with some raw offerings... we had the 12 pieces of sushi with one roll (a simple toro and scallion) and the Kumamoto oysters with three sauces. The oysters were fantastic and the sushi was simple, elegant, and very fresh. We then moved on to some simple salads and an order of vegetable tempura. Both the salads and tempura were fine... nothing that really sticks out as being too memorable or off-putting. We then moved on to some grill and Shabu Shabu offerings. We had a few non-meat eaters at the table and so we went with two orders of the black cod miso and one order of the Kurobuta Pork Loin. The black cod was good... probably not the absolute best that I've had, but it was well executed. Not overwhelmingly sweet... really focused on the fish itself. The pork loin was incredible. It was melting as I picked it up with my chopsticks. It was so delicate and savory -- I really couldn't get enough. We then moved on to all of our individual sobas. Like I said, none of us had really had soba before and the waitress was happy to explain everything to us (maybe taking the advice of previous posters?). I had the Goma-Dare and found it to be a great end to the meal. I particularly loved it when they brought over the water that the soba had been cooked in to be mixed with the sauce (I'm guessing this is a pretty standard practice?). We had a couple of desserts... all of which were very interesting and unique -- although not what my parents' western taste buds were used to for 'dessert'. I had the Grapefruit Jelly, which was some sort of grapefruit-based gelatin put back into big grapefruit slices, looking and feeling like a real grapefruit... it was nice and refreshing. We also tried the mochi, which was lost a little on us at the table, and the Matsugen Parfait, which was probably the favorite of the bunch. A nice mix of sweetness and texture. We really had a great time and were happy to be there for their great NYT review. As we left, we congratulated them on the great review and they seemed very pleased with it. At the door as we were leaving we were thanked by none of than JEAN-GEORGES himself... so it at least appears that he's more active than some people thought. Anyone else give it another try it lately?
