New York Restaurant Reviews – Page 52 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Nagomi Japanese Restaurant

179 Prince Street between Thompson and Sullivan Streets
212/387.8230
about $80 for two, with two drinks, without tip

The space that Nagomi now occupies has seen different tenants throughout the years. When I’m at The Room, I always end up craving for sushi for dinner which can only mean Blue Ribbon down the block. With Nagomi closer than Marumi across Houston Street, I can now enjoy fairly-priced fresh fish without shelling out more than $40 for ten pieces of sushi and a bottle of Sapporo. I’ve eaten twice since they’ve opened and the uni has been consistently good. The scallop might not be as buttery as Morimoto’s but for $4 a piece, one can’t complain. Have I mentioned that they’re around the corner from The Room?

Morimoto

88 Tenth Avenue between 15th and 16th Streets
212/989.8883
about $600 for four, with several drinks, with tip
♥ ♥ ♥

My first Morimoto experience in Philadelphia was unforgettable. Chef Masaharu Morimoto joined us at our table after dinner and started talking about the World Cup which was happening at the time. Four years later, soccer fans are getting ready for Germany and I was sitting yet again inside a Morimoto restaurant. I was able to score a table for four a month after its opening and I found three people willing to spend a lot of money to eat.

Tyler opted for the sashimi combination which came on a tall, albeit silly, display of ice. Cameron went for the raw bar combination with amazing scallops and delicious lobster and crab claws. Lisa opted for the black cod miso, a dish perfected by Morimoto while he was still in Nobu. The waitstaff congratulated me at the end after I finished my nine-course omakase.

Some of my favorites: a patterned maki with dashi foam, perhaps the trendiest way to making sauce after Ferran Adrià of El Bulli near Barcelona put his stamp on the technique; yellowfin tuna and mackerel served with seaweed encased in gelée; a palate cleanser of sesame powder tea that came with the coolest brush stirrer.

The service was attentive but we had a different waiter for each course. I couldn’t blame one of them when he couldn’t tell me that one of my sushi pieces was actually needlefish. (Is the east coast running out of bounty that they have to turn to needlefish?) Another missed the lychee seeds which came with one of my courses but he was nice enough to return and tell me when I expressed my curiosity.

When we were heading out of the Tadao Ando-designed space, chef Morimoto was talking to a friend by coat check. I stood right next to him while Tyler took a photograph and I quickly told him that I’m a big fan. Typical chef-fucker, I know, but I walked away with a signed copy of the menu. After five years in Philly, Morimoto has staged a very nice comeback.

Gyu-Kaku

34 Cooper Square off 6th Street and Lafayette
212/475.2989
about $60 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥

I’ll group Gyu-Kaku under my Korean and Japanese restaurants list because they had both Korean-style barbecues and Japanese yakitoris. They had several kinds of soups served in clay pots that tasted like Korean chigaes, but udon or ramen noodles were added. They also offered a nice-sized bowl of bibimbap but they had ahi tuna and shrimps we grilled on the tabletop stove ourselves.

It’s a spacious restaurant off the hubbub of St. Mark’s Place. The attentive service is perfect for bigger groups, plus the happy hour price of drinks ($2.50 for Kirin beer on tap) and meat specials (50% off on filet mignon meat to grill) are hard to say no to.

McSorley’s Old Ale House

15 East 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
212/473-9148
about $60 for two, with several drinks, with tip

The oldest bar in New York City still has a place in lower east side’s hip surroundings. They didn’t start letting women in until the 70s but it’s been around since 1857. People who go to McSorley’s know they only have two choices of beer–McSorley’s Light and McSorley’s Dark–and they are served in pairs because their mugs are a wee bit smaller than a pint. $8 for four mugs is a good way to start your night with their burger and fries.

You should still try to avoid peeking inside the men’s bathroom unless you want to see someone using the urinal and don’t expect the waiters to chat; they’re only there to ask you “Light or dark?”

Yakitori Taisho

5 St. Marks Place between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
212/228-5086
about $50 for two, with two drinks, with tip

Yakitori Taisho has been around ever since I was allowed to take the subway from Washington Heights and walk around Greenwich Village without a chaperone. It’s dingy, smoke-filled and smoke-stained but their grilled skewers, yakitori, are still the best on St. Mark’s Place.

I love coming here for a late night dinner and ordering the beef tongue, beef stomach and the smelt yakitoris with a bottle of beer to wash all of them down. During winter visits, I go for the ramen or the tofu and udon soup bowl. Whichever time you choose to visit, expect to wait. The place hasn’t changed much since I was in high school. The cool Japanese kids who used to come here have just been replaced by other cool Japanese kids.