I hit Seafire Grill with some buddies from high school. While this can technically fit into the steakhouse review format, I decided to keep it quick and easy, since the thrust of the menu here is seafood.
Speaking of seafood, we had a nice selection of raw east and west coast oysters to start, along with grilled calamari and Spanish octopus.
Of course I had steak for my main course. This was a nice 8/10. Rib eye, dry-aged on sight.
Nice seared tuna entree.
The sides were all good. We did creamed spinach, truffle mashed potatoes, and caulilini. For dessert, pecan pie and apple strudel.
Sushi Hayashi is one of the “all you can eat” sushi/omakase spots that are trending now in the city. This spot is a pretty good deal. The pieces are all decent, and you get a solid amount of sushi for $98 in the omakase (14 courses). The salmon, shima aji and shrimp were our favorite pieces from the omakase. The wagyu fell short, and there was no uni, but over all this was a worth-while omakase.
Once you’re finished with the 14-course omakase, you get two rounds of “all you can eat” sushi ordering, which is limited to a selection of eel, scallop, lean tuna or fatty tuna. The toppings and garnishes are done away with during this time (just a brush of sauce, and some torching for the fatty tuna), and you’ll be charged $6 per piece for any nigiri that you order but don’t finish. The record is 72 pieces eaten. Insane.
I went with nine extra pieces total during this “all you can eat” portion of the meal; three each of the lean tuna, fatty tuna and scallop.
They really have the system down pat, and they operate like a well-oiled machine.
They’ve created the first fast food style omakase! Highly American! What follows below is a photo dump of all the courses.
Two appetizers:
Ten nigiri pieces:
The roll portion of the omakase:
Round 1 AYCE:
Round 2 AYCE:
Dessert: matcha ice cream.
SUSHI HAYASHI
355 E 50th Street
New York, NY 10022
This joint used to be called ZZ’s Clam Bar. It’s a Major Food Group spot, like Carbone just a few doors down, The Grill, and The Lobster Club. It’s a fancy, small speakeasy spot that only serves raw bar type food. We basically tried almost everything (we skipped the caviar service and the scallop crudo).
The shellfish were really nice, served along with some really chef’d up sauces.
We tried both toasts. One was like a tuna tartate, and the other was trout roe with truffle honey. The trout roe was clearly the winner here, and it was easily one of the best bites of the night.
The first crudo we did was the hiramasa, which reminded me of kampachi or hamachi. Very mild fish flavor, really nicely treated. Fresh!
Our next crudo was the smoked salmon. This was incredible. Also one of the best bites of the night. The dijon and dill really hit on this, and it paired perfectly with the rye toast points that it came with.
The lobster salad was the only thing we didn’t love. It had too much mayo on it or something, but it was still perfectly cooked and nicely chilled. Also really beautiful.
Last, the beef carpaccio with uni, lobster and caviar.
This was definitely the star of the show for me. It was so delicious and decadent.
The portion size was generous too, which I guess is expected at $105.
As with other Major Food Group spots, the pricing is somewhat astronomical, but the quality is always top notch.
This place has great cocktails too, by the way. I was drinking Gibsons.
The Cake Dealer had a Paloma and a margarita. Easily the best Paloma we have ever had. Way better than the margarita.
Wabi Nori is a new sushi hand roll place that just opened near us on the Lower East Side. They have a nice $10 cocktail happy hour, which also offers some reduced price snacks as well. We tried the karaage chicken, the fried calamari, and the soft shell crab. All of these were nice, but I think we liked the chicken and crab the best.
They have pre-set menus for the hand rolls (3, 4, 5 and 6 count). We did the 6-count, and my wife was able to swap the scallop out for a second crab roll since she is allergic. It would have been cool if they let her pick a different protein of equal or lesser value for the swap, rather than making her double up on a roll. For example, the eel roll is $8 a la carte, and so is the scallop. Why not let her replace the scallop with eel instead of making her choose a second crab or tuna? Seemed weird.
Anyway, the tuna and scallop were my favorites, with the lobster close behind.
The salmon, yellowtail and crab were also nice, but nothing was on par with that final piece / hand roll that you get at the end of a nice omakase. Not bad, though, for $38.
This newly opened Charleston joint converts an old downtown townhouse into an elegant bar and restaurant space that serves up some modern American cuisine.
We started with some lighter bites, the tuna crudo (more like poke), and a celery salad.
Both were really nice and fresh, but the celery salad stole the show, of all things.
For entrees, we had a pasta dish consisting of a bolognese style sauce with shells, and grilled triggerfish with collards in broth.
Between these, the fish was the slight winner for me. While the flavor of the pasta sauce was delicious, the pasta itself was overcooked and a little mushy for my liking. The fish was a nice leaner style, tighter muscle flesh type of white fish. It reminded me of chicken breast!
For dessert, we had the banoffee pie, which was an absolute stunner, and easily the best dessert of the trip.
I would definitely go back here on future trips to Charleston, especially for the gorgeous bar in back.
First and foremost, check out my Ride & Review video HERE on YouTube:
This small sushi counter offers an $88 omakase, which consists of two appetizers, ten pieces of nigiri sushi, two hand rolls and a bite of dessert. Here are the two apps:
The nigiri:
This tuna with truffle oil was so good:
Scallop with uni – delicious:
Since my wife can’t have scallop, they gave her this uni piece instead:
This salmon with shaved manchego cheese was wildly unique:
Below is the chef, and the final piece (which was our favorite): Fatty tuna belly with caviar and truffle oil.
The hand rolls (eel + foie gras, and tuna) and dessert (melon):
This is probably one of the best deals I’ve come across when you line it up with quality and portion sizes. I left full/satisfied, and every bite was better than the last. The staff was super nice and offered us a free shot of yuzu sake in return for us offering the chef a glass of our wine.
I highly recommend this place, and I will definitely be going again, as their BYOB policy is a very attractive lure!
I recently got my hands on a SearPro after seeing some kickass videos of it being used on Instagram. Here’s an unboxing video:
Then I finally used the fucker on some blue fin tuna belly:
This thing is amazing! I currently have the Searzall but the SearPro blows it away. It’s way more powerful, it spreads the flame just as much as the Searzall, and it gets the job done in a third of the time. Also – NO CHEMICAL SMELL/FLAVOR ON THE FOOD AFTERWARDS!!! Many searing torches fail miserably in that department. The SearPro is not one of them!
This thing fucking RULES! If you have any interest in shooting flames onto shit, then get this!
I was invited into Mifune with my wife to sample some of their meat dishes and post some photos on Instagram. But we started with some cocktails, because Shingo Gokan, the man behind the cocktail menu, is an award winning “mixologist.”
This is the Seven Samurai, which is made with rye, aged sake, East India sherry, bitters and smoke:
Pretty beautiful, and really tasty. The smoke aroma was as intoxicating as the booze, and it was similar to a smoked old fashioned.
The Throne of Blood is made with Japanese whisky, Bourbon Antica, Torino and bitters. This is similar to a Manhattan.
The Hidden Fortress, made with bourbon, milk, honey shrub, orange cordial and bitters, is super smooth and tasty.
Finally, we tried the Drunken Angel, made with Hibiki, Umeshu and shiso. This was also great. Very light and crisp.
Now on to the food. The first thing we tried was the steak tartare.
This is made with Angus beef, poached egg and tosazu sauce (a seafood style vinegar). Watch the video as the egg breaks into the tartare:
It was delicious. More like a beef tartare soup – very interesting.
This next item was on special: bluefin tuna temaki. It’s a rib section of bluefin tuna, served with seashells for scraping the meat out and making hand rolls with all the fixings.
Check out this video. Pretty insane!
At just $40, this is a great deal. We probably got about 10 or 12 hand rolls out of this baby.
Okay now on to the meats! First, a straw smoked rack of lamb!
The lamb was perfectly cooked to medium rare.
It came with roasted garlic and grilled fennel. But the real treat about this dish is that when it comes to the table for eating, it’s served in a clay dish that has a smoking chamber underneath, so you get to smell that awesome straw smoke aroma the whole time while you eat.
Next up was washugyu tenderloin.
Washugyu is an American Black Angus and Japanese Wagyu cross breed that achieves a great balance of beefy flavor and tender marbling. This is the same stuff I sell in my shop, pretty much. Anyway, it was incredibly tender and flavorful. They got a nice sear on the meat too. 9/10.
It’s plated up with a shallot puree and some roasted veggies.
This was easily one of the best meals I’ve had in a while. I highly recommend this place, especially for that bluefin tuna temaki. You should go ASAP if you have any interest, because I don’t know how long that will be available on special.
