Bar Masa

When Masayoshi Takayama sold his famed Los Angeles sushi restaurant and moved into the Time-Warner Center, most of the attention was lavished on his famously expensive four-star gem, Masa. There, you pay anywhere between $400–500 per person for whatever omakase menu Chef Masa wants to serve that day.

I’ve not been to Masa, as the appropriate occasion to blow $1,000 (for two) on sushi hasn’t yet presented itself. There’s an adjoining restaurant called Bar Masa, and I gave it a try the other night. Reservations aren’t taken, but the bar was only about half full, and only a couple of tables were unoccupied.

Bar Masa has garnered scant critical attention, perhaps because it’s considered an annex of Masa. But Bar Masa is really a separate concept. Here, the menu is à la carte. If you’re in the chef’s hands at Masa, at the place next door you’re totally on your own.

Given that it’s run by a sushi chef, I thought that Bar Masa referred to a sushi bar. Silly me. It’s an alcohol bar that also offers food. Whatever you order, even if it’s sushi, is prepared behind the scenes, thereby depriving you of one of the great joys of sushi dining: the interaction with the chef.

The first two facing pages of the menu are dedicated to prepared foods. There are about 90 choices. That’s not a misprint. They’re priced anywhere from $8–68, but mostly $18 and higher. They’re in ten different categories, like “Chilled,” “Salad,” “Hibachi Grilled,” “Braised,” “Fried,” etc. I had trouble getting clear guidance from the confused servers, but it seems that the vast majority are appetizer-sized, meaning you’d probably need to order a good three or four of them, maybe five or six if you’re hungry, to make up a full meal.

The next couple of pages are the sushi menu, with rolls $18–120 (most $25 or less) and sushi/sashimi $6–65 (most $10 or less), or $98 for the omakase.

This being a bar, there is a drinks menu, which takes the price of dining at Bar Masa to ludicrous levels. The house cocktails are $18–35, including $20 for an “Ocean Bloody Mary” (tomato and clam juice with pepper celery ice cubes). Sakes, sold by the caraffe, are $19 and up; wines by the glass $16 and up; by the bottle $60 and up.

I confess some curiosity as to what a $20 Bloody Mary would be like, but I didn’t feel lucky, and I felt totally adrift in the sprawling menu. I only wanted a snack, so I ordered the cheapest caraffe of sake ($19) and two of the prepared dishes.

The caraffe of sake came in a stone bowl, wrapped in ice; the ceramic cup was pre-chilled, too. You pay through the nose here, but at least the presentation is first-class.

Peking duck with foie gras in mooshu skin ($24) was a miniature version of the Chinatown classic. The preparation was lovely, but the food was not really that much better than you get elsewhere. And those pancakes were awfully small—about two bites apiece—making the dish $3 a bite.

The server asked that I discontinue taking photographs, so I can’t show the more striking dish, the Crispy Snapper Head ($28). There was no mistaking the poor snapper when the plate arrived: a fish head split in two, with a vacant eye socket staring at me. The eyes themselves, the brains, and indeed all of the fleshy parts were excavated before the head was breaded and tossed in the deep fryer.

Once I got past the gross-out factor, the dish was a disappointment. With the soft parts gone, all that remained were a bread crust and dessicated bones. Think Southern-fried chicken without the chicken. Either they wasted a perfectly good snapper, or someone else got the tasty parts.

Desserts was the only bargain: I finished with a perfectly respectable cheesecake: $9. 

There are probably many gems, along with some duds, on the menu at Bar Masa. But two small appetizers, the cheapest caraffe of sake, and a small dessert set me back $100 (including tax and tip). At that price, I’m not rushing back.

Bar Masa (10 Columbus Circle, Time–Warner Center, 4th floor)

Food: *½
Service: *½
Ambiance: *½
Overall: *½

Ginza

Last week, I wanted to take my son to a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant—one of those places where the chef prepares the food in front of you on a hibachi grill and performs a bunch of slapstick knife and spatula tricks. Benihana was fully booked, but a bit of googling led me to Ginza in Park Slope.

Benihana basically invented this genre. I’ve been to teppanyaki restaurants in Tokyo, where the food is taken seriously, and there are no clown tricks. But every version of it that I’ve found in the U.S. (plus once in London) follows the same pattern: mediocre food, but a fun night out for kids and tourists: Disney meets Japan.

Craig Claiborne of The New York Times awarded two stars to Benihana in 1970, but it hasn’t been a serious restaurant in years. Ginza, at least, feels a lot less commercial. It’s in a narrow Fifth Avenue storefront, and with plenty of exposed brick it even feels cute. There’s a small seating area for those who want to order sushi, but four hibachi grills are the showcase. We saw plenty of families, most probably from the neighborhood.

The chef knew all of the standard clown tricks, but the food was pretty bad, starting with a humdrum salad and dull miso soup.

  

The chef gets the rice and vegetables started, then the shrimp, and throws in some fire for show (it has nothing to do with the cooking).

 

The shrimp are about done now, and so is the fried rice, to which the chef had added two fresh eggs. These are the best things we had at Ginza, mainly because they were not over-cooked, and the chef didn’t cut them into little pieces.

 

Now, the chef finished off the chicken. Three lovely chicken breasts were chopped up and fried to death, losing all of their natural mosture. In the photo on the left, you can see a strip steak on the grill, thick and nicely marbled.

But the same violence was inflicted on the steak, too: it is cut into tiny pieces and fried to death, so that almost none of the natural juices are left. The chef cut off a fatty piece on the end, and was about to throw it away, but we insisted he give it to us. At least it had some flavor.

Ginza is good fun for the family, but I wouldn’t go for the food. My son complained about the long subway ride from Upstate Manhattan into far-away Brooklyn, but his objections melted away when he saw the hibachi grills: kids adore this stuff.

Prices don’t break the bank. My girlfriend had the chicken and shrimp dinner ($20.95), with an extra side of vegetables ($7.00). My son and I had the chicken, shrimp and steak dinner for two ($47.95). Beers were $6 apiece.

Ginza (296 Fifth Avenue between 1st & 2nd Streets, Park Slope, Brooklyn)

Food: Fair
Service: Fine
Ambiance: Nice neighborhood place
Overall: Fair

Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill

Note: Click here for a more recent review of Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill.

Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill has recently opened in the Thompson Hotel at 6 Columbus Circle. It’s the latest in a chain of eight sushi houses, brasseries, and bakeries in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Blue Ribbon Sushi on Sullivan Streeet in SoHo is an intimate place, to which Ruth Reichl awarded two stars in 1998. It does not accept reservations. Eager beavers line up around the block for one of the few, coveted seats. Its late hours make it a beloved haunt for chefs all over town.

But Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill is a cynical affair built to capitalize on the name, dressed for the big dance and tricked out in a slightly smaller version of the modern big-box Asian style.

Ryan Sutton, reviewing for bloomberg.com, counted 168 items on the menu. Bravo for Sutton, as he saved me the trouble. All I know is that we were overwhelmed. My son and I each ordered a selection of rolls ($28; photo above), my girlfriend the sushi deluxe ($29.50). We found both dishes competently prepared, but underwhelming. “Pedestrian” was the word that came to mind. With 166 other choices remaining, who’s to know whether this is typical? The choice of sakes was impressive, but expensive.

The address is a tease, by the way: you’ll search in vain for the hotel on Columbus Circle: it’s actually on 58th Street, across from the mall, several doors down from the circle.

Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill (308 W. 58th Street in the Thompson Hotel, 6 Columbus Circle)

Food: *
Service: *
Ambiance: *½
Overall: *

Rosanjin

Kaiseki is a Japanese tradition from Kyoto that features long multi-course meals in which beautiful presentation is as important as the food on the plate.

Until a year ago, Sugiyama, which carries three stars from the Times, had the Manhattan Kaiseki market almost to itself. It is getting more crowded. Rosanjin opened in late 2006 in TriBeCa. Later this year, David Bouley plans to open Brushstroke just a few blocks away.

Rosanjin doesn’t call much attention to itself—a problem you can rest assured Bouley won’t have. Paul Adams and Frank Bruni were the only mainstream critics to review it. Bruni awarded two stars—relegating it to the indiscriminate scrum of earnest neighborhood joints, pizza places, and steakhouses that have caught his fancy. Forbes awarded four stars, calling it “[one of] the most divine Japanese meals you’ll ever experience in New York.”

Dinner at Rosanjin moves at a quiet and leisurely pace, with the $150 prix fixe meal unfolding over many hours. There are only seven tables, and I get the idea that they are seldom fully booked. There were just two other parties when we were there, and that was on a Saturday night.

The owner, Jungjin Park (who is from Korea) choreographs a tiny staff, who could be part of a ballet. Every plate, no matter how tiny, is placed or retrieved individually with two hands. Mr. Park is the only one who speaks, which he does in such quiet tones that one feels almost obligated to whisper, even when he is not within earshot. There is no menu. You are served whatever Mr. Park is offering that day.

Mr. Park’s collection of sake decanters belongs in a museum. For us, he produced a sphere resembling a tea-pot, with a removable center core that he filled with ice. At another table, the decanter looked like a tall vase. We asked him why he chose one or the other. He replied, “It is according to my mood.”

I felt that flash photography would be inappropriate, and unfortunately the photos don’t do full justice to the beautiful creations that come out of Rosanjin’s kitchen. 

 

The first course (above left) had three contrasting dishes: 1) monkfish liver with tofu and sesame paste (lower left of photo); 2) Japanese clam with brocolli rabe, white asparagus and brussels sprout (top); 3) grilled fresh scallop in a squash puree (bottom right). All three were impeccably assembled and gorgeous, with the monkfish liver especially standing out.

I didn’t photograph the second course, which came in a lovely black bowl decorated with painted pink flowers. Inside was a fish broth with lobster, fried tofu, two pieces of string bean, and orange rind.

The third course (above right) had pieces of raw snapper, medium fatty tuna, squid and codfish on a bed of shredded radish and shiso leaf. Alongside  was a bowl of fresh salmon roe, which Mr. Park advised us to drink like fruit juice and two contrasting sauces for the fish.

 

The sushi course (above left) presented the evening’s only choice: fatty tuna or eel. Mr. Park commended our judgment when we both chose the tuna, which was heavily marbled like a ribeye steak. He told us it was a rare variety from the cold waters between Japan and Russa that is seldom available in New York. According to Mr. Park, 99.5% of it goes to Japan, Boston, Spain, and Croatia.

Next came Kobe beef tempura (above right), spinach salad with walnuts and pecorino Romano. This course was one of the evening’s few duds. Kobe beef feels like a default luxury, but I hardly tasted much beef at all—Kobe or otherwise.

 

Next, a slice of baby yellowtail teriyaki (above left) came with a blade of “shishito” bean and two ginko nuts (“break with your hands and enjoy”). It was impeccable and beautiful, like everything else, and we enjoyed the texture of the warm fish against the cool lima bean. But I didn’t feel that cooked fish was the kitchen’s strength.

Waves of flavor and contrast washed over us, and I don’t recall any specific impression of simmered codfish (above right) with a radish, Japanese spinach and ginger.

 

The savory portion of the meal ended with a striking soup (above left) of egg white, vegetable and turtle (“which is very much a delicacy in Japan”), with pickled vegetables. Dessert (above right) was yet another striking combination — crème brûlée, chocolate ice cream and mango juice — though none of these items alone would have been especially memorable.

As this was our first kaiseki experience, I don’t have anything to compare it to, except for the long tasting menus in Western restaurants. But there was only one clear miss (the tempura) dampening the parade of truly exquisite creations, served in a serene environment that almost makes you forget you’re in Manhattan. We will certainly be back.

Rosanjin (141 Duane Street between West Broadway & Church Street, TriBeCa)

Food: ***
Service: ***½
Ambiance: ***
Overall: ***

Kenka

Masturbation is strictly forbidden at Kenka. That’s just one of many rules at this East Village Japanese restaurant. I hesitate to imagine the unruly patrons it must attract, but the food is surprisingly good.

In Japan, Kenka would be called an izakaya, or drinking establishment. I don’t recall seeing another one like it in New York. The tables are low-slung, with chairs about eighteen inches above the floor. Instead of a coat check, there are piles of open wicker baskets; you take one to your table, and put your coat inside it. The glossy menu is covered with shiny photos of the food, described in Japanese with English translations that are often unhelpful, misspelled, or grammatically incorrect. There are about fifty sakes on offer, all with photos, all inexpensive, and all available by the glass.

  
The décor is unfancy, but authentic, including a row of Japanese pinball machines (above, left). You might have trouble finding the restrooms, as the only signs are the Japanese pictograms for a man and a woman. My friend Kelly guessed that the one that looks like its legs are crossed would be the ladies’ room.

Then, there are the rules:

In case you can’t read them, here are the highlights, all transcribed literally:

• No sake-bomb at all.
• 20% of S.C. will be includes company more than 7 people
• Grafitti or tagging only in japanese. No other language at all.
• No fighting, masturation, having sex or drugs, you will get ejected.
• In the event that a customer breaks any dish or glass on purpose, we will be forced to charge that customer $5 for each thing broken
• In the event that a customer has had too much to drink and vomits outside of the restroom, we will be forced to charge that customer $20 for the cleaning up and inconvenience to our other customers.
• Follow Kenka’s regulation!! Break our regulations or you’ll be thrown out.

Sure enough, both restrooms were full of grafitti, all in Japanese. (The restroom doors are shown above; can you guess which one is the ladies’?)

The menu has about a hundred items, most of them small plates, representing just about every variety of Japanese cuisine, including pig intestines, bull testicles, and turkey penises. (The linked version—the only one I could find online—is incomplete.) We weren’t feeling quite that adventurous, and ordered a more conventionally.

 

Large, fresh oysters (above left) were a salty delight. We paired them with deep-fried oysters (above right), which were just as enjoyable.

 

The next item we had was, I believe, the grilled rice balls (above left). We enjoyed their candied sticky flavor, but they were tough to handle with chopsticks. I barely managed it by “stabbing” mine, and eating it like a lollipop on a stick. Fried rice (above right) had a bounty of fresh-tasting ingredients.

 

The yakitori platter (above left) was the only mild disappointment, as all of the meats seemed tough and overcooked. But everything on the sashimi platter (above right) was first-rate, including a grade of luscious fat-laden tuna (roughly 11:00 on the photo) that I hadn’t seen before.

Service wasn’t fancy, but it was more than adequate for a casual restaurant of this calibre, and all of the food was attractively plated. I didn’t note individual prices, but the total for all of the food shown, plus one drink apiece, was $77 before tax.

As we were leaving, the server gave us a small dixie-cup of pink sugar. Outside the door, there’s a make-it-yourself cotton candy machine. That tiny helping of sugar didn’t make much cotton candy (nor was I hungry for it), but it’s yet another quirk that puts Kenka in a category by itself.

Kenka (25 St. Marks Place near Second Avenue, East Village)

Food: *
Service: *
Ambiance: one of a kind
Overall: *

Koi

In a city flooded with big-box Asian-themed restaurants, Koi arrived relatively late. As Frank Bruni put it in his zero-star review 2½ years ago:

Koi recreates a popular, buzz-bedecked establishment with the same name and same principal owner in Los Angeles, and it belongs to a well-worn Japanese genre that includes, in Manhattan, Megu, Geisha, Ono, Matsuri and En Japanese Brasserie. These restaurants invest in flashy design, mix colorful cocktails and construct menus that hedge any daring bets with the safety of sushi rolls and versions of dishes popularized by Nobu, the less flamboyant, more dependable sire of this expanding brood.

I didn’t bother with Koi back then, but when I was looking for something new to try in Madison Square Garden’s general vicinity, suddenly its moment had come.

Our visit to Koi almost didn’t happen. I booked on OpenTable for 5:30 p.m., but the restaurant was closed when we arrived: the Bryant Park Hotel staff told us that Koi wouldn’t open until 6:00. We took a twenty-minute walk, and when we returned they were open. The snafu was never explained, but we headed off to our table and were out in plenty of time for a 7:30 show.

Early critics complained about a “you need us more than we need you” attitude and music so loud you could barely think straight. Thankfully, none of that was on display last Friday evening, either because management actually learned something from the reviews, or because Koi’s fifteen minutes of hotness are up. I suspect it’s the latter. We saw families with small children, and our server asked, “Where y’all from?” I suspect that most of the patrons now are tourists.

As at Nobu and other restaurants of its ilk, the menu at Koi is mostly “small plates,” which you’re encouraged to share, along with standard offerings of sushi, sashimi, and rolls. Our server was well informed about the menu and provided patient guidance.

We started with a trio of appetizers. Tuna Tartare ($15; above left) with avocado and crispy wontons was as good a preparation of that dish as any in town. Our server steered us to Crispy Rice topped with spicy tuna ($16; above center), but we weren’t as wowed by it as he was. I believe the third appetizer was the Creamy Rock Shrimp Tempura ($17; above right),  which had a nice cruncy–spicy texture.

 

The so-called “signature rolls” at Koi avoid some of the usual clichés. My son was pleased with a shrimp roll ($16; above left), which had the shrimp outside the rice, instead of the opposite. A Baked Crab hand roll ($9; above right) had a doughy wrapping, rather than the usual rice paper, but it was a bit bland.

The better items on the menu are good enough to make Koi a solid standout in the neighborhood, but it’s not really distinct enough to be a destination.

Koi (40 W. 40th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, West Midtown)

Food: *½
Service: *½
Ambiance: **
Overall: *½

Soto

Kalina via Eater

I’m late to the party with a review of Soto, the new Sushi temple in Greenwich Village. Nearly all of the critics in town have already weighed in with the most enthusiastic reviews of the season so far. Ed Levine found it possibly “the best Japanese restaurant in New York” (though he admitted he’s not tried several of the major candidates), and Frank Bruni awarded a fairly enthusiastic two stars. Adam Platt was the only mildly dissenting voice, finding it “good but not fabulous.”

Soto’s menu of composed sushi plates (top) and cooked items (bottom)Sotohiro Kosugi served his inventive omakase for eleven years in an Atlanta strip mall, drawing a nationwide reputation before deciding to try his hand on New York’s grander stage. He engaged Hiromi Tsuruta (Momofuku, Jewel Bako) to design the space in a Sixth Avenue storefront so unassuming that you could quite easily walk right by without realizing it is a restaurant.

The menu, reprinted daily, has two pages of composed dishes, half of them from the sushi bar, the other half from the kitchen. They’re anywhere from $10–28, with most around $18–20. You won’t get out of Soto cheaply, as it takes at least four or five of these to make up a full meal.

The composed items vary quite a bit in size, and we were somewhat on our own to figure out how much to order. The back page of the menu has standard sushi pieces and rolls at standard prices, and I agree with Frank Bruni that these are competent, but unremarkable.

Levine reported an omakase, which ran $300 for two (tax and tip included), but when I visited last week, the menu stated that the restaurant “will be serving our Tasting course and Pre fixe [sic] menu in the future.” So we ordered à la carte, a mixture of the composed plates and standard sushi items.

Top marks go to uni ika sugomori zukuri, a sea urchin wrapped in thinly sliced squid and shiso, served with a quail egg and soy reduction. My colleagues and I agreed this was the dish of the evening, if not the dish of the century, though it is $24 and was gone after a few bites. We also loved salmon citrus, which offered cured fresh Scottish salmon on a scallion pancake in citrus sauce, but again, it was $18 for only a few bites. Among the hot dishes, tempura ($18) was light and delicate, and with six pieces one of the better values on the menu.

The standard sushi items were, as I have mentioned, unmemorable. However, the back page did offer a terrific Tuna Tartare roll ($16), made with asian pear, cucumber, avocado, sesame, and pine nuts, with a visually striking wrap of white kep.

Service was first-rate, with fresh plates delivered with every course, and all of the composed dishes were presented beautifully. However, those dishes are labor-intensive, and there were often long pauses between courses. The wine list, as you’d expect, has an ample selection of sakes, but oddly enough, just as many Western wines. We selected a sake, of course, and the server ensured our glasses stayed full—which served our purpose, as well as hers.

I found the space somewhat sterile, but it certainly didn’t matter once the food started grabbing our attention. I’d love to come back and explore more of the menu, but I must say that at these prices it will have to wait until I am in the mood to splurge.

Soto (357 Sixth Avenue between Washington Place and W. 4th Street, Greenwich Village)

Food: **½
Service: **½
Ambiance: *½
Overall: **½

SUteiSHI

 

Front Street is quickly becoming the center of Lower Manhattan’s nightlife revival. It’s the spine of several blocks between the South Street Seaport and the Brooklyn Bridge that fortuitously managed to avoid the modern redevelopment that obliterated most of the original low-rise buildings downtown. There are a few other isolated pockets like it, but on Front Street, with its cobblestones and distressed brick facades, you actually feel like you’ve left the canyons of Wall Street far behind.

SUteiSHI (spelled thus), which opened in early December, is a new example of what Front Street could become. It’s an edgy Japanese restaurant and sushi bar, with family-friendly service and a surprisingly fun menu. The left side of the menu features classic rolls, sushi, and sashimi; the right side features the chef’s original creations. Prices are modest, although an omakase can take you all the way up to $120, if you want to go that far.

Spicylicious shrimp ($14) was incredible. The golden sauce touched the perfect spicy and sweet notes, and the shrimp were both hot and crunchy.

A smoked salmon and avocado roll, with a sprinkling of fish roe ($10) was competently done, but the flavor was rather dull.

For dessert, the mochi ($6) were excellent: ice cream scoops (mango, chocolate with red beet, coffee) in a doughy flour crust, resembling dumplings. I had a small caraffe of warm sake to drink, which was just $5.

The décor is industrial chic. There are garage doors on one wall, which I’m sure will be wide open in the summer, with perhaps an outdoor café. From its perch at the corner of Front Street and Peck Slip, there are gorgeous views of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The clientele was a mixture of young professionals and families. I saw two parties there with children (don’t fret; they were well behaved), including the unusual sight (in Manhattan) of a child at the sushi bar. Service was excellent; at one point, the matre d’ even came over to my table and offered me a selection of magazines to read.

There is much more on the menu at SUteiSHI that looks like it’s worth exploring. As it is just a five-minute walk from my apartment, I suspect I’ll soon be a regular.

SUteiSHI (24 Peck Slip at Front Street, South Street Seaport)

Food: ★
Service: ★
Ambiance: ★½
Overall: ★

Sushi Yasuda

Which New York restaurant has the best sushi omakase? Leaving aside Masa and its stratospheric $375 prix fixe, the debate usually comes down to Sushi Yasuda and Kurumazushi. Over at eGullet, a discussion thread comparing the two is now in its fifth year.

Last night, I decided to give Sushi Yasuda a try. The experts all suggest reserving a place at Yasuda-san’s station, but he was off-duty, so I was seated at the bar before Hiro-san. There is no “fixed” omakase at Sushi Yasuda. Rather, there is an ongoing dialogue with your sushi chef, who prepares pieces one by one according to your taste. I eat basically everything, so I asked him to surprise me. I’m sure (or I like to think) that he reacted to my expressions of delight as the meal progressed, and we talked about the fish as each piece was presented. This is the experience you simply don’t get if you sit at the tables.

With only a few exceptions, everything I had was a simple piece of raw fish atop a molded wedge of rice. Hiro-san applied just the right amount of house-made soy sauce and wasabe (checking that the degree of heat was agreeable to me). It’s hard to think of a dining experience for which the connection with the chef is more personal. He molds a wad of rice into the right shape with his hands, applies the fish, adds seasoning, and puts it in front of you. With your hands or a pair of chopsticks, it goes into your mouth in one bite.

Hiro-san was midly offended that I wanted to use chopsticks most of the time. For one particular piece, he directed, “This time, you must use your hand.” However, at the end of the meal he opined that I must be used to eating quite a bit of sushi, so I guess I didn’t come off as a complete novice.

There is no fixed end to the meal; it ends when you finally declare you’ve had enough. I had 25 pieces, which I suppose is a lot (Hiro-san said it was). I won’t enumerate all the different kinds of fish I had. The list includes tuna, yellow tail, salmon, trout, mackerel, crab, oysters, roe, and eel, among others. The quality of the fish and the delightful parade of flavors were superb. Most of the items were raw, of course, but for one fish he carefully removed the skin and fried it on an open fire. Three little pieces of fried fish skin were the last thing I had.

I was prepared for a staggering bill, but the whole thing added up to just $105.75—not inexpensive, but I was prepared for something like $140, and I tipped rather more generouslly than I normally would. A small pitcher of cold sake was just $10. The efficient staff kept my water glass full throughout the meal.

The sublime space is decorated simply, in blonde woods, and comfortably lit. There are only about a dozen seats at the bar, which must be reserved in advance. The tables are quite widely spaced, and the noise level is insignificant.

I look forward to giving Kurumazushi a try one of these days, and perhaps I’ll even work up the fiscal courage to visit Masa. But for now, I can say that Sushi Yasuda fully lives up to the billing.

Sushi Yasuda (204 E. 43rd Street between Second & Third Avenues, Turtle Bay)

Food: ***
Service: ***
Ambiance: ***
Overall: ***

Sushi-A-Go-Go

Note: Sushi-A-Go-Go closed in the fall of 2011.

When you want a quick bite before a concert at Lincoln Center, Sushi-A-Go-Go is certainly worth a look. The brightest spot on an otherwise dreary-looking block, Sushi-A-Go-Go offers perfectly respectable sushi at a price that won’t bust the budget.

Their version of the omakase, a Sushi and Sashimi Tasting for Two ($38), came with at least a dozen different kinds of raw fish and fish rolls, with a minimum of four pieces each (sometimes six). All were competently prepared, and at $19 a person, probably one of the better sushi deals going for the money. Don’t ask for any substitutions, though. A glass of Sake Sangria ($7.50) and a Go-Go Cocktail ($8) were also bargains in a town where any cocktail under $10 seems like a misprint.

Sushi-A-Go-Go is designed to turn tables in a hurry. It seemed like we waited a long time for our sushi platter, and our server was sometimes hard to flag down when we needed her, but in the end we were out of there in about 40 minutes. As one of the few Lincoln Center restaurants you can always get into without a reservation — and also one of the better bargains of the neighborhood — Sushi-A-Go-Go is usually full, as it was last night. The bright orange interior is the perfect antidote to a gloomy autumn evening.

Outdoor dining is available in the summer, but while Sushi-A-Go-Go had already closed its outdoor tables for the season, we were surprised to find them open at other restaurants on the block. It shows what you sometimes have to endure for a pre-theatre meal across the street from Lincoln Center.

Sushi-A-Go-Go (1900 Broadway between 63rd & 64th Streets, Upper West Side)

Food: *
Service: Okay
Ambiance: *
Overall: *