This is all really interesting. I need to get back to Tokyo. Did you go to Sawada?
I have been to all of them except two., Sushi Mitani which is booked until 2016 and Sawada. I had a reservation at Sawada but I took a nap and overslept. I had to pay for dinner for two anyway and I didnāt even get to eat it (ouch.)
Wow. Thatās really rough. Although the flip side is he probably doesnāt get a lot of walk-ins in his 3rd-floor signless 6-seat restaurant in a generic Ginza office building.
Interesting discussion on Shuko and especially since I am going tomorrow. Will report back.
Lightner leaving Atera to start a new venture, apparently to include a high-end place and a ācomfort foodā restaurant. A new Copenhagen guy is being brought in: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/dining/matthew-lightner-will-leave-atera.html?_r=0
Hard to imagine they will be able to capture the same magic. Maybe it will be just as good. But it will be different. My meal at Atera this year was one of the best Iāve had in the states, and such a fun experience. If you havenāt been, itās worth trying to get there before Lightner leaves.
I knew this last week but I wasnāt allowed to say anything about it. Ronny Emborg is a really talented chef but I am sure it will take him time to adapt to cooking in NYC.
A few recents:
Perla - the most perfectly cooked piece of salmon Iāve ever had (and the rest of the dish was great too). Pasta and apps not as exciting. Not as crowded as it (apparently) once was.
Batard - excellent all around, manages to be both sedate and loud, service exemplary, food as well. #2 on my need-to-go-back list (after Estella).
Marea - Still great. Static, but give me the burrata with lobster and the fusili with octopus and bone marrow and Iām a happy man. Entree monkfish was very good as well. BTG list was better than I remembered.
Cosme - didnāt love this as much as the critics. The duck is great but such a huge portion and gets boring after a few bites, best to order if you have 4+ at the table.
Shuko gets 3 stars from the New York Times!
robert
how did you make out at shuko?
Great review. Happy for them.
Weāll be in NY next week for a couple days before Paulee. Have Fri/Sat nights arranged, Thursday I can get a reservation for Pearl & Ash, or The Breslin (and others, of course, but I narrowed down to these two). Any votes? I want to sneak in and eat at the EMP bar, but wife says weāve already done that, need to try something different.
Thanks
Personally, Iād take the Breslin over Pearl and Ash. But Iād take Marta over either.
For what iās worth, I think both Pearl & Ash and Marta suck.
Steve, sausage/fennel pizza with black truffle and a lovely Barolo. That will do it!
Roman style pizza (thin crust) doesnāt do it for me. The crust tastes like frozen pizza no matter how good the toppings are. The Barolo is another thing.
i agree with you, but i think they tweaked their recipe at some point - i didnāt like it when they first opened, but recent pizzas are more in the Neopolitan style (in that direction, not there); more flavorful dough and a little pull to it. the center is still crispy, but not cracker-like.
My last visit at Pearl & Ash, last year, on a stool by the bar for a very early week-day dinner with the place half-full and, in spite of that, a spaced-out inattentive male bartender, and none of the 4 tapas-sized dish that I had were memorable for me. Canāt even remember any single dish that I had then.
Sounds like Pearl and Ash has declinedāwe had a nice time there about one year ago (both food and wine-nice bottle of Balagny Bojo)ā¦
For the pizza, or for their other food? If we decide on pizza, will probably go back to Keste, which I think is one of the best pizza joints Iāve been to anywhere for food and ambience.
Keste blows Marta away and is best pizza in NYC. Don Antonio same people as Keste and virtually same pizza.