New Yorkers, including myself, love sushi. It’s exotic, it’s delicious, we have access to an ocean, and it has the dual ability to be the most upscale thing you can consume or the cheapest and fastest delivery you can get. While I know there are right and wrong ways to do Japanese food, this week’s rich and poor entries are two great places to try if you’re balling out or balling on a budget.
As a broke college student, one of my favorite places to frequent is Sushi Lounge, on the ever-hopping St. Mark’s Place. Sure, it’s a bit garish, bright yellow paint on the walls and a less than classy restroom, but it definitely has character. Plus, what it lacks in class, it makes up for in price.
Here’s the amazing thing about Sushi Lounge: All Sushi is 50% off. All the time. So when the menu says, Tuna Roll, $3.75, what it really means is Tuna Roll, $1.85. Um, hello, yes. I know what you’re thinking: No way is the fish fresh or even decent if that’s the deal. Or possibly you’re thinking, there must be a catch. Well, the catch is minimal – to get the discount, you have to spend $10 after the 50% off, and cooked food is still full price. Still not bad when you can have double the amount of sushi you would get anywhere else. And, amazingly, the sushi is fresh! And it’s good! At least I think so. Did I mention the Free Delivery?
College Students: Listen Here. After 10 pm – not before – like, normal drinking times – beer is 50% for a pitcher of Kirin (so that’s $6) and sake-tinis are also 50% off ($3.) Okay. So we have here cheap, fresh sushi, with cheap sushi-accompanying beverages at normal drinking hours. An excellent deal for those on a budget.
Their specialty rolls are pretty good – I favor the Golden Dragon, with eel and Mango – and since they’re half off you can be a little more adventurous.
Bottom line: Cheap, good sushi, fun atmosphere, not world class service but pretty good for what you get.
Sushi Lounge
132 Saint Marks Place (At Avenue A)
$
richNY
I’d been hearing rave reviews about Steven Starr’s restaurants for so long and watching so much Iron Chef that I finally gave in and went to the trendy Morimoto downtown for dinner. Trendy it was, and although I love architect Tadao Ando’s work, I was hoping that the food would match up to the spectacle of the interior design.
We were seated at 9.45 with a 9.15 reservation, after being encouraged to have a drink at the bar downstairs, where there is also a lounge that you can order off a limited menu at. I was impatient for the food, however, and waited until we sat to order.
Even though I tend to lean towards wine with dinner, in the spirit of the cuisine, I opted for sake, ordering the Morimoto ‘junmai’ sake, $22 for 10 oz. (which was perfect) and described as ‘Subtle aromas of honey-d walnuts with a soft sweet finish.’ I like sweet, so I thought it was delicious, and icy cold.
From the beginning, the service was, while attentive, nothing compared to JLOB. I hope I don’t compare every meal I ever have to that one… Understandably, it was a holiday (Valentine’s Day, and I’m grateful to say, the only hokey V-day addition was a themed dessert from which we chose to abstain.) so the place was a bit rushed, but I did get the distinct impression that turnover was more important than Slow Food.
At any rate, we were never rushed, and all of our food came out gorgeously with generous descriptions. We started with the Morimoto Sashimi off the Cold Appetizer section (we aimed for a dish from each section for variety) which was presented fabulously.
My sneaky Gossip Girl-esque photo doesn’t capture the vibrant palate of the five types of fish stacked in cubes, each topped with a distinct garnish (ranging from caviar to pickled vegetables to avocado puree) and served with four test tube apparati. Now, what was this? The waiter demonstrated that each of the tubes contained a different flavored sauce that we should squirt on our plates and then dip the sashimi – either in its assembled form or layer by layer – into. How exciting! I preferred the white and orange sauces, a little citrusy. The fish was fresh and delicious, and made me excited for the rest of the meal to come. There were 6 individual stacks, which is actually a lot of pieces of fish individually, and I thought it was a great dish overall. We were not given soy sauce, which I appreciated, meaning that the flavors in the sashimi had been previously balanced so that we would not have to augment the taste with any extra condiments.
Next up was the Rock Shrimp Tempura Hot Appetizer, a dish I love at Nobu (although there with Ponzu sauce) and so was predisposed to order. It was a hefty portion (I thought to myself; How do people not share all these dishes?) divided into three sections: shrimp in a wasabi aioli sauce, shrimp in a spicy Korean 'kochujan' sauce, and lastly a dish of house ranch dressing, to dip the spicy shrimp pieces into. The ranch had a few sticks of cucumber and celery artfully arranged in it and the color of the spicy shrimp was a great orange. I loved the flavor of the wasabi aioli, but the spicy sauce with accompanying ranch was just a little too reminiscent of the wings we’d just eaten on Superbowl Sunday. I felt like the dish was a bit Americanized for the authentic Morimoto experience I was looking for.
We had to compare the actual sushi, so our next course was the most decadent roll off the sushi roll menu, the Soft Shell Crab Roll – ‘deep-fried soft shell crab, asparagus, tobiko, avocado, scallion, spicy sauce.’ It was delicious. Warm perfectly fried crab and wonderfully assembled thick pieces wrapped with the rice on the outside, with perfect hints of orange and green from the spicy sauce and asparagus and avocado. The roll was $12, which I didn’t think was so bad for a nice sushi restaurant (although for contrast’s sake, at Sushi Lounge, a Spider Roll (‘fried soft shell crab & avocado & cucumber inside & fish roe outside’) is $4.98 after discount. Just saying.
We rounded out the menu with a sampling from the entrée section: the Braised Black Cod served with a ginger-soy reduction– a tough decision but in the end a delicious one. Again, for the lovers of sweet, this dish was served in a delicious glaze with a few black beans on the side: very simple but with an absolutely amazing flavor. I would highly recommend this one to anyone who is comfortable not stuffing themselves full but interested in distinct flavors.
Personally, I’m jumping on the Slow Food Smaller Portions of Better Food bandwagon, and the fresh meal with distinct flavors was perfectly what I had in mind. According to Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food, “The people of Okinawa, one of the longest-lived and healthiest populations in the world, practices a principle they call hara hachi bu: Eat until you are 80 percent full.” A difficult task to attempt or manage, but one that I think the richny entry for this week helps underline.
The couple next to us tried the omasake, or the Chef’s Tasting Menu. At $120 pp, I wasn’t as prepared to splurge, but when I asked them how their meal was going, they said it was tasty but perhaps dragged a bit too long. The suggestion of the restaurant that the entire party order the omasake together made it look sort of like a monotonous meal; again, though, I’m biased by our deal at JLOB. Maybe something to save for when the bucks really roll in, and I can rewrite this post about Masa instead.
So, is you’re looking for a spectacular dining experience in a trendy setting, of course, Morimoto is for you. Plus, if you’re lucky like we were, you’ll get to thank Chef Morimoto personally for your meal.
Morimoto
88 10th Ave (Between15th & 16th Streets)
$$$
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