jogoode

I still think you can't look at it that way. Probably half of Masa's costs, and perhaps as much as 2/3rds, go towards rent, depreciation, utilities, labor, and insurance. He incurs those costs no matter what he serves, and no matter whether he's full or empty. He's open for dinner six nights a week, and for lunch just four days a week. The lunches are very sparsely attended; some days, there's no takers for lunch. He has just 26 seats, and even at night he isn't filling all of them. I'm pretty sure he doesn't turn tables. And this is in a very high-rent building. OK, then a large part goes toward renting the luxurious setting and buying the expensive ingredients, just like any other restaurant. All I'm saying is that I (me, just me) would rather not pay for those luxuries because I don't feel they're worth it. I've never felt rushed at my favorite sushi bar, so I don't have no desire to pay a premium to eat at a place that doesn't turn tables. I think the setting of my favorite sushi bar is beautiful, so I'm not interested in paying a premium to eat in proximity to The Shops at Time Warner. I would love to try Masa's sushi, but I'm not willing to pay for the caviar and foie gras, which I still think bump the price up, at a restaurant at which I mean to eat sushi. No way am I suggesting that Masa's duping anyone or serving ordinary fish. But you can't suggest that because he spends a tremendous amount on fish for sushi and sashimi and doesn't also spend a tremendous amount on his foie gras and caviar. If only the highest quality fish is served, it's likely that the quality and price point extends across the menu. If you want to argue that the price of the fish is the same or higher per pound than that of the caviar and foie, then you still must accept that without the first 1/3 of the meal you'll be paying closer to $200. That's all I'm saying. Somehow, I can find a way to be cheap even at an expensive restaurant.

Any way to predict when the pizzas come out of the oven? I like Sullivan but always leave wishing my pizza were warm.

Masa serve Osetra with the tuna tartare, according to New York Magazine. And it's not that Masa is spending $150 on the foie and caviar he serves you -- perhaps the word "budget" in Todd's post was misleading. It's that a large part of the money you pay for the meal goes to your buying these ingredients. This is not to say Masa is overcharging or anything. It may have been silly for me to bring it up because it expresses only my preference, but I was trying to say that I'd sooner go to a Masa where I could lay down $200 for the reportedly amazing sushi than a Masa where I get sushi plus enough caviar and foie to push the meal's price to $300. Actually if Keller uses more foie gras then he'll be paying less per pound -- as well as making more on each $25 supplemental charge, which might necessitate Masa's foie gras constituting a higher percentage of the cost of the set menu than at Per Se. Either way, it's hard to argue that the mass of caviar on Masa's tartare doesn't account for some of Masa's high price. Again, not that I'm saying this is wrong or over the top. It's just one reason I'm not itching to go. (Unless you're willing to take me .)

Still, the two ounces or whatever of caviar adds significantly to the high price. That's one of the reasons I'm not that interested in Masa. With my budget, I can't swallow the cost of the foie gras, fugu and caviar just to get to the sushi. I'd be more willing to pay $150-$200 for the last two-thirds.

Remember, the high price of dinner is not just due to the fish. The menu at Masa includes foie gras and plenty of caviar, both items that incur massive supplements on most NY menus.

Probably. I live a couple of minutes from Patsy's Harlem, but I also eat at Di Fara.

To my mind, it's apples and oranges. I haven't had enough experience in Queens to compare any place directly to Angon, but I can say that Angon is an entirely unique restaurant. Not only do you find food far beyond the Indian standards that dominate the menus at most places, but you eat food that is Mina's -- not Indian, not Bangladeshi, but hers. To be honest, now that my schedule is such that I can't trek to Queens for dinner on weekdays, I'm glad that she moved to East 6th. The owners have made it very clear to me that they don't plan to conform for profit's sake, so the main danger in the move is averted. And unless you're paying $5/person in Queens, the prices at Angon are not four times as high. I've only once spent $20/person there. And I'd gladly pay more if I had to. (Well, not gladly .)

For the last few months, I've been going to Angon like it's my job. It's the best Indian food (though Ms. Azad wouldn't call it Indian food) I've ever had. Period. This has all been covered on chowhound, but it deserves repeating. The halim, the biryanis, and the chicken dopeaja are excellent. (The shrimp dopeaja is better.) The vegetable pakora is the lightest, most delicate fried bunch of vegetables you'll have outside of a fine tempura restaurant. If you ask, Mina will make great homestyle dishes like a stew of shrimp, eggplant, squash, and some sort of Indian green bean and a dessert involving squash called doot kadu. It really feels like you're eating at a friend's house. Whenever I go, Milton Ahmed, one of the owners and possibly the friendliest guy on earth, runs toward the kitchen saying "JJ's here, JJ's here!" He's this friendly with most repeat customers, and he'll stand next to your table and talk about his day job as maitre d' at the Four Seasons, about his four years in Japan (he's fluent), his family... So why is Angon almost empty on the days I've gone while the generic curry row places are half full? What's going on? It's clear that most diners are unaware of Angon's rep, as it doesn't yet have its press clippings on the door. And unlike the other places on the block, Angon doesn't employ any creepy guys who stand outside and try to pressure passers-by to come in. Has anyone else tried Angon? Is anyone who hasn't been interested in going? This is a restaurant that needs the support of people who are willing to pay a little more for quality. I can't find the link right now, but Jim Leff gave a convincing plea to that effect on chowhound. By the way, on Valentine's Day, Mina is serving a special menu for two. For $19.95 you get rose lassis, a special pilao for two, and a special dessert.

Yes, but when it came out no one was writing, "$300 for French food?!" They were simply picking about the perceived pretentiousness and value questions. But the premise of every article about Masa in the mainstream food media is "That much for sushi?" Reread the title of this thread. Sorry. Everyone with disposable income.

Why isn't the same writer complaining that the Times has continued to cover Knicks games? ← What a slippery slope the reader has undertaken to climb. His or her logic can be used to criticize any purchase, from an expensive car to a Christmas tree. No one needs either. To write something like this is inherently judgmental and invites criticism of the author's every purchase. The reality is that everyone buys more than they need, and everyone should do more to help others. The only reason food purchases are frequently taken to task is that the connection between luxury food and hunger is so apparent. Though in many ways I sympathize with the author's sentiment, his or her criticism of the paper's timing is naive: there are always terrible things going on in the world; there are always people who could benefit from donation. To expect that the world will stop, that Ford will stop turning out SUVs, that Marc Jacobs will stop producing $500 shoes, is just unrealistic. As for Masa, it's not really that much more expensive than other 3- and 4-star restaurants. I hope he or she wrote the same letter when the Ducasse review came out. Every 2-, 3-, and 4-star New York restaurant gets people spending $300+ per person with wine. If his or her letter came because it's sushi that people are spending so much on, then it demonstrates a nasty cultural bias.

What was up with the pork belly - in what way was it inedible?

Yep, Kitchen Arts definitely has it.

Thanks for the report, Soba! (And happy birthday, by the way.) I know how much you like Bako, so you must have really liked this place to compare it. Did you have one of the omakase options, or did you choose all that stuff yourself? Sounds like a great place.

Hey, I remember that 'cue: It was damn good! If I still went to school in the Hudson Valley, I'd be there weekly. Here's an informative post on Chowhound about it.

Last weekend I had my first taste of what I thought was really great wine. A friend brought a bottle of 1997 Clos de Truffiers to a dinner party, and I had my first sip knowing only that it was supposed to be a good bottle. I've heard that before. Typically after I try one of these "good" bottles, I smile and nod and mumble something stupid, like "Mmm, that's good." This time was different. I was speechless at first, but then I started talking the ears off of whoever was around me. This wine was so fucking good! But I can't really explain why. There were tannins, but they didn't make my lips pucker. It had this taste that I can only describe as "big" and "deep". I think I've always assumed that the term "big wine" just meant lip-puckering. When I got home I started thinking about the few articles I'd read about wine -- actually, when I got home I passed out because of the enormous amount of food and wine I'd just had -- and all my thoughts about the wine I'd just drank dissolved into cliche, like "the wine was different with each sip". I couldn't find a thread on this, so please excuse me if one already exists, but do you remember the first time you tried wine that blew you away? Can you describe how it was different than what you'd previously considered great? (The wine was paired, by the way, with a dish of lentils and braised short ribs, which were so tender that I couldn't help but smile when I poked them with my fork.)

Cool! I can't begin to tell you how much it helps to have photos accompanying recipes or descriptions of general cooking processes. Great job, culinary bear. I hope this kind of documenting becomes habit!

Well, could you be a little more helpful?Never mind, I'll Google. ← I'm sorry, tanabutler. I was responding to doc's I meant to say that Nobu's omakase ("chef's choice", typically reserved for the sushi bar), which includes cold and hot dishes, is not sushi.

It's also not sushi.

Thank you, tanabutler -- I can finally catch my breath. That's true. Yasuda knows that I'm cheap, so maybe he assumed my friends are as well. I've only been to Kuruma once, but I remember its menu being very limited. Maybe it's only during omakase that Uezu brings out the rare stuff. Much of Yasuda's fish might be from the US, but it is by no means ordinary. Not only does he serve seven types of yellowtail, he serves hard-to-find parts of fish, like mirugai himo. On a given night, you can eat one piece of toro from Long Island and one from Spain. There was a time in Japan, I've read, when sushi-ya were only considered traditional if they served fish from Tokyo Bay. And there are still sushi-ya that refuse to serve uni and ikura, like Miyako Zushi, in Asakusa, because they consider it too new. It's often said that Italian restaurants in America are unable to serve "authentic" food, because Italian food in Italy is so highly regional and uses ingredients only found in Italy. That's why Yasuda is innovative within the tradition of sushi. By highlighting local fish, he creates truly American sushi, not Americanized sushi. Sorry, Soba. It's closed on Sunday.

Am I reading this right? Seven pieces for $200!?

I've been to Kurma once, and I didn't pay that much. A friend who eats there often for business says regulars pay less, and they charge what they think people will pay for non-regulars. This is a problem I think with omaksase set-ups. ← I'd hope that this is because the chef aims to give non-regulars -- those who are presumably at Kuruma for a special occasion -- the most luxurious experience he can, if they don't specify price. Otherwise... Does Uezu give you any form of itemized receipt after omakase? Yasuda gives you a marked copy of the a la carte sushi menu.

Oh, man! Great pics, doc! And look at that piece of toro sashimi! I wonder whether the shrimp in that gunkan maki at Kuruma Zushi are chopped ama ebi or dozens of tiny shrimp. (I can't quite tell from the pictures.) Any idea, doc? If they are tiny shrimp, has anyone ever seen them before? Yasuda was even more talkative than usual, which was a pleasure. This was the first time in my life I've gone to Sushi Yasuda more than once in six months. Thank you, doc, for giving me a reason to splurge. What do you think accounts for the dramatic price difference between the two sushi-ya? The only two things I can think of are 1) Kuruma serves significantly larger pieces of fish 2) Yasuda does higher volume, with more space at the bar and over a dozen tables to Kuruma's, what, one table and eight bar seats.

I'm excited to hear what you think of Le Bernardin, since Ripert's food is almost entirely different from what you've eaten on your journey so far. What other restaurants are you considering? I'd imagine that one of the most exciting parts of your project would be sitting down with a pen and paper and making a list of all the places you plan to visit. Also, do you plan on dining alone at all, or do you expect to find enough friends who can keep up with your eating and spending?

Gas, turned up a bit higher than usual, just like Di Fara.

Last time I went to Celeste, I asked them, based on your comments, to cook the livers until just rare. They listened.