Kibo
Located in the old Japanais space near Union Square, Kibo is a BR guest Restaurant, and benefits from the well oiled BR guest machine to ensure quality food, great ambiance and extremely efficient and courteous service.
While I am sure they spent a lot of money on renovations to the restaurant space, to the my untrained eye, the entrance and the dining room looked unchanged from the Japonais days, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the space is impressive design wise with a long dining room, ample bar area and tall ceilings. One change worth highlighting is the addition of a new Robata grill, which cooks meats and fish at 1,000 degrees to result in the perfect sear on the outside and juiciness on the inside… More on that later…
The first thing to impress me about the restaurant was the efficient service. Our waitress, Amy W., was just so nice and so knowledgeable about the concept, the menu items, and other interesting details. She was supported by a team that was always coming to clean up the table, pour water (which appeared to be bottled water of some type, at no extra charge) and make sure everything was going smoothly.
We started with drinks, after all, this was a night out to celebrate my four year anniversary of marriage to my beautiful wife!! I have been in NYC for years and have gotten used to the $16 cocktail. When I saw that my wife’s, Kibo San, the restaurant’s signature cocktail featuring Vodka, Pama, Lychee, Egg White Froth, was $10, I thought “this is a bargain.” This statement only applies in NYC, I guess. She enjoyed the light, flavorful (and inexpensive) cocktail. I enjoyed a Six point Bengali Tiger IPA. Looks good, doesn’t it?
Now, for the food… We started with the Japanese Caesar Salad with sesame dressing. For $9 the salad was a generous portion of romaine lettuce with french bread croutons, Parmesan, walnuts, and as a pleasant surprise, slices of apples. Perfect start to the meal with some great liberties taken to adapt/modernize this traditional salad.
Because we had to try the Robata grill, next came prawns. Prepared on a skewer, the portion was three large prawns. The kimchi sauce added some impact, but the highlight was the impact of Robata grill, which as described, perfectly seared the prawns on the outside and cooked it just the right amount to maintain juiciness. The prawns were a highlight – they looked so good when they came out that I forgot to take a picture (and I rarely forget)!
Next, we each had a sushi roll. My wife, California, and I had the Rainbow - tuna, hamachi, fluke, salmon, and tobiko. These rolls were both compact in size but not in flavor. The fish was fresh and the tobiko and strong wasabi made my roll really pop. I got the impression that these rolls resembled the sushi from the other BR guest restaurants ( in a good way).
For an entree, we shared the Skirt Steak with mushroom, shishito, and shallots. It was juicy and flavorful. It went perfectly with the Chicken Soboro (fried rice, but not in the way the habachi/Chinese take out prepares it).
To complete the sampling of creative Japanese delights, our waitress brought over a slice of their soon to be famous 20 layer chocolate cake. It is worth coming to Kibo just to try this dessert. I didn’t count the layers – if you would like to, the slice is pictured below. This was a special chocolate desert from a taste perspective and a flavor perspective . It was topped with homemade green tea ice cream.
If that wasn’t enough, she also brought us two classes of champagne to toast our Anniversary.
Kibo was a perfect place to celebrate a special evening for two. From looking around, it also appeared to be a great place for large groups – lots of 20/30 somethings seemed to file in around 9pm on Saturday night, which is good, because in addition to great food, the restaurant is playing up the fact that they have a DJ and lots of bar space.
When all was said and done, our meal came to $109. In terms of what we had (even without the comped dessert and drink) it was a relative bargain in the NYC dining space.
All the best to Kibo.
Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 9/10
Category:
Food Type – Japanese
Style – Casual
Price – Moderate
111 East 18th St at Park Ave South
New York, NY 10003
P: 212 824 2770
E: info@kibonyc.com
My Maki Sushi – Closed
11/2011 – Sorry to see My Maki has closed.
My Maki is the Chipolte or Subway of sushi. Located near Grand Central, it is in a good location for the business and on-the-go crowd. I stopped in for an after work snack, but would go to My Maki for lunch if I worked near Grand Central.
Here’s how it works:
- Pick the wrap – 10-piece roll wrapped in traditional Japanese Nori ($5.90) or 10-piece roll wrapped in neutral flavored wrap made of soybean ($6.90).
- Pick what’s inside – large selection of the common ingredients such as tuna, eel, and a few uncommon ones like crawfish. Price range is $1.50 to $2.95.
- Pick extras – All the stuff you’d expect like Avocado, Cucumber, etc. and a few different ones like Doritos and thai basil. (First two are free, additional are 75 cents).
- Pick an external topping like masago, sesame seeds or spicy bread crumbs.
- Finally, pick from one of their freshly prepared sauces including spicy mayo, edamame jalapeno, karashi mustard, citrus ponzu, thai chili sea and sweet unagi (eel) (75 cents)
The roll I had was tuna, shatakes, carrot, and avocado wrapped in nori and topped with masago.
The food was fresh and I got exactly what I wanted in a quick period of time. Though the concept is fairly innovative, from an ingredient perspective I would like to see a larger variety of more unique ingrdients. I also would like to see some more luxurious options.
All in all, I paid $12 for a large tuna roll, which I could have gotten on seamlessweb from 121 Midori Sushi (formerly Kiku Sushi 3). For those of you who don’t know me, that was a joke. I frequently make fun of the infultration of low quality sushi in the neighborhood. In addition to a lackluster selection in the Murray Hill Neighborhood, sushi places tend to result to shady tactics to attract customers on Seamlessweb.
My Maki addresses exactly what’s wrong with the NYC sushi scene. According to their press release, “My Maki was created after the founders discovered that it was nearly impossible for an on-the-go customer to get a high-quality sushi lunch quickly in Manhattan. Typically customers are faced with two unappealing options at opposite ends of the sushi spectrum: Traditional full-service sushi restaurants where average order preparation times are fifteen to twenty minutes, the environments are dull and uninviting, and prices are high; and deli sushi where a very limited assortment of pre-packaged rolls made with hard, tasteless rice and questionable fish sit for hours in a refrigerated case. (My Maki Press Release)”
I see no reason why this restaurant won’t thrive, after all, how could all the crappy, undifferentiated places survive in this market? Here are a few ideas to position My Maki for success.
- Get people to undersatand what it is and how it works - The key is to get people to understand the concept and give it a try. Spend more money with a talented graphic artist to design signs to walk people through the process.
- Help people find the place – Though the location is centrally located near Grand Central, it can be easily missed. The only reason I saw was I choose to walk on 43rd when I leave GCT.
- Innovative target marketing - Take a lesson from Vic’s Bagel Bar, who is doing innovative things like serving liquor at night while offering a crowd of recent college grads beer pong.
- Ingredient Management - Learn what’s selling and what’s not and take off low performers and don’t be afraid to introduce more innovative ingredients/specials.
- Give people a reason to come in for dinner (or to bring sushi home) possibly for a discounted price.
- Offer brown rice.
Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 7/10
Service – 9/10
Category:
Food Type – Sushi
Style – Casual
Price – Moderate
212-682-2795
Shaburi
** Update 7/25 /2010 – Shaburi has closed***
I had the pleasure of dining at Shaburi two times in three nights. I very rarely go back to a New York City restaurant so quickly, but I was especially impressed with attentive service and gourmet cuisine at reasonable prices (based on how you order, more on that later). This restaurant, which is highly rated by Zagat and Michelin, has a noticeable awning, but often is overlooked on this quiet part of East 39th Street.
I ordered Shabu Shabu both times. Shabu Shabu is thin slices of meat and vegetables cooked on the table in a simmering pot of broth. I opted for Kobe Beef ($28) with the spicy miso broth ($2) the first time and Berkshire Pork ($ 16) with Tom Yom broth ($2) the second time. I will describe my first time…
The waiter quickly turned on the built in burner on the table.
Next, the spicy miso broth arrived.
Within minutes, the broth was at a simmering boil.
At this point, it was time to add the vegetables. Because I was a “first timer,” the waiter did this for me and explained that adding the vegetables first was necessary to add flavor. The vegetable assortment was a “work of art” including corn, several varieties of mushroom (shiitaki, enoki, and oyster) watercress, tomato, cabbage, tofu, scallions, and my favorite, pumpkin.
A few minutes later, the shabu shabu was back to a rapid boil.
It was time to dip the thinly sliced pieces of Kobe beef into the broth. The waiter demonstrated how it only took about 5 seconds to cook the meat. When cooked to your specifications, remove the meat, dip in either sesame sauce or ponzi sauce, and enjoy. The meal also came with sushi grade rice, which helped to tone down some of the spiciness of the broth.
Next, scoop out the veggies with one of the special spoons and enjoy from the soup bowl provided. The soup bowl also has handles to allow you to sip instead of spoon!
Shaburi shabu shabu was perfectly executed in every way. It was also a hearty portion – piping hot and perfectly seasoned. The broth was “harmonious” when all the previously described ingredients mixed together.
hough I enjoyed the Kobe, I found the Berkshire pork to be as enjoyable for a much lower price.
Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 7/10
Service – 8/10
Category:
Food Type – Japanese
Style – Casual
Price – Expensive
Address/ phone: 125 E 39th St (Btwn Lexington & Park Ave), 212-867-6999
menu: menupages.com/restaurants/shaburi/menu
Nana
There’s no room for Nana in Murray Hill. Always excited for a new place, but my dining experience tonight was all I needed to know that the Nana doesn’t have what it takes to make it beyond a year. Nana is undifferentiated and no better than any of the other generic sushi places in the neighborhood including Hana, Iron Sushi, Tony’s, Akane, etc. For the record, the only good sushi place in Murray Hill is Mishima. Back to Nana… they only had one server for the place. He didn’t know the difference between shumai and vegetable dumplings. My Chirashi was fresh but it took too long to arrive. The pieces of fish were too big and lacked the flavors you will remember from a higher quality place.
To top it off, they are attempting to fool Yelpers with a review and professional photos from the owner, or someone related… Check it out and let me know if I am right or wrong? http://www.yelp.com/biz/nana-sushi-manhattan. I suspect bigmouth s. as being somehow paid by the ill nana.
Rating:
Food – 5/10
Ambiance – 6/10
Service – 5/10
Category:
Food Type – Japanese
Style – Trendy
Price – Reasonable
Wanna go?
Address – 511 3rd ave, Manhattan, NY 10016 (At 34th St)
website- http://www.nanasushi.com
Koi New York
Koi is still cool, but not as cool as it once was. We decided to go for a late night snack (instead of dinner). Ordered Kobe potstickers (four small dumplings for $20), crispy rice topped with spicy tuna, and sauteed shrimp on california roll. The crispy rice is the dish that everyone seems to get when they go to Koi. Nothing like that crunchy and chewy rice meeting with high quality spicy tuna on top. Good but it can’t be very healthy. I would have enjoyed the spicy tuna more if it were spicier. The sauteed shrimp, which included asparagus and high-quality mushrooms, was good, but a little too salty for my taste. I wouldn’t order the potstickers again.
In the past, when not coming in for a snack, I have enjoyed sushi a la carte. It is nice to mix some pure fish (especially the Hamachi) with some of the unhealthy fried options we had last night.
Koi is in an impressive space connected to a “cool” hotel.
Don’t forget about the cocktails.
Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 7/10
Category:
Food Type – Japanese/ Fusion
Style – Trendy
Price – Expensive
Wanna go?
Address/phone – 40 W 40th St, Btwn 5th & 6th Ave, 212-921-3330
website- http://www.koirestaurant.com/
menus – http://menupages.com/restaurants/koi/menu
reservations – http://www.opentable.com/koi-new-york
Zengo
Zengo loosely means “give and take.” The idea is to come with a big group of people, order several plates, pass the dishes around and enjoy. I plan to give and take a lot because it is so close to home and on their fourth day in business they impressed me as really “buttoned up” with excellent service, high quality, tasty food, and a really creative and well planned space to explore.
Before even entering the space, I was impressed by the thoughtful decor including wrought iron screens and wood beams to make the large and previously imposing space a little less imposing.
Sensing my curiosity, the bartender, Allison, arranged for the manager to take me and another interested diner a tour after our meal. I am looking forward to experiencing La Biblioteca downstairs with wall to wall shelves of over 400 types of tequila. It will open when they receive their liquor license. They say it is will have the largest selection of Tequila in North America. I was also impressed that they are sending the “tequila sommelier” to and from Mexico to learn about the product first hand (I need to get a job like that). It also is cool that you can buy tequila, get a “library card” and then go back and enjoy the bottle for up to 6 months from your locker. In contrast to the “chill” downstairs, the upstairs Sake and Sochu Longue was more of a VIP vibe. I plan to go back to try both.
I should probably get into the food… I sat at the bar and enjoyed three entrees. Of the three, the “give” would be the Wakame-Hijiki Seaweed Salad cucumber, carrot, daikon, apple, ginger vinaigrette. Though fresh, in my opinion it needed a kick of flavor. The “takes,” more than compensated for the lackluster salad. The Halibut Ceviche aji amarillo, red onion, cucumber, apple, tomato, cilantro was as fresh and flavorful as can be. It was sweet, light and tangy. I enjoyed the plantain chips that accompanied. Even better were the Charred Tuna Wonton Tacos with sushi rice, mango salsa, guacamole. This is a prime example of how to effectively mix Asian and Latin fare. The sushi grade tuna was impeccable, the wanton taco shell was crispy and the sushi rice was the hidden treasure.
The bill crept up there, but this is midtown, and I was more than happy to pay for the impressive and thoughtful surroundings, quality ingredients, and attentive service. This place will be lots of fun for those benefiting from the expense accounts from the many neighborhood businesses when the economy picks up!
Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 10/10
Service – 9/10
Category:
Food Type – Latin/Asian
Style – Nightclub
Price – Expensive
Wanna go?
Address/phone –622 Third Ave at 40th St, New York, NY 10017, 212-808-8110
website- http://www.modernmexican.com/zengony/index.htm
menus – http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/zengo
reservations – http://www.opentable.com/zengo