New York Restaurant Reviews – Page 59 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Cafe Mogador

101 St. Marks Place between First and Avenue A
212/677-2226
about $80 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

Whenever I’m craving for a lamb dinner but don’t necessarily want Indian food, I go to Cafe Mogador. Their tagines are excellent here and my favorite is the lamb with couscous in saffron sauce. The staff is not the friendliest–every time I visit, I always wait outside for at least 30 minutes to be seated even though there are empty tables inside. I’ve learned to bug the waiters, though, and point to an empty table and volunteer my party to be seated right away. I don’t understand how they work, but it’s hard to say no to a comforting tagine.

Makimono

101 Second Avenue off 6th Street
212/253.7848
about $125 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥ ♥ ♥

Updated, 2006: Makimono is now closed

I love my sushi and I’ve had my fair share from New York City’s finest, but at the end of the day, otoro is still otoro and whether $12 a piece is worth it, a restaurant has to be able to support that price with other items as enticing. At Makimono, the tuna belly melted like butter and awakened the back of my throat. The uni was divine and so were the mackerel, the fluke and even the fishier sardine. The trio tartare of salmon, yellowfin and big eye tuna were all delicious and delicate even with the fried lotus root. The restaurant’s makimonos, rolls named after the traditional Japanese hand scrolls given as gifts, were ironically the least interesting of all, even with avocados and snow crabs.

EN Japanese Brasserie

435 Hudson Street between Leroy and Morton
212/647.9196
about $125 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

Our Ethan Hawke lookalike waiter at EN Japanese Brasserie seemed nervous, stuttering whenever he had to answer a question; maybe we asked too many questions. The cocktails we ordered as soon as we were seated took fifteen minutes to come and when the boy’s bourbon was served without my lychee martini, he tried to explain in so many words why. But the restaurant is known for its yuba, or homemade tofu, not for its waiters, and if you come at the right time, you can catch the next fresh batch that’s scheduled to be made. What impressed me was their otoro, or the belly, the most expensive part of a tuna fish. We had them two ways, sashimi and seared, and they were both exquisite. The sashimi was magnificent, like butter melting in your mouth, while the seared otoro was served in garlic-soy and tasted like perfect slabs of steak. After an uni sashimi, we asked for a recommended light palate cleanser. A burdock root salad was served which I thought was too heavy to be eaten in between dishes. For dessert, we ordered the yuba sorbet but a soufflé came instead. Our waiter apologized but it was never comped from our bill.

Space is hard to find in New York City, but EN has plenty of it. An inexperienced waiter can ruin a visit but EN holds its own with more pluses than minuses. High ceilings, dark wooden carvings and twigs of cherry blossoms take you away from the big city as you walk past the heavy curtains. The entire staff harmoniously greets every customer out loud in Japanese as soon as they come in and that alone can transport anyone to Shinjuku.

Rai Rai Ken

214 East 10th Street between First and Second Avenues
212/477.7030
about $30 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

While Rai Rai Ken reminds me of the Japanese movie Tampopo, it is my quick trip to Tokyo a few years ago that always comes flooding back whenever I enter the shop for a simple bowl of ramen. Separating the curtain at the door, I immediately get transported back to winter Japan. Rai Rai Ken’s narrow space and wooden bar remind me of cold cheeks and frozen hands after my usual bike commute through the suburbs of Tokyo. There is a simple menu of three kinds of ramen bowls: shoyu, a soy sauce-based broth, shio, seafood-based and miso, made of soy beans, all served with bamboo shoots, spinach, roast pork, nori or roasted seaweed and scallions, and then topped with the ever-so Japanese pink fish cake. Long strands of ramen noodles complete the package that require pulling, twirling and slurping. You can order fried vegetables and pork gyoza, or dumplings on the side, as well as edamame, or boiled soy beans, and white rice. Sapporo and Kirin beer overflow for those who want to extend their stay.

In New York City, the temperature does not drop as low as it does in Japan during the winter months, but it is nonetheless cold. It is so cold only an imaginary trip back to Japan at Rai Rai Ken can warm me up.

Snack Taverna

63 Bedford Street on Morton
212/929-3499
about $150 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

I always write about eating at Snack, my favorite Greek spot, so I decided to try its new sister restaurant, Snack Taverna on Bedford. It has a more grown-up menu with some French influences and the ambiance is a lot less casual than its counterpart. I later learned that its chef, John Fraser, cooked at The French Laundry in Napa for almost three years.

I had my first excellent dinner of 2004 at Snack Taverna. I started with the veal cheeks served with hostas, or giboshi to the Japanese, a green plant that could be as tender as an asparagus. The loukaniko, a Greek hot sausage with oh-so-savory fennel and diced pear was excellent, I almost forgot about my crispy lamb’s tongue. We shared a braised lamb shoulder with bitter dandelions and a small serving of the monkfish. A mix of Cabernet and Merlot from Greece was the perfect match. At Snack Taverna, the meals are better than the desserts, but I couldn’t resist the chocolate soufflé with raspberry sauce even though our waiter warned us about the fifteen-minute wait. He served us a complementary piece of baklava for being patient.