I just returned from a lovely restaurant called Cho Cho San on the Lower West Side of Manhattan, and have decided to skip another planned low review to discuss this magical little restaurant. Sometimes, a restaurant can give me such a considerate, happy experience that even high-priced fare for basic ingredients can be completely forgiven. At Cho Cho San, I felt like a welcome guest at a dinner party from the moment I entered the restaurant to the ‘arigatoos’ and ’sayonaras’ I received from the staff.
Cho Cho San Japanese Restaurant, 15 W 8th St, New York, NY
Cho Cho San Japanese Restaurant, 15 W 8th St, New York, NY, (212) 473-3333
Experience: 20
Food: 17
Bill: 12
Quality: 8
Creativity: 6
Flavor: 8
Service: 9
Total: 80
EXPERIENCE: From the moment I entered Cho Cho San, I was being welcomed out loud. Many sushi restaurants in Los Angeles seem to shout ‘Irashai’ as I enter, but this is one of the first I’ve been to in New York City to welcome me like this. The host seemed to be more than happy to have me and my girlfriend as his guest as he guided us to our table. As I passed the distinctive scenery of each section of the restaurant on my way to the large, dimly lit dining area in the back, I couldn’t help but feel like I was walking through an opera set like many I’ve seen as the backdrop to Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, the show that is this restaurant’s namesake (Cho Cho San is the main character). The front of the restaurant was lit with golden hues over a darkened interior, with bright wooden tables giving Cho Cho San’s exterior the look of a fancy yet generic Japanese restaurant. A cluster of about ten tables stood here, in front of the midsection of the restaurant, where the sushi bar and casual drinking area could be found. In this area, the golden lights are replaced by a deep red light implanted in the ceiling above. Winding through the lit ceiling were tree branches bending over the darkly lit sushi bar and benches. The bar was low and easily visible, with three older sushi chefs (most of whom were not Japanese), working hard to make fish for the quickly filling up restaurant. The dark wooden walls of the sushi bar area lead further down the restaurant, to a light, wooden set of stairs that guided me to my table in the dimly lit main dining area. This section of the restaurant expanded out from the bar in a large circular shape. Recessed, dim, golden lighting in the walls accentuated the large stenciled images of Geishas and classic Japanese paintings that adorned the sides of the room. Beautiful hanami flower arrangements decorated the tables and walls as well, making the atmosphere of the restaurant calm and beautiful. I felt as if I could truly relax and my elegant wooden table, as I sat down to quiet Japanese music and my ever-attentive wait staff. The restaurant was quite full tonight, and the waiters were quickly at my table with a lovely asparagus and mixed-green salad and a drink order to keep my girlfriend and I occupied while we waited to be able to order our dinner. It wasn’t long at all until the waiters took my order off their creative and well-organized menu. The actual wait for the sushi was a long one, but the waiters were more than happy to let us know that this was due to the number of customers, and that they were working as quickly as they could. Sipping my ginger ale while I waited, my girlfriend (who works at with opera) was able to point out inconsistancies between the Puccini themed drinks on the menu and their opera-based names (apparently the Pinkerton should have been made with Whiskey, since it was the character’s drink in the show). After a few more minutes of opera discussion, I was finally rewarded with a beautiful arrangement of sushi on a large white plate. My calamari tempura roll, Puccini roll, yellowtail jalapeno roll, and various nigiri sushi choices, including octopus, scallop, and tamago, were all presented like a work of art, and I hesitantly dug in to my meal. After dinner, an older, matronly manager at the restaurant brought me my check with a smile, and asked if I enjoyed my meal. I replied in the affirmative with a grin, and our bill was soon returned. Before I left, I asked the manager a few questions about the restaurant, and found out that the owner had directed a staging of Madame Butterfly, and had always wanted to open up a Japanese restaurant that used Italian ingredients to uphold the themes of the classic opera. As I left Cho Cho San through its dark, red tinted forest and gold entrance-way, I felt calm and happy, feelings that all sushi restaurants should leave me with, but few actually do. For a simply perfect experience that I’m almost no restaurant will come close to measuring up to in the future, I am giving Cho Cho San a perfect experience score of 20. I hope they keep up this friendly, amazing service in such a beautifully designed dining space.
FOOD: While waiting for the waiter to come so that I could order my dinner, I received an appetizer due to the delay. This asparagus and mixed green salad was simply prepared, with a creamy, spicy mayonnaise dolloped onto the fresh, delicious, greens. I craved these flavors in the sushi that was to come, and it turned out that I was only a little bit disappointed. You see, there are a few amazing rolls at Cho Cho San. I started with the restaurant’s most interesting of their creative selection, the Puccini roll. This roll was held together by calamari rings, with rice, a sweet sake sauce, shiso leaf (A Japanese, olive-flavored Perilla leaf), nori, and Italian olives, all lightly fried in tempura batter. This roll was amazing, carrying flavors from completely different cultures that harmonize together perfectly. As my girlfriend stated upon trying this roll, “this tastes like a Puccini opera!”. The elegance of the Puccini roll was one in a sea of normality though, for as good as the fish here was, and for all the strange ingredients they had all around their menu, the sushi selection here was disappointingly plain. My Calamari tempura roll was nicely fried, crunchy, and not oily. The flavors of the calamari were accentuated by a sweet, homemade eel sauce and a large amount of cucumber. While this roll was delicious in its simplicity, I wished that some of the other Italian ingredients on the menu could have been used in it (there is a cherry tomato and caper roll on the vegetarian selection, for example). Why not add some tempura asparagus to the roll and really bring out the calamari’s inherent flavors? I know this restaurant opened relatively recently and needs to make sales on the sushi classics, but I would love to see the menu get a lot more creative with these ingredients. My yellowtail and jalapeno roll was spicy and delicious, with high quality and flavorful, but still slightly fishy yellowtail accompanying the tiny pieces of pepper that didn’t overwhelm the roll (as most restaurants tend to add WAY too much jalapeno to these rolls to make up for bad fish). The octopus sushi was simply prepared with no marinades, but was very fresh and flavorful, without any of the watery or fishy aftertaste that octopus can sometimes have. The scallop was also very flavorful, served as a jumbo, single scallop, as most restaurants in NY try to do. The wasabi on the nigiri sushi was proportioned nicely, so that the flavors of the fish were brought out by the horseradish, but not destroyed. Finally, my tamago sushi was one of the first pieces I’ve had in this city that has been prepared properly. Cooked in layers with sake, chilled to perfection, and served as a large cube of sweet and tangy egg, I was very pleased with my little piece of nigiri dessert. With sushi that was just below perfection, and choices to bombard me with cucumber in their rolls instead of using more creative ingredients, I am giving the food here a score of 17 that could easily increase with just a little bit more effort. The quality received a score of 8 for having fresh, flavorful fish that only lacked that flavor burst that perfect sushi can give. Also, if this restaurant is going to use so much cucumber, they should probably marinade it in something to give it some more flavor. This overuse of one ingredients and lack of total creativity resulted in my high score of 8 for flavor, but low score of 6 for creativity. The creativity score would have been a 5 if not for the amazing Puccini roll, but for the price of said roll ($12, and it’s not very big), not many people are going to be able to readily experience it. The food at Cho Cho San wouldn’t normally be interesting enough to keep me coming back again and again, but thanks to my wonderful experience there, I will look in on their menu and see what new rolls and appetizers they’ll be attempting in the future with great interest.
BILL: Again, thanks to a beautiful meal at Cho Cho San, I didn’t gasp when I received my $40 bill. Of course I only technically ordered 2 rolls and 3 pieces of sushi (If you include the rolls and sushi my girlfriend ordered, our bill came out to roughly $80 dollars in total), but for a night out on the town in such a life-affirming place, I was okay with the total when I handed the waiter my card. As I stated above, though, while I will be checking in on this restaurant relatively often, it will probably be a while before I dine here again. I gave the bill here a rating of 12 because as much as I adored my experience at Cho Cho San, I may not be back here for dinner again in the near future. A restaurant this fantastic, making me feel that I don’t want to go back any time soon, really speaks harshly about the cost of their sushi. That said, there are some decently priced appetizers and basic rolls here, but it’s really disappointing that those rolls were so basic. Even the deluxe rolls (except the Puccini roll) didn’t really step out of the creative norm, with the usual Dragon Roll and Spicy Tuna extreme up for grabs. One special roll had gold dust on it and was priced according to the stock market, but that seemed more like something to guffaw at than a roll to actually order. I gave Cho Cho San the low bill score of 12 for a reason though, and I hope they can soon figure out a way to appease their potential everyday customers. At least the service was exceptional, with the minor problem of slow service times, and received a very high score of 9.
If you are looking for a wonderful and memorable dining experience, Cho Cho San is definitely the place to have it, though it’s too bad at least one aspect of those memories (cha-ching) will be a sad one. I know that the area of Manhattan Cho Cho San has set up shop in is expensive, and thus I hope that Cho Cho San gets creative enough to justify their prices soon. Otherwise, as the competition for good sushi in Manhattan gets fiercer, this restaurant may end up making like it’s namesake, and commit business seppuku all too soon.
