Category Archives: CUISINE

Italian, Midtown West, Porterhouse, Rib Eye, Steakhouse Reviews

Bistecca Fiorentina

February 12, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Bistecca Fiorentina overall score: 80

UPDATE: THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED

My wife and I came here for a quick meal before catching the opening night performance of Rocky (the musical) on Broadway. Stallone showed up at the end of the performance so it made all the singing and dancing worth while.

Anyway this little pre-theater joint had a great looking menu. It turned out to be a great meal.

Flavor: 7
For steaks, we shared a rib eye and a single cut porterhouse. The rib eye was flavorful and cooked nicely at a medium rare. It had a few gristled spots and was generally pretty thin, but overall I liked it. The porterhouse was good too, and served with a gravy of some kind, as well as a rosemary, butter-garlic and white wine gravy (and a steak sauce, which I didn’t use much). Since the porterhouse was served on a hot plate and pre-sliced, however, it overcooked a little as it sat there. Still pretty tasty though.

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 7
The cuts were aged and in general good quality. As noted above, my rib eye was a little gristled and thin. They offered all the four basics in terms of cuts, and even a few outliers.

Portion Size & Plating: 7
Portions here are good. My rib eye was probably about 14-16oz, bone-in, and about an inch or slightly less in thickness. ALthough that’s a little small, it was reflected fairly in the price at only $36. It compared with the rib eye sizes at Keens, Bull & Bear and Dylan Prime. The porterhouse for one was 32oz, which was a good size, and also at a fair price.

Price: 9
Our bill came to $180. Pretty great considering how much we got to eat. We ordered two cocktails, a big seafood tower, two steaks, and a side.

Bar: 7
This place is situated in the ground floor space of a brownstone building just west of the theaters, on 46th between 8th and 9th. I didn’t expect much from the bar but it was actually set up in a nice spot where you could gaze outside and hang out for a drink. The martini was well made as well – maybe could just use some bigger olives.

Specials and Other Meats: 9
There was a big menu of special items that I assume varies each week or even each day. They offered lamb, veal, chicken, pork, all of it. They even had this incredible looking hunk of prosciutto sitting in a vintage, hand-cranked meat slicer right in the middle of the dining room. I asked about it: fully operational and they use it when people order prosciutto.

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 8
For an app we had the seafood tower, which I will discuss in more detail below. On the side we had a plate of fried artichokes. They were interesting. A little dense/heavy, and you had to eat around the pinchy parts just above the quartered heart, but I enjoyed. To our surprise the porterhouse for one came with a small side of creamed spinach. It was actually great; not too salty or overly creamy, great spinach flavor. We had no room for dessert, plus we wanted to get to the theater.

Seafood Selection: 9
There’s a lot of nice looking seafood on the menu; and I assume it is all nice quality because the price points were almost the same as the steaks. While we didn’t get the branzino or the sea bass, we DID order the hot & cold seafood platter for two. That came with four oysters, four clams, four scallops, three shrimp, three grilled & breaded langostines, a lobster tail, and a king crab leg. Everything was delicious, and the platter rivaled those in some of the best steak joints in the city.

Service: 10
The staff was excellent. All the waiters were dressed to impress, including the bartender. Nick, one of the guys working the floor, is actually related to the Ben & Jacks folks, so you know this little steak place comes from good breeding stock. Our waiter served slices of the steak onto our plates for us, dressed it with sauce, and even did it all again when he saw we were clearing the first set of slices. Water was always filled, and the table was cleaned and neatened between courses. The table breads consisted of bruscetta (two pieces) and a nice hunk of crispy bread. Maybe one suggestion would be to bring the bread out at a warmer temperature, and with softer butter.

Ambiance: 7
Obviously this place isn’t set up for the kind of experience you get at Keens or Quality Meats, where they dump millions of dollars into the decor. The walls are exposed brick, the floors are weathered wood, and there are no big fancy booths. But it is clean and nice, and they do have Sinatra on the stereo system. Take it at face value: this is a nice little bottom-of-the-brownstone restaurant geared for the pre-theater crowd, with curbside dining during the nice weather. It serves good food (and great seafood) at fair prices, and the staff is incredible.

BISTECCA FIORENTINA
317 W. 46th St.
New York, NY 10036

Commentary, Japanese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews

Tabelog Event At Maison O

February 12, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

The good folks over at Tabelog saw fit to invite me to once again join them for one of their elite tasting events. This time, the event was at Maison O in SoHo to celebrate Japanese department store Isetan’s newest pop-up store that was open in SoHo for fashion week, in line with Japan’s “Nipponista” movement.

What is “Nipponista,” you ask? It’s part of a Japanese project called “Cool Japan” that was created to spread Japanese fashion, design, art and food throughout the world. “Cool Japan” and “Gross National Cool” became slogans for Japan’s growing and expanding cultural movement, which eventually arrived here at NYC fashion week.

Chef Tadashi Ono, the former executive chef of Matsuri, presented his culinary creations at the Tabelog event. We enjoyed a special tasting menu of Dashi and Agar, along with Mizubasho sake pairings. As with any good meal, you start out with some booze. Our official booze man was Shoichi Nagai, of the Mizubasho brand. Here is a shot of him explaining the differences between some of the sake we tasted:

See below for the mouth-watering images of our meal and sake pairings.

First we had some sparkling sake with dashikarikori-kan (dashi jelly) with black truffle, sitting on a slice of radish and topped with scallion. The sake was like champagne, only better, because I hate champagne and I love sake. The dashi was earthy, had a really nice meaty texture, and it delivered a great crunch from the radish.

We also had a Kumamoto oyster with ponzu ice to go along with the with sparkling sake. It was tart, with a sour, grapefruit type of finish, but very crisp and clean.

Then one of the dashi specialists explained to us the difference in miso soup that uses just miso + water versus miso + dashi, and he showed us the two main components of dashi (kombu kelp and katsuobushi/benito flakes). We were easily able to taste a vast world of difference between the two cups of miso. The miso + dashi was way more rich, earthier, and generally much more awesome.

Next came the fish course: black cod with a sake and dashi-kanten gravy (dashi plus agar for thickening and flavor). It was paired with a cold-aged, 2-year sake that was crisp and complex. We drank it from two cups (one glass and one tin) and the type of cup you drink from actually alters the flavors. Tin cup is much better. As for the cod; the aroma was amazing, and the flavor was light but powerful. It was cooked perfectly.

Our next course was beef rib eye with caramelized onion and grilled rice ball. NOW we’re talking! The onions were the real star here. They were minced and delicious. The dish came with a grilled shishito pepper too, which was nice and smokey. The steak was slightly over-cooked, but still very tasty and tender. I didn’t mind at all. The rice ball was crisped like it was grilled on the same surface as the beef, and it even retained a little of that meaty flavor from whatever it picked up off the grill. The sake pairing was a 2004 vintage, 10yr cold-aged sake that was limited quantity (only 40 bottles remain). It was clean and easy to drink, light, flavorful, and paired remarkably well with grilled meat even though it wasn’t as robust as a red wine.

For dessert we had a sweet, 2009 dessert sake that was reminiscent of ice wine. They said it would pair nicely with everything from sweets to fois gras and even uni or salmon roe. I could see it for the uni, as the taste was somewhat aromatic and perfumed, as is uni. This was presented with a coconut panna cotta and green tea tiramisu. The tiramisu had great flavor, and the panna cotta was firm and packed a lot of punch for something that looked so light.

Then chef Ono came out to greet us and talk with us.

And here’s a decor shot for the road:

And a list of the menu items we had, just in case you are keeping track:

You can see a quick video of the event HERE, although the page itself and most of the video contents are in Japanese. Unfortunately my incredibly handsome face didn’t make it into the edited clip. It could have benefitted from my gorgeousness, or at least from that of my stunning wife.

MAISON’O IS NOW CLOSED

Hot Pot, Korean, Queens, Restaurant Reviews

Sik Gaek Seafood Hot Pot

February 9, 2014 Johnny Prime 3 Comments

Me, my wife, and some of our friends went to this pretty crazy Korean restaurant in Woodside called Sik Gaek. Good luck reading the website if you can’t read Korean. However the pics are nice under the “Delicious Table” drop down menu. They have some nice looking meats and fish.

I say “crazy” not to be judgmental of other cultures, but rather to demonstrate the purely subjective boundaries which I needed to cross to actually partake in the ingesting of food here. It’s crazy for ME, in other words. I typically eat my food cooked (with the exception of sushi, ceviche, shellfish and tartare). Not only that, but I usually eat my animals and fish AFTER they are good and dead (again, with the exception of shellfish). Also – my food usually isn’t MOVING. As you’ll see below, these western culinary conventions are thrown out the window at Sik Gaek. And that’s a good thing.

This place (the Flushing location rather than the Woodside spot we went to) was actually featured on an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s show on the Travel Channel called “No Reservations.” The show is now off the air, as he has moved to CNN with “Parts Unknown” (it’s essentially the same show). In the “No Reservations” episode clipped below, he was in the midst of doing a tour of various “hidden” Asian food and culture spots around Queens with renowned chef David Chang. Watch as he eats still-moving, live, marinated and chopped octopus:

It makes me think of a shocking scene from the Korean film Old Boy, which has one of the most fucked-up twist endings ever, and is one of the most fucked-up but excellent movies of our time. No doubt this film will garner even more attention when Spike Lee fucks it up upon the release of his remake later this year, starring Josh Brolin:

Anyway… on to the actual food that we ate. It turns out there was a huge disappointment. They were out of live octopus. So after all that babble above, I didn’t really get to test the limits of my culinary tolerances. We did enjoy some delicious food though, and some of it was still moving while it cooked in the hot pot. Check out the pics below.

First, the drinks. Two types of beer, two types of soju, and a watermelon full of vagina juice (watermelon punch):

Almost forgot the Psy shot glass:

Next, the starters. First up, eggs and veggies:

Then rice cakes and tofu skin with spicy sauce, along with some pickled items and dips:

Then we had some thick cut pork belly:

Then we moved on to the seafood hot pot, which contained lobster, blue claw crab, shrimp, clams, mussels, razor clams, abalone, baby octopus, squid, udon noodles, bean sprouts, and cabbage. They even give you a trash bucket beside the table to throw all the shells in.

And YES – the lobster was still moving at our table while it cooked:

Since they knew we were there for the live octopus, and we had made the reservation and tried to reserve a ‘pus for the table way in advance of getting there, they felt bad and gave us a plate of bacon wrapped mushrooms on the house:

One of the best parts of the meal was using the broth pan to cook fried rice. Packed with flavor, and nice and crispy:

Two more shots – one of the restaurant space, and one of a little kitchen flood:

SIK GAEK
49-11 Roosevelt Ave.
Woodside, NY 11377

Carcass Club/Beast Feast, East Village, Fusion, Other, Restaurant Reviews

Whole Rotisserie Duck At Momofuku Ssam Bar

January 25, 2014 Johnny Prime 6 Comments

Check this shit out, you salivating scumbags:

Keeping in line with my recent non-steak-related commentary dealing with other delicious foods around NYC, I present to you the whole rotisserie duck at Momofuku:

This particular dish is available at Momofuku Ssam Bar on 2nd Avenue at 13th Street. For $140 you get the duck (breast stuffed with duck sausage just under the skin and roasted) served atop a bed of jasmine rice; some chive pancakes and Bibb lettuce for wrapping; two seasonal sides (we chose the pickled veggies and kimchi, and the baby bok choy seasonal greens); and crispy shallots, cilantro, mint, Thai basil, watercress, hoisin sauce, Korean BBQ sauce and duck scallion sauce for toppings. They even bring out some duck broth made fresh at the end of the meal.

The duck is locally sourced too, for all your eco-assholes out there that actually give a shit. It’s from Crescent Duck in Aquebogue, Long Island.

Now on with the pics. Duck off, or go duck yourself:

First, my wife ordered a Bloody Mary. Here. it’s made with rye, sake, tomato, apple, ham, and togarashi. We thought it was a little on the small side for $11, and a little sweet, but it was meaty, spicy and otherwise good. Nice ice cube in there too.

Next we ordered an app of liver mousse. Delicious, light and creamy. Topped with pickled radish and some greens.

Here is one of the side items that came with the duck meal – the pickled veggie jars:

And the “seasonal greens” – aka baby bok choy:

Then they brought out the pre-sliced duck to show it to us:

Here it is all sliced up and presented nice-nice:

Here’s the lettuce and sauce collection:

And finally they bring out a little bowl of duck broth to finish off the meal. Very rich.

Here are some more pics of the duck. If you look closely you can see the layer where the duck sausage splits from the duck breast. Each little slice was like a two-in-one punch of roasty, crispy, juicy flavor. Fucking awesome.

constructing a duck ssam on a scallion pancake

And here’s one last shot – the kitchen in full swing:

MOMOFUKU SSAM BAR
207 2nd Ave.
New York, NY 10003

Chinese, Commentary, Food Halls, Hot Pot, Long Island, Queens, Restaurant Reviews

Flushing & Shabu Shabu

January 22, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

We, my wife, and a friend took a trip to Flushing to explore some of the great food joints in the area – this was a while back, in mid 2012.

It’s kind of like a food paradise here. There are secret, hidden indoor (and sometimes underground) malls of food kiosks tucked away in unassuming buildings. Check out some of the pics:

After some wandering, we ended up trying hot pot at Baidu Shabu Shabu. I think it was like $25-$35pp all you can eat, and all you can drink beer. We got the spicy pot, and a shit-heap of different stuff to throw in, like lamb, beef tongue, beef brisket, beef rib eye, beef belly, pork belly, a host of veggies, and noodles. Needless to say we were fattened up like pigs afterward. I recommend this place – lots of fun. Check out the pics:

Okay so fast-forward over a year later. My wife is feeling sick. We were about to go back to Flushing just to get some soup, but we ended up finding out about a tiny little place called Tao’s Delicacies out on Long Island that we were interested to try out. Turns out it was pretty legit, and $25pp all you can eat, with unlimited soda/canned drinks. They had quality beef stomach, lotus root, mushrooms, shrimp (with the heads on), fish balls with pork inside, veggies, and even tofu skin (my favorite). If you are out on the island, and feel up for the experience of eating in someone’s living room, then check out this hidden gem of a restaurant. Pics below:

BAIDU SHABU SHABU
37-04 Prince St.
Flushing, NY 11354

TAO’S DELICACIES
1310 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784

American, Italian, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, Union Square/Flatiron

Corkbuzz Wine Studio

January 20, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I’m not quite sure how to handle this write-up for the website. Is it a review, or commentary? Corkbuzz isn’t a steakhouse, and this meal is kind of a “limited time offer,” so I am going to go with commentary, and not give it a full steakhouse review.

Corkbuzz is a unique place in the food world. Primarily it is a wine bar and wine-centric restaurant, but it is also a home-base for wine education, according to their website. As you all may know, I am generally a martini kind of guy, despite the fact that me, my father, and my grandfather all make/made wine (I’ve even made flavored meads, or honey-based wines). Seriously – and I’m not saying this just because he’s my dad: the best wine I’ve ever tasted was my dad’s pinot noir, which he made from scratch with fresh grapes.

So anyway – a buddy of mine emailed me asking if I knew anything about this place, and if I thought the “Steakhouse Sundays” deal was good. He showed me this page:

$500 for 6 people, including tip, with 4 bottles of wine, Pat LaFrieda rib eye, and sides/apps?!?? Uhh… YES… no brainer, that is a GREAT fucking deal! So I told my wife about it, and we decided that we had to jump on it as well. Check out the results below:

First we sat at the bar and waited for our party to arrive. Nice view, and the cocktails were awesome.

Once seated, they presented the first wine:

And brought us the wedge salad:

And shrimp cocktail (a little pathetic, but whatever…)

Next came the red wines…

Then the sides arrived… Roasted cauliflower, and creamed spinach…

Then the steak with potatoes and onion rings…

And finally a pumpkin bread pudding dessert with ricotta whipped cream…

Here are the wines again, for those who are all about it…

Everything was great. We were all full, but not ridiculously over-stuffed to the point of vomitude. The steak was great. I noted that it was a little under-salted, but the steak sauce (some kind of wine reduction) was plenty salty to inject that back into the meat. The sides were all great – especially the roasted cauliflower. The creamed spinach was a bit too firm for my liking, but it was nice that it wasn’t so overly creamy. The potato item would have been better if it was crispy (was a little soggy), but overall a really great meal. The wine alone was worth the price we paid.

CORKBUZZ WINE STUDIO
13 E. 13th St.
New York, NY 10003

Carcass Club/Beast Feast, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Other, Restaurant Reviews

Whole Roast Suckling Pig

December 28, 2013 Johnny Prime 4 Comments

Occasionally I whip up a quick blurb about something awesome that I ate aside from steaks. Last night I had an amazing meal at Pig & Khao, which is run by Leah Cohen of Top Chef fame. Seven of us feasted upon a whole roasted suckling pig. It was done perfectly. The meat was tender, juicy, and it packed a lot of flavor. The skin, though, is always the best part of a dead pig. DELICIOUS. Check out the pics below, and when you get a group together you should definitely try this place.

PIG & KHAO
68 Clinton St.
New York, NY 10002

Commentary, Japanese, Midtown East, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews

Tabelog Event at Jukai

November 20, 2013 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Last night Tabelog hosted another incredible event for their elite team of prized food bloggers. They’ve set out to choose some of the more secret spots around NYC to host these things, as evidenced by their selection of Jukai, a very small, discrete Japanese joint on 53rd Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. My wife and I were blown away by how great the food was. To top it off, the event was sponsored by Asahi beer, so we got to sample some of their very popular super dry (goes nice with seafood) and dark (pairs well with beef) varietals. If the tasting/sampling is any indication of what an actual sit-down meal is like here, then I highly recommend that you reserve a table ASAP. You won’t be disappointed.

Okay so here’s the Food Pr0n in picture form:

First, the assorted starter. Pickled mushroom and onion, egg omelette with spinach, squid with sea urchin, smoked duck, and Jamon Iberico on top of persimmon. As you might have guessed the Iberico was my favorite portion of this plate, followed closely by the duck.

Then came my absolute favorite of the night – beef carpaccio. But not your ordinary beef. It was smokey, aged, and incredibly unique in flavor. And look at that fucking marbling…

Next, the mains. Salmon marinated in sake and then broiled, served with a grilled Shishito pepper. Very tasty. I usually dislike cooked salmon, but the experts at Jukai managed to keep the meat orange/pink inside for a beautiful rare temperature inside with a nice crisp on the outside…

Followed by Spanish mackerel with ground radish…

Then my wife’s favorite – a gigantic pacific oyster with all sorts of good toppings (I took this down in one bite)…

And a steaming bowl of garlicky shabu shabu with beef and cabbage.

For dessert we had a sampling of four delicious items: black tea panna cotta (my wife’s favorite), white sesame blancmange (almost like a pudding), creme brulee (my favorite), and chocolate truffles.

JUKAI
237 E. 53rd St.
New York, NY 10022

American, Full Points for Flavor, Italian, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, West Village

Piora

September 28, 2013 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, you have to watch this video:

Okay… So that is the whole reason we went here. I needed to do an honorable mention here just for that alone, despite the joint not being a true steakhouse. Well, I needed to try that steak AND sample their ridiculously delicious sounding menu, which you can see HERE. I think we tried most of the items on the menu. Seriously.

We started with a few of their awesome drinks from the cocktail menu, which were painstakingly crafted by this dude, who shaved chunks of ice by hand to fill the glasses.

Check out his arsenal of wizard potions too:

Okay so after that we ordered up some monkey bread for $6. A dollar per lump, each about the size of a mini-muffin or small cupcake. My biggest negative of the dining experience – this item should’ve been free. It was small, and I’ve had better bread for free at places like BLT Prime, Quality Meats, Quality Italian, Tellers, etc. This was essentially the same bread as the stuff at Quality Italian, but it cost $6 instead of nothing. Oh – it came with a seaweed butter (big deal) and some nice lard (that was yummy).

Next we shared some starters: BBQ octopus and duck confit. Unfortunately I forgot to snap pics of those items, but they were both really delicious.

An amuse was brought out to us next: apple with chartreuse and beet:

For pre-entrées we shared four items between the four of us: black garlic bucatini with Dungeness crab and chilis; (Riders of) Rohan duck (that’s a LoTR reference, by the way), suckling pig, and sea trout. All were small portions, so it was easy to sock away with four hungry diners. I won’t get into the serious specifics here, since this is a fucking steak blog, not a duck and pig blog, but the pasta was really nice with the crab meat on top. The aged duck was frigging awesome – may as well have been a steak; that’s how flavorful and legit this fucker was. The pork was soft inside with a nice crispy outside. See pics below. And as for the trout – some of the best crispy fish skin I’ve had to date.

Sea Trout. See Trout Swim. See Trout Get Eaten. — Sea Trout.
See Trout Swim.
See Trout Get Eaten.

We sided that shit up with an order of sunchokes with hazelnut, topped with parmesan cheese. Really great shit.

Now for the good shit – the steak. The special, secret, off-menu, bone-in, 40oz rib eye/cote de beouf was … Well … You saw the video. It was fucking great. It ranks #2 in best steaks from a non-steakhouse; behind only the great and powerful Marc Forgione (who just opened a new steakhouse in Tribeca, by the way, called American Cut). This steak was nice – it had a bacon candy-like taste on the edges; great sear, locking in the flavor. The meat was tender, cooked just right. Take a look at the pics, before and after slicing:

It came with two side items: olive oil potato balls, and spigarello (which is best described as broccoli flavored kale, sautéed with garlic and oil). I didn’t care much for the potato balls, but the spigarello was nice. You can sorta see those items here in the plating:

For dessert we had a scoop of salted caramel ice cream (not pictured), and an order of the white peach shaved ice, which sat on a coconut panna cotta with some blueberry sauce. THAT was really flavorful. I wish I had ordered three or four of those for my entrée. The coconut panna cotta was so light and fluffy. Totally gobble-worthy.

And then the bill came:

And then I took a dump in the bathroom. And they all lived happily ever after. The end.

PIORA
430 Hudson St.
New York, NY 10014

Commentary, Japanese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews

Tabelog Event at SakaMai

September 20, 2013 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

I’ve been meaning to yap it up about Tabelog for a while now, but the timing is perfect now for this entry. Basically, in a crude and overly simplified description that cheapens what I mean to say, Tabelog is the Japanese version of Yelp – only a shitload better. In Japan, Tabelog is 5x larger than Yelp; they dominate the food review market. The company has recently endeavored to break into the US and global market, with their first state-side stop being NYC, of course. That’s where Johnny Prime comes in. The awesome folks at Tabelog recognized my manliness and contacted me (and other well known and influential food bloggers) to be a part of the process – to give input on the website, to act as the voice of the user, etc. And most fun for us foodies – they also asked us to be judges for their NYC restaurant awards. Of course I fucking jumped at the opportunity to voice my opinion on things; namely, their “best steakhouse” category… Which, sadly, went to Peter Luger… Yeah… BOO… HISS… I was a bit surprised too… Oh well. Clearly some of the people who voted on this category need to get out to some different steakhouses, or they need to thoroughly read my site. I guess this just means that my important work must go on. I have more to do… Thankfully, Tabelog provides another great format and outlet for my manliness to disseminate to the world abroad. So thank you Brock and Ken for taking me into the fold. I’m honored, humbled, and thrilled to be a part of this.

Anyway… After being introduced to the newly launched US website I found that I REALLY liked the format. Not only that, but Tabelog allows food and restaurant reviewers a hell of a lot more control over the content and overall look of their reviews. Tabelog was smart to make the review process personal, so that you can almost get to know the writers just as much as the restaurants. Reviewers on Tabelog have their own little corner of cyberspace to stand on their milk crate and shout out their unique message; it’s kinda like Facebook meets restaurant reviews in a way. Meanwhile, Yelp has a whole shitpile of obnoxious restrictions like no use of hyperlinks, no self promotion, no mention of your website anywhere in your reviews, image restriction this, content restriction that… To some extent I understand the concern, but it has gotten a bit ridiculous lately. Yelp also doesn’t allow for embedded images in the body of the review, and they also hide or block certain reviews based on some fucked up algorithm that they THINK works to weed out what they perceive as “biased” reviews from tainting the process. Good intentions, but the reality is that many times this “feature” actually HARMS small businesses; I’ve seen it happen with people that I know who run small shops. Even despite numerous efforts by these small businesses to contact Yelp to alert them of problems or attempt to rectify situations, Yelp ignores, or pulls out some pre-conceived, pro-forma, bullshit-laden excuse/rationale. Tabelog has none of these ridiculous issues. Whoever is running the Tabelog tech is a fucking wizard, and the layout, user interface, and intuitive organizational nature of the site simply blows away the competition. Granted it is still new here, and things are just starting to heat up for them in NYC, but MAN do they show promise… I’m really looking forward to their explosion into the US market. And it’ll be fun because I’ll be there for the wild ride. Exciting.

So now, literally, to the meat and potatoes… Last night Tabelog threw an event for their NYC judges at the incredible SakaMai restaurant; a real deal legit Japanese place on the lower east side. The Tabelog folks were cool enough to let me bring my wife as well, who, as you might already know, is The Cake Dealer and also an awesome food blogger herself. The food at SakaMai was off the hook – pretty much perfection. Check out the pics and captions below.

First is the menu. Pics of the dishes go clockwise from bottom left:

Here is the carrot puree with dashi gelee and summer truffle. At first I thought it was some kind of uni puree based on the color and bright, brine flavor. This was one of the most delicious items of the night. I think I sucked down three of these mutherfuckers.

Next is the meat: filet mignon tartare with uni, wasabi mascarpone, and poached egg. I had three of these too. Hands down one of the better tartares I’ve ever had. It was earthy, it had great texture, and the poached egg introduced just the right amount of fat back into the dish.

Now for the trout and caviar sushi. I only had one of these, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. It was delicate, but full of great flavor. Very clean, crisp and refreshing.

Lobster croquettes with lardo iberico and sansho peppers. I went back for seconds here. Just a great, soft yet powerful punch of velvety flavor inside that crispy fried outer shell. And sitting on a little puree of potato.

Now for more meat – this time a chicken + fois gras burger. Fucking delicious. I only had one, but I could have put away a dozen of these fuckers quick and easy – so quick it would rival my old drunken 3am White Castle runs. And I don’t care what you say: White Castle sliders rule. Just don’t save any in the fridge overnight or else the next day the entire appliance will smell like rotting trash.

MORE MEAT! Iberico pork on a bed of farro salad. My first bite was extremely chewy but I think that’s because I got one of the fatty/gristled ends. My next two servings were perfect. When I first saw the color of the slices I thought I was dealing with flank, skirt or strip steak: a nice pinkish center. But when you delve into high quality pork, the “other white meat” can be served a little less cooked. This was some yummy shit:

Dessert: strawberry compote with mascarpone and a truffled balsamic drizzle. Fuck the strawberry though. It was great but I could drink that fucking cream all day. I’d rub that shit all over my face and gobble it down like Jenna Jameson if I had to.

Now onward to the booze! SakaMai offered us up a delicious selection of sakes, served up by some serious sake experts – so serious that they are called samurai. Serious. No joke. But seriousness aside, the one samurai we spoke to was hilarious, reciting jokes about the history of certain drinks.

We tasted a nice array of some very different sakes and booze. Below are two pics: one of our favorite sake, which was very clean, crisp and pure… Then a spicy plum alcohol which was accompanied by a funny story told by the sake samurai.

And last but not least, the talent and brains behind it all. First Tabelog: this is a shot of Brock (left) and Ken (right) telling us about the company’s plans and how we fit into the equation.

Next is SakaMai owner Natalie (left) and Chef Akiyama (right), who told us a lot about their restaurant and fielded a wide array of questions from us food nerds.