Rio and You Japanese Restaurant, 328 W 45th St # 1, New York, NY

Rio and You, 328 W 45th St # 1, New York, NY, (212) 307-0717

Experience: 20

Food: 18

Bill: 12

Quality:  9

Creativity: 5

Flavor: 7

Service:  9

Total: 80

EXPERIENCE: Walking a few blocks down from a throng of theater-goers waiting in line for Rock of Ages, I entered the large white entrance gate of Rio and You sushi, and into the entrance hall that reminded me of the Genkan (entryway) in some of the Japanese homes I have stayed in.  This entryway led to the restaurant, which has a long interior stretching back into three sections; tables, a sushi bar, and more tables in the back.  This restaurant seems designed to house large groups of people before a show, but its location is just far enough away from Times Square itself that it was surprisingly empty on a weekday evening at 6:30 pm.  The restaurant itself is covered in dark, reddish wooden plank walls, and reminded me of Japanese restaurants found near the base of Mount Fuji.  Upon entry I was greeted by both the host and the restaurant’s manager, a happy old mama-san that asked me how I was (though we had never met before), and asked where I would like to sit.  I decided to take a seat at the sushi bar, because Rio and You is one of the few restaurants I’ve been to in the city that allows one to make orders one by one with the sushi chef.  The ‘mama-san’ I mentioned above (I forgot to ask her name, I’ll have to do so next time), came back to take my appetizer and drink order (the menu was well organized, but pricey), and from there my meal was between me and the sushi chef himself.  The sushi bar at Rio and You was long, made of a lighter colored wood, and low, allowing customers to easily see the fish available behind its glass-windowed facade.  The fish was beautiful looking, and the sushi chef was more than happy to discuss which selections were worth trying that evening, though he made the point that ‘everything is best tonight.’  Normally I take that phrase with caution, but the fish before me truly looked as fresh as it could be, with shiny red ahi tuna, full sized clams waiting to be shucked and not a plastic container of pre-made food in sight.  As I ordered piece after piece of sushi, ordering more of the same for the friend who met me at the restaurant a few minutes later, my attempt to stick to a few pieces of sushi and a roll disintegrated into a full feast of 5 different kinds of fish and a few different rolls.  Each order of sushi was prepared quickly, and arrived on a brand new plate with more ginger and wasabi.  The sushi itself was beautiful, and even the pickled appetizers and fruit dessert I ordered came out looking like works of art.  At the end of the meal, the waiters had no problem splitting the bill between two cards, and after a few minutes of talking to the sushi staff and ‘mama-san’ about the Broadway shows in the area, I was happily out the door, smiling all the way to the subway (not even the crowds could bring me down after that meal).  And I almost forgot to mention that before we received any food, the waiter checked to make sure if my friend and I had any allergies, so that the kitchen could prepare the food differently if necessary.  In terms of my total experience at Rio and You, it doesn’t get any better than this, folks.  A costly meal can mean very little in the face of truly friendly, interactive service and beautiful, fresh food.  20 points all the way for this restaurant, and I challenge any other sushi restaurant to try to outdo the service here.

Note:  I noticed a review on the net that chastised this restaurant for not giving restroom service to an injured relative.  I have discussed this issue with other restaurants in the Times Square area, and with all of the tourists wandering the area day in and day out, it would just be impossible to accommodate the restrooms in these nicer restaurants for everyone passing by.  I know it sucks, but unless you are willing to give patronage to a restaurant, you shouldn’t expect to be able to use their facilities, no matter what your situation is.   And to give a bad review based on said experience?!  I’m sorry, but if you’re not going to review a restaurant based on the meal there, then what is the point in reviewing it at all?  Speaking of…

FOOD: Everything I ordered for dinner at Rio and You was made fresh, used little to no salt, and was served looking like a work of art.  The Japanese pickles appetizer was served on a small plate, with pickled cabbage, raddish, cucumber, olives, and plums.  Each pickle tasted so fresh that they could have only been prepared on site, and each was displayed on a different section of the small plate, carved into different shapes and sizes, creating a landscape of flavors and colors that I almost didn’t want to eat.  When I did taste these pickles, though, I experienced flavors that I hadn’t tasted since I was in the local food markets along Kyoto’s Teramachidori shopping district.  The plate was large enough that I was able to split it with my friend, and still feel like I had a full appetizer.  After the pickles, I began to order my sushi individually, starting with an order of yellowtail nigiri sushi.  A piece of yellowtail would be the perfect way to gauge if the quality of the fish was a amazing as the look of it.  Good yellowtail should have a subtle, building flavor that melts into your taste buds to eventually and briefly have a rich, flower and fruit taste that overpowers even that of white tuna (beginner’s hamachi), yet lightens to a tuna-like candy flavor in the end.  Soy sauce and wasabi a accentuate these flavors (there was wasabi on the rice, as there should be), but overuse of salt on the fish itself will always take away from the inherent flavors in any piece of fish.  This yellowtail was not salted, fresh, and flavorful, and though it didn’t hit the borderline orgasmic level at the peak of its flavor that I have had at only few sushi restaurants, this yellowtail still succeeded in being one of the best pieces I’ve had in New York City.  The rest of the fish I ordered continued this trend.  The mackerel was prepared in vinegar and was just salty and sour enough that the flavors of the fish were still present, though it never tasted too salt-watery or bitter, which is a sign of bad mackerel.  The eel was prepared perfectly, with a crispy exterior and soft bite, and the sauce the eel was prepared with had a homemade eel sauce that was just the right amount of sweet and salty to make me absolutely crave another piece of the fish immediately after finishing the first.  I ordered an eel and avocado roll to test the roll quality and sate this craving, and said roll was also prepared very will, with warm, only slightly chewy rice and perfectly sliced avocado that did not overpower the still perfectly prepared eel.  I decided to try another roll that would give me a few different flavors that all combined well together, but would not burn out my wallet.  Considering the classic Japanese-style food Rio and You offered, I went for a Futomaki, a classic Japanese train station roll (and the first ‘fat’ roll) that includes a variety of local pickles and ingredients that change from city to city.  This roll had tamago, eel, cucumber, and avocado, and lacked the usual pickle assortment that I expect in a roll like this (though admittedly in Tokyo eel and egg futomaki are fairly popular).  Though disappointed to get another roll with eel in it (not for quality, but simply for variety’s sake), I was still able to try the cucumber and tamago, both of which were prepared fresh at the restaurant.  The tamago-yaki was sweet, but not overpowering, and was fluffy and flavorful, as good egg custard should be.  The cucumbers also had a subtle flavor that did not overpower the roll, but gave it a necessary crunch.  Admittedly, I should have asked in advance what was in the roll, but I incorrectly assumed that all Futomaki in NYC would be the same.  The last piece of sushi I ordered was Uni.

Sea Urchin sushi, Sea Urchin roe, or Uni, as it is called in Japanese, is one of the most delicate things one can order at a sushi restaurant, as well as one of the most expensive.  I am always careful about ordering Uni, as the only truly delicious piece I tried of it was in Japan, and fresh off the boat from that morning.  That uni tasted as it always should; sweet, rich, flavorful, and not too salty.  If should remind the taster of the ocean and a day at the beach, but also have a calm and smooth ending that makes one feel at relaxed and happy.  Bad uni, like the prepackaged kind that is served at most American restaurants, is still edible, and some diners enjoy the stuff, but after about a day of sitting in those containers, the sea urchin roe has already lost its inherent sweetness, gotten incredibly salty, and tends to remind me more of a slimy mess than a day by the ocean.  Some try to make up for uni’s lack of consistency by ordering it with a raw quail egg (available at many sushi restaurants), and some mix it with various other kinds of fish in order to charge more for said combination, but my rules are as follows:  If the uni was recently imported and freshly prepared that day, if the uni costs more than the other fish on the menu, and especially if the uni did not come out of a plastic container, then it is worth ordering.  Otherwise, avoid this sushi, as it will usually cost a lot and simply ruin your meal.

I took a chance on the uni at Rio and You, and I was not disappointed.  I cannot say that it is this delicious every night (because of what uni is), but except for a little too much saltiness, the sea urchin was delicious, brightly colored, and reminded me, let’s say, a slightly stormy day at the beach.  Still better than most other orders of uni I’ve had in America though, I was quite pleased with it, as was my friend, who also ordered a piece.  Full and happy, my meal was concluded, but not before receiving a complimentary plate of peaches, plums, pineapples, and various other cut fruits which were beautifully displayed, and very tasty.  This after dinner fruit plate was light enough not to overfill me, yet delicious enough to mention on this blog as an excellent part of my meal.  Overall, I gave the food here a score of 18 for being fresh and nearly perfect, but still lacking the perfect yellowtail an uni to push it over the edge.  The quality gets a score of 9 for the similar reasons, including the bright and candy-like look of freshness in each piece of fish.  Creativity only receives a score of 5 because the menu was very Japanese, but lacked anything within my price range that would bring me back again and again besides some great nigiri sushi.  The rolls were all classic with higher priced varieties containing the usual spicy tuna and dragon roll variations, and even the futomaki used tamago and eel instead of a variety of Rio and You’s homemade pickles.  Flavor was a difficult category to decide on, since the sushi tasted so good, and the eel sauce was so delicious, but in the end there weren’t a lot of new flavors here to set this restaurant apart from others in New York.  Apart from quality, amazing sushi, Rio and You didn’t have much to offer that didn’t cost a small fortune.

BILL: The only part of Rio and You that would keep me from coming back again and again were the prices.  I understand that this restaurant is located near Times Square, probably has high rent to pay, and needs to cater to the rich folk in the area, it was admittedly difficult to find things on the menu here that were worth spending money on.  Sushi dinners start at around $18 for the same combinations offered anywhere else, Japanese classical appetizers go for prices close to $10, and main courses are so far out of a reasonable price range that I’m not even mentioning them in this article.  The nigiri sushi seemed cheap, but a $4.50 piece of yellowtail goes up to $9 for two pieces of fish when ordered in pairs, and most rolls even started getting prices at $7 and up.  The futomaki, for example is only four pieces of the large roll that go for $8 (a surprise that will result in me not ordering that roll next time I visit).  My entire meal consisted of a few pieces of nigiri sushi and two rolls, and I ended up spending an easy $40 on all of it.  While the experience and sushi here were so amazing that I didn’t regret the meal at all on the night I ate at Rio and You, looking back at the experience makes me doubt a return trip more and more.  An experience score of 20 should make it so that prices don’t really matter, but sadly, this place is so overpriced that I’ll have to save going there for only very special occasions.  This opinion is exemplified in the score of 12 I gave to the Bill category.  The service here easily receives a score of 9 for being fast, friendly, and if not for a few quickly corrected mix-ups in my drink order, almost perfect.  Even if you don’t speak Japanese, the staff here truly made Rio and You the kind of restaurant I could wander into on a weekday evening to happily converse with over a sake and some appetizers.

If not for the crummy prices and limited menu, I would easily consider Rio and You the best sushi restaurant I’ve eaten at so far in New York.  So if you have some money to burn, a few shows to see, and want to be taken care of by the kindest restaurant staff in town, be sure to give this restaurant a try.

Sharaku Japanese Restaurant, 14 Stuyvesant St, New York, NY

Sharaku Japanese Restaurant, 14 Stuyvesant St, New York, NY, (212) 598-0402‎

Experience: 16

Food: 16

Bill: 16

Quality:  7

Creativity: 6

Flavor: 7

Service:  7

Total: 75

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EXPERIENCE: Sharaku is located a block away from St. Mark’s place, amongst some of the best Japanese food in the city, so it makes sense that they would at least try to make their food and service as good as possible.  Entering Sharaku, I walked through the wooden walled entrance to the host, who quickly and quietly guided me to my seat.  My chair was located in a patio-like area at the north side of the restaurant, far from the dark wood sushi bar and dinner seating area in this large, high ceiling eatery.  I sat next to the patio windows that allowed everyone to see what I was eating, but allowed me to watch the daily traffic outside as well.  I went for dinner early, at 4:30, so I was still able to get lunch service, which ends at 4:45 pm.  My waiter took a while to reach me and take my order, but when he did, my soup and drink came out fairly quickly.  It took about ten minutes for me to receive my food, but the waitress was smiling and apologetic for the wait, so I forgave her.  The menu was easy to read, and I had found a lunch special that gave me a fairly large meal for ~$11.  I happily finished my meal, beautifully served on a single plate, and even though I had to wait yet again to receive the check, the wait staff was kind to me once more.  I left Sharaku feeling good about my meal, my wallet, and my total experience.  While there were some long waits and I felt a little bit rushed once the check came, I am still giving the Experience a score of 16 for being very nice all in all.

FOOD: While the food at Sharaku wasn’t perfect, it was the best sushi I’ve had in the city in a while.  I ordered a lunch special that had just about everything I wanted.  It also came with a miso soup!  The miso was served quickly in a small Japanese bowl.  It was shiro miso, much like every other restaurant I’ve eaten at has served, but this miso was not only made with fresh miso paste (not as salty and incredibly flavorful), but also with fresh vegetables and tofu, which really added to the flavor even more.  Boiled roots (radish?) and green onions were cooked to perfection, and the soup managed to be delicious and not very salty at all!  My lunch plate arrived a while later, and on it was the yellowtail scallion roll, half-vegetable-futomaki roll, and nigiri sushi the lunch special promised.  The fish on the nigiri looked a bit sad and thin, but I didn’t let that decide how it tasted, so I dug in.  I started with the tuna sushi, which was actually very fresh tasting, not salty in the least, and had hints of some fantastic flavor that just didn’t reach the surface (usually a result of how the fish is cut, in my experience).  The yellowtail was delicious, with only a tiny edge of fishiness that was vastly cut out by a sweet, candy flavor that all good yellowtail should have.  The yellowtail didn’t melt in my mouth, but I still tasted occasional zings of perfect flavor on my tongue.  The salmon sushi was not oily or salty either, but lacked some deeper flavors that the best salmon has.  The eel sushi was the only disappointment, as the sauce on the eel was not salty, but wasn’t sweet either (kind of flavorless really), so the eel itself just tasted thick and plain.  There was a little bit of crunch in it, but not enough to take away from that grainy texture that incorrectly prepared eel can have.  The yellowtail scallion roll was served beautifully, with just enough scallion to add some spice, without upsetting the wonderful taste in the chopped yellowtail within (this surprised me too, as often yellowtail used in rolls is slightly lower quality than the nigiri cuts).  The futomaki was the best part of the meal, and was probably the best I’ve had outside of Japan.  Futomaki served properly is a VERY Japanese roll, so it should have very little flavor in it outside of the inherent ones in the fresh ingredients.  Futomaki, or fat roll, was one of the first LARGE rolls served in Japan, and is stuffed with most of the pickles one would receive in an appetizer.  Gobo root (looks like a carrot), pickled radish and plum, tamago egg or egg custard, avocado and cucumber usually make up the roll itself.  This futomaki had those ingredients exactly, and nothing else.  No sodium, no meat, just rice, seaweed, and all of the above.  It tasted marvelous, and I wish I could have ordered more of it for lunch.  Readers out there, if you want an authentic example of Japanese cuisine, this is the roll to order.  After my meal I felt full, but light, as there was so little salt and the rice in my sushi was so well prepared.  I gave the food a score of 16 for having a few things that blew me away, but otherwise serving just decent fish and making a few big mistakes.  Quality gets a 7 for being very good, though the fish looked a bit limp, the eel was a bit off, and the tuna could have been a bit brighter.  Creativity receives a 6 for the usual reasons, those being that the only truly creative rolls cost lots of money and everything reasonable is relatively generic.  Flavor received a 7 because the meal was good (even without so much sodium!), with the futomaki and miso soup pulling the score up, but in the end the eel and tuna’s lack of flavor keeps the score from reaching the heights.

BILL: The bill for my filling, amazing meal came out to only $15 with a drink, and I can’t ask for anything more than that.  The prices on the menu were a little steep for the dinner crowd, with expensive deluxe rolls and even more expensive main courses, but there are a couple of dinner deals (the non-flexible, ‘this is what you’re getting’ kind) are great if they’re what you are in the mood for.  I gave the bill a score of 16 reflecting this lack of possibility, but for once issues in the menu won’t stop me from coming back to a restaurant that made me so happy to be eating there.  Service received a score of 7 for being above par, with happy waitresses and an old proprietor to greet me and say farewell, but the service was still a bit slow and disorganized, keeping this score from being the best it could be.

Sharaku is one of the many gems of St. Mark’s Place, and now that I’ve been there, I can safely say I’ll be back before too long.  With other nearby haunts like Yakiniku West and Kenka, though, this place has some serious competition ahead of itself for my hunger’s favor.  If the menu gets a few more cheap options on it to add to the variety, I could easily see Sharaku as one of the better sushi restaurants in New York City.

Ever have a meal experience so bad that it ruins your evening?  Eating at Typhoon Lounge was a mistake, and one that I won’t make again soon.  The service was bad, the food was terrible, and I have never felt so grossed out eating sushi.  I went straight home after eating here, purely out of fear for later.

Typhoon Lounge, 79 Saint Marks Pl, New York, NY‎ – (212) 979-2680‎

Typhoon Lounge, 79 Saint Marks Pl, New York, NY (212) 979-2680‎

Experience: 10

Food: 4

Bill: 8

Quality:  3

Creativity: 3

Flavor: 3

Service:  5

Total: 36
EXPERIENCE: I was in a great mood tonight as I walked into the Typhoon Lounge.  Good day of work, good evening of exploration, and I would finally get to try this Japanese restaurant I’ve always walked past.  It was fairly crowded inside of the dark, cavernous interior of Typhoon.  The walls are all dark brown and tan, giving the restaurant a tavern-like feel.  The walls are lit by lanterns and sconces, and I kind of liked the atmosphere.  Being alone, I decided to sit at the sushi bar.  I had to flag a waitress since a host didn’t seem to be available (and I was the only one waiting for about 5 minutes), and after I explained my situation, I was seated with a plethora of menus.  The sushi bar stretches along the Eastern wall of the restaurant entrance, after which the restaurant opens up to a larger seating area.  The sushi bar itself had see-through plastic guards between the sushi chef and myself, so that I could look at the fish.  Normally doing this is a delight, but as I gazed at the prepackaged uni and dry, science-class looking fish pieces, I began to wonder if I really should order the sushi.  Luckily, the menu had a special deal, 1/2 off a very generous sushi selection!  This would at least save me some money.  After ten minutes of watching some flies swarm around a half-prepared eel roll as the sushi chef prepared some other specialties with his bare, dirty looking hands, the waitress came to take my dinner order.  For the sake of the blog and the discount, I ordered an eel roll, a tempura roll (at least they’re cooked, but OH! the things I do for my readers!), and some nigiri sushi (yellowtail, salmon, and tamago).  The menu had a curious way of labeling their rolls, by the way.  Tamago was translated to egg custard (so I knew it wouldn’t be real egg), and crab was relabeled as ‘fish cake’ (so I knew it would be bad imitation crab).  At least they were honest and let me know what I was getting into.  I then asked the waitress for an appetizer recommendation to round out the meal, and she recommended a $6 beef stew, their most popular soup.  I happily agreed with this, and awaited my food as I watched even more cracked and dying raw fish get chopped into various rolls.  My stew came out about 10 minutes after I ordered it, hot and good smelling, and in a nice stone bowl.  I knew my sushi was still a LONG ways away, considering the sushi chef was filling orders one at a time, and mine was at the bottom of 5 order slips.  When my sushi did finally arrive, I had seen my sushi chef prepare it, and I really didn’t want to eat it.  I downed it anyway, and by the end of my meal I was completely bloated by the salty, rice-covered mess I had ingested.  The waitresses continued to shun my as I tried to call for my check, and the sushi chef, sensing my displeasure, tried to cheer me up with an on-the-house appetizer.  I was way to full to eat this, and I thought it must be some kind of cruelty to stare at me as I took a few bites and feigned enjoyment.  The waitress finally came with my crazy check (more details below), and after five more minutes of staring at my remaining food, took my plates away and allowed me to sign my way to freedom.  The staff did not seem happy at my presence during this meal, and the sushi chef was smiling, but in a very creepy kind of way.  I left Typhoon feeling gross and negative, with my unhappiness growing as my bloated body tried to make its way home.  I gave the experience a score of 10, because the restaurant actually had some nice points to it besides the staff and my food.  The decor was nice, and at least the place had ambiance, but everything there seemed to exist to make me feel worse about my day in some way, and its an experience I do not soon want to repeat.

FOOD: I dug into my stew, and the first bite was delicious.  Not too watery, with beef broth cooked to tasty perfection.  That is until my second bite – that was when I got my first spoon-full of grease.  The soup may have had the right flavors, but once all the parts of it were inadvertently stirred together (I wish I had skimmed the top and left the rest alone), the soup was salty, slimy, oily, and the beef pieces were fatty and hard to eat.  I’m sure this is a hit or miss dish, but I used to order stews like this in Japan (and Los Angeles!) all the time, and I never ate anything this greasy or salty.  I set down my spoon and hoped that the rest of the meal would be better.    The sushi was half-off, and the menu said something about needing to finish it all, so I wasn’t quite sure if I needed to eat everything I ordered or not.  I was okay with this idea either way, since I only ordered two rolls and some pieces of fish.  I quickly noticed the amount of rice the sushi chef was piling on top of each roll, though, and I gulped.  My tempura roll was comprised of a single piece of dried shrimp tempura that had been sitting out since I arrived at the restaurant (and probably even longer), a few scoops of flying fish roe out of a saran wrapped cup, and a LOT of rice.  The roll was topped with a glob of sticky, dark eel sauce.  I figured at least the roll would be sweet at this rate, but to my surprise, the eel sauce was pure, liquid SALT.  This salt sauce completely masked the already flavorless shrimp and rice, and with the addition of salty fish eggs, the roll was almost inedible.  I downed about half of it before my next roll came out, and I gasped in fear.  The eel roll was ALSO covered in this fake eel sauce.  I waited for my water glass to be refilled (which took FOREVER), and used the magical clear tap water of the gods (it seemed that way at the time), to help me ingest piles of soggy, flavorless eel and cucumber wrapped again in a huge portion of rice.  By the time my nigiri sushi came out, I was already bloated from the amount of rice and salt sauce and oily stew I had ingested, and already felt a bit like I wanted to pray to some porcelain goddess somewhere for it to go away.  The thin slices of yellowtail and salmon had come from the bar I cringed at earlier, and I bravely tried each piece.  The yellowtail was fishy and had hints of flavors (such as bad avocado and fish skin) that raw fish ought not have.  It left a terrible taste in my mouth that I tried to cancel out with the salmon, but that fish was even worse, and I left half of the piece of sushi on my plate (an insult?  Maybe, but I wanted this place to have it).  My tamago egg custard fell apart as I picked it up (crumbled, actually), and was flavorless enough that I was able to use it as a foil for this egregiously salty meal.  When I finally finished (or half-finished) everything, I didn’t care about the ‘eat everything’ rule anymore, and luckily, neither did they…or so I thought.  As I mentioned above, I received a strange bowl of pickles at the end of my meal, and there were three things in it.  Kim-Chee spiced radish, which tasted gooey and rank, served with also slimy cucumber and seaweed shavings.  I took a few bites out of respect, but this was probably the worst thing I tried all night, and with no water left, I really wanted to up-chuck it on the spot.  I was so full and digusting feeling after the meal that I left unsure of why anyone would EVER recommend a place like this to me.  Everything from the kitchen and sushi bar seemed terrible, and it got even worse when I received my bill.  I gave the Food a score of 4 for having a bad selection, using too much, chewy rice, and not taking care of a truly disgusting sushi bar.  Even the kitchen food, pretending to be authentic, was greasy, salty, and almost inedible.   Quality, Creativity, and Flavor all received scores of 3.  The quality sucked, but the food was mostly edible (the salmon lowered the score to the DO NOT EAT level).  The flavors were almost null and void.  At least Typhoon thought of adding fish eggs to the tempura roll, but c’mon, salt with salt?!  What are they thinking!  The creativity was just not there.  This restaurant offered everything most Japanese tapas bars offer, but with little NY variety, and everything seemed to be a mixture of the same five Japanese ingredients served in different ways.  The only thing that changed on the menu was the meat selection, and after this meal, I don’t trust the fatty beef or the rotten-looking fish.  Thanks to this terrible look at how one can ruin a Japanese meal, I am going to be more cautious than ever about where I go to eat Japanese food of any kind from this day forward.

BILL: My bill came, and it was for $30 after tip.  WHAT THE HELL?!  I ordered two rolls and 3 pieces of nigiri sushi at half off and a $6 stew (and a $2 soda) and I owed $25?!  The math just didn’t add up.  Turns out they fully charged me for a roll I didn’t finish, so beware the 50% off sushi deal, it’s a bit of a scam.  I didn’t want to get into a fight over how salty the food was (just didn’t have it in me after this meal), so I paid and took off straight for home as I formulated this review.  I gave the bill a score of 8 for being tricky and pricey, yet still offering some discounts if you can figure them out.  I gave the service a score of 5, because they were slow and average, though they tried to be friendly at times, and I did get a nice after-dinner salad, though it was disgusting and served at the worst possible time.

I swear to you from the bottom of my heart, do NOT let someone convince you that this food is authentic Japanese food and therefore ‘different.’  I have eaten dozens of meals in Japan and NONE of them tasted like this.  Japanese food is defined by its subtle flavors, so there’s not a TON of salt or grease in most of it.  Mayonnaise is the strongest food you’ll probably have in Japan, and that’s because it’s comprised of eggs and oil and NOTHING ELSE.  The food here is awful, it really is.  I felt sick after eating at Typhoon Lounge, and have reviewed it accordingly.  If you are going to have to eat here, I suggest getting something without rice and without grease, if you can find such a thing on the menu.  Avoid the eel sauce, avoid the fish, and for the love of sushi, do not make any after dinner plans.

I hope you all have a pleasant night.  Now that I’m away from that restaurant and able to get some rest, I’m certainly going to try to.

Zen Restaurant, 31 Saint Marks Pl, New York, NY

Zen Restaurant, 31 Saint Marks Pl, New York, NY (212) 533-6855

Experience: 14

Food: 16

Bill: 16

Quality:  7

Creativity: 5

Flavor: 6

Service:  6

Total: 70

EXPERIENCE: Nestled far into the streets of St. Mark’s Place, Zen restaurant seems like a little ramen house as I enter its doors.  Once inside, I can see that this Japanese diner stretches inward, with a wooden drink bar beside the tables at the entrance, and a sushi bar sitting in the back room.  The wooden tables and neon lighting make Zen feel like every cheap diner I’ve eaten at in NY, and the worn plastic menu reminded me even more of the late night eateries I spent so many college weekends at.  The modern art on the walls further took away from any Japanese feel inside Zen, except for some paper lanterns on the ceiling.  After finding out that the sushi here is always half-off (why don’t they just adjust menu prices for this?!), I went with a selection of nigiri  and a miso soup for lunch.     I quickly received my miso, but it was a good fifteen minutes between the time I ordered and the time I received my sushi.  I finished the food quickly, but I waited another ten minutes for the quiet, frowning waitress to return and deliver my bill.  The service I received and the restaurant itself was in no way Zen, as the name implies, but it also wasn’t terrible.  I gave the experience a score of 14 because of this average service and decoration.  I have had the ramen at Zen before and had a similar experience, and it seems obvious to me that with a friendlier staff and quicker service, this place could easily grab a higher score in this category.

FOOD: The white miso I received first with my meal was served Japanese-style, in a small drinking bowl.  The green onions and tofu tasted like they were freshly added to a dried miso powder, so the soup tasted better than many I’ve recently had.  My sushi consisted of two pieces each of yellowtail, salmon, eel, and tamago.  The yellowtail was flavorful and rich, but carried a fishy flavor (which is never good) behind that depth.  The salmon was similar, with deep flavors mixed with a strong fishy taste and slightly oily consistency (also never good).  The eel tasted very good, but it was not prepared correctly.  The eel was not properly boned, and it was mushy.  Mushy eel is okay when prepared raw, but eel is almost never prepared this way in the USA, and should always be grilled to a crispy yet tender finish.  Without any satisfying crunch in my eel, I tried the tamago, which was cold and pre-refrigerated, but at least the egg was thick, freshly made, and not too sweet.  I gave my total food score at Zen a 16 because the quality was above average, yet still fishy in flavor and the eel and tamago were prepared incorrectly.  Quality received a 7 because of the flavors in the fish, while creativity received a 5 for bland and average menu options.  Flavor received a 6 because the uninteresting tastes were just too plain, and every tasty piece of food I ate here today had at least one thing wrong with it.  If a restaurant is going to serve ramen and rolls at the prices this place does, they can’t expect me to be a frequent customer when there are so many delicious and cheap Japanese restaurants in Zen Restaurant’s vicinity.

BILL: I’m sure that the prices on Zen’s menu are so high because of the surrounding college scene, but I still have a hard time believing that this place wouldn’t be infinitely more popular be switching their sushi deals up with some cheaper ramen options.  Sushi is half-price, but it is also not great, so my attention at Zen will always turn to the noodles and teriyaki in the future.  Sadly, many of the ramen dishes are at leat $10, and the teriyaki lunches aren’t too reasonably priced either.  My bill, thanks to a cheap miso and sushi, came out to a reasonable $15, so I’ll give the bill an above average score of 16, but if they want a perfect twenty, they’re going to need to rethink their other prices.  I gave service a score of 6 for being slow and negative, but at least polite and attentive.

This review is shorter than my others, but their really isn’t much to say about Zen in the end.  The sushi is cheap enough, but the food was only average, and there are other remarkably cheap and delicious restaurants to try nearby.   My hunt for the perfect sushi restaurant continues, as does my search for a cheap ramen specialty house.  If anyone has any suggestions on ramen places that I should try, please comment below!

Go Wasabi, 34-02 30th Ave, Astoria, NY

Go Wasabi, 34-02 30th Ave, Astoria, NY, (718) 204-7354‎

Experience: 13

Food: 17

Bill: 14

Quality:  7

Creativity: 6

Flavor: 7

Service:  5

Total: 69

EXPERIENCE: The interior of Go Wasabi is a little bit like an art deco nightmare mixed with a shoddy sushi-bar interior.  Aspects of the artwork were interesting to look at, such as the ocean-like green, blue, and white painted walls, or the hanging blue slab of ovular concrete over the sushi bar.  The angled glass style decorating the area at the back of the restaurant was also interesting, but none of these decorations really mixed with the other.  With the ceiling reflecting an underwater adventure, and the floor  a wooden black with metal chairs, I felt as if I were sitting on a sinking ship in the deep abyss.   The waiters at this restaurant did nothing special to pull me out of this dark hole, but they didn’t make the experience that bad by any means.  They were only slow and frowning throughout the meal.  As I opened the menu, I was dumbfounded at how it was organized.  Four sections of various rolls (regular, inside-out, giant sumo, and deluxe rolls) were divided into subcategories (half-sumos and soy wrap rolls), then dispersed all over the menu.  While I attempted to figure out where the regular inside-out rolls were located, I was further confused by three pages of specials, also placed in random locations in the menu.  Lunch meal specials were at the back of the menu, but did not include sushi, dinner sushi menus were found before the main roll selection, and close to the front of the menu were the lunch sumo roll specials.  It turns out, this was the section to stick to today, but it took me a while to figure that out.  I eventually found what I wanted for lunch, and after waiting a good 7 minutes for the waiter to return, I ordered a shrimp tempura sumo roll lunch with salad, a piece of yellowtail and eel nigiri sushi, and a regular salmon roll.  I’m still not sure why I ordered this combination of sushi, but it seemed like the cheapest way to make use of this labyrinth-like menu.  My salad came out almost immediately, and I finished it quickly.  It took another 15 minutes or so for the sushi chef to make my lunch (there were two young chefs there, but only one prepping my food.  Considering I was the only one in the restaurant, this confused me a little), and another five minutes for the waiter to realize it was sitting at the bar to be served.  After finally getting my food and enjoying it enough to make me forget about this strange experience, I was forced to sit another 10 minutes, wondering where my waiters went (they appeared to not be in the restaurant), before one of them magically returned to hand me my check.  While a decent meal made my time at Go Wasabi worth it, I’m not sure I’ll be back there any time soon, as pretending to be floating debris while eating is not my favorite dining experience.  I gave the experience a score of 13 to reflect all of this confusion and chaos that even the calm, modern music couldn’t seem to pull me out of.

FOOD: At least the food at Go Wasabi was another matter entirely.  To answer the question that immediately entered my head as I sat down to eat here:  Yes, the wasabi was very good, and very hot.  While only one wall of the restaurant was painted wasabi green, the flavor of their horseradish definitely defended their name.  The first thing I received was a green salad.  This salad used mixed greens, carrots, and cucumber, and had a small amount of overly sweetened orange ginger dressing.  By stirring the salad around and messily dispersing the dressing within the tiny salad bowl, I managed to make it taste pretty good, whetting my appetite for the main course.  Too many minutes later I received my food.  The prominent thing on the white, square, lunch plate was the shrimp tempura roll, which was as big as the menu suggested.  Eight huge pieces of roll filled with fresh, tasty cucumber, even better avocado, and two pieces of shrimp tempura were topped with lots of overly sweetened eel sauce, drizzled fancily around half of the plate.  The shrimp tempura in the roll were cooked very nicely.  The shrimp within were big and tasty, flavored with black pepper, and the fried outside was not too oily, and crispy but soft enough not to rip at my mouth.  The rice on the roll was warm and held to the roll well (this many ingredients can often lead to weak rolls), and pieces were just big enough to be eaten in one bite.  That bite is where the problem lies, however.

At sushi restaurants, I look for variety in my meal, and the only way to get a discounted roll at Go Wasabi is to get this huge sumo that is still too expensive to order with anything else.  For the same price as a three-roll special at most sushi places in New York I was able to get the tempura roll and a piece of eel sushi.  Without the lunch special price, this roll costs over $10, too, which is something I would never order.  Go Wasabi offers many of these rolls halved down to four pieces for half the price, but these rolls really weren’t so big that four pieces would ever be worth $6.  Why can’t this restaurant just charge 7$ for six pieces like everyone else?  The point of this rant is, I don’t want to pay too much for half-a-roll, nor do I want to pay less, but still an entire lunch’s fee, for just one giant roll.  At least they had a selection of four small reasonably priced rolls on the menu.  I went with the salmon roll today.

The salmon in this roll was flavorful, but not oily, and while it wasn’t amazing fish, for $4 I couldn’t complain.  None of the raw fish at Go Wasabi was salty, which I was ecstatic about.  This simple roll was better than the tempura roll, though, and proof that you don’t need deluxe insanity to serve delicious food. The yellowtail sushi I ordered was also very good, though still not perfect.  It was reasonably prices, and tasted fresh and flavorful, but lacked the melt-in-your-mouth flavor kick that the best yellowtail can give.  The eel sushi was the day’s biggest disappointment.  This eel was covered in sweet eel sauce, and the fish within was flavorless, soft, and full of bones, all features that no eel sushi should have.  I imagine they stuff this eel mush within all of their  general rolls, and hence don’t need to worry about its quality in the more complex offerings, but c’mon, if they’re going to advertise as having a Korean grilled selection, the least they can do is cook their eel correctly.  The korean section, by the way, consisted of a couple of heavily overpriced Korean classics, such as an $18 dollar Bi Bim Bop.  I ended up giving the food a score of 17 for having overly sweetened sauces on rolls that were otherwise delicious.  The sushi was tasty and fairly high in quality, but the eel was average, which resulted in my quality score of 7 instead of 8.  Creativity received a 6 because Go Wasabi lacked variety on their huge menu, and seemed to cover everything in salty sauce or spicy tuna.  They did still have a good selection of creative enough options to keep the score above a 5.  The flavor score received a 7, subtracted by the eel and the sauces, but still high because of the peppery, lovely shrimp tempura and remarkably tasty salmon.  Thanks to this tasty food, I do not regret my meal at Go Wasabi, but the bill I would receive and the altogether experience makes it unlikely that I will return for more of this decent food.

BILL: The bill at Go Wasabi was a real issue, because, as I discussed above, I didn’t want to pay so much for one lunch roll, but I wanted enough food to fill myself up.  Go Wasabi offers either, cheap, one-roll lunches, or overpriced dinners.  I wound up paying $20 dollars for my meal, and while the amount of food I received made that price reasonable, I really didn’t need that much food.  I simply wanted to try the restaurant’s eel, yellowtail, rolls, and tempura, and this overpriced lunch was really the only way to do this in the end.  This is why I gave the bill a score of 14.  The four regular rolls on the menu were reasonably priced, but everything else on the menu was some kind of overpriced deluxe roll.  They try to trick customers on the menu by charging less for some rolls, but giving only half of the quantity!  The prices for the quality at Go Wasabi were really unacceptable at the end of the meal, and considering my lunch cost $20, I don’t even want to imagine what the dinners would be like.  The score is higher than it would be thanks to that salmon roll and nigiri sushi, the only reasonably priced fair on the menu.  Stick to that tiny section, and this restaurant is actually pretty decent.  Decent enough to return to for another meal, though?  Not likely.  For lazy, slow, but still effective enough service without a smile, I gave the service an low, average score of 5.

Thinking back on my experience at Go Wasabi (it is fun to say), the food at was pretty good, and the simpler pieces of nigiri sushi and basic rolls were (except the eel) altogether better than my deluxe selection.  Sadly, the fish here, much like the restaurant’s seemingly inherent theme, gets lost deep in the sea of an incomprehensible and overpriced menu.  The lame service, strange style, and sugary food all contribute to a feeling of deception and discomfort that even decent food couldn’t improve upon.

A delicious street food combining pancake batter, veggies, and meat!

Okonomiyaki translates to ‘cooked as you like it,’ and that’s exactly what it is.  Starting with some mountain-yam flavored pancake batter and mixed with cabbage, this base can then be combined with anything from steak and cheese to squid and fried eggs to make a delectable dinner pancake!  The okonomiyaki, meat and all, is cooked on a flatiron grill, and once it’s brown and crispy, it is topped with a dark, sweet okonomi sauce that tastes like a mix between tonkatsu sauce and eel sauce.  Mayonnaise and Bonito flakes are also optionally added to complete this Osaka street special.

While Otafuku’s style of Okonomiyaki was first made in Osaka, Japan, there are many other variations of the food.  Hiroshima makes okonomiyaki with mostly grilled cabbage, while Tokyo tends to go heavy on the batter and sauce.  There are also other variations on Okonomiyaki.  Otafuku also makes Takoyaki, which they also refer to as ‘octopus balls’.  Takoyaki are Okonomiyaki batter mixed with octopus and poured into small, orbular molds that cook into small fried balls.  The same sauces and toppings are added to the takoyaki, but these slightly bigger than bite-size snacks are easier to share with your friends.

Otafuku, 236 E 9th St, New York, NY

Otafuku, 236 E 9th St, New York, NY, (212) 353-8503‎

Experience: 16

Food: 17

Bill: 17

Quality:  7

Creativity: 7

Flavor: 8

Service:  7

Total: 79

EXPERIENCE: Otafuku is the literal definition of a hole-in-the-wall.  A small entryway that is only labeled in Japanese leads to a booth.  Behind this booth is the eatery’s kitchen, where one or two chefs prepare their freshly cooked baked and fried selections.  The booth itself seems a little bit worn and dirty, which fits with the street food theme, but I admit has turned me off of dinner there a few times.  The food is cooked when you order it (though some of the takoyaki is already prepared), so it can take five to ten minutes of standing out on the street before you actually receive your food.  I ordered the beef and squid okonomiyaki, which is served as two smaller pancakes, each with the different topping respectively.  The okonomiyaki was served in a plastic take away container that in no way contained the heat of the food, so I had to carry it by the sharp sides of the container.  Looking for a place to eat my food was another issue entirely.  With no nearby parks, and only a few bench areas within a ten block radius, I am usually tempted to take my dinner home, knowing that it will be slightly colder than it should be.  A few times I have attempted to hold the plastic container with one hand while eating the okonomiyaki with the other, but since the only eating utensils that otafuku gives you are chopsticks, this can become rather difficult fairly quickly.  Okonomiyaki stalls like this one work so well in Japan because there are so many places to casually sit wherever you go.  Without these resting spots throughout manhattan, this kind of eatery can quickly become rather challenging.  I gave Otafuku an experience score of 16 for being authentic, reliable, and relatively quick, but still a little bit dirty and inconvenient.

FOOD: The menu at Otafuku offers 3 items: Okonomiyaki (vegetable pancake), Takoyaki (Octopus Pancake Balls), and Yakisoba (Grilled Japanese Noodles).  All three menu choices use the same fundamental ingredients, and can come with a variety of toppings and fillings that change the price of the meal depending on the type of meal and topping.  For example, cheese takoyaki costs less than octopus takoyaki ($8), but the cheapest takoyaki option is plain batter and cabbage balls ($5).   I ordered the Okonomiyaki Combo, which includes to medium-sized pancakes with a topping on each ($9).  One of my okonomiyaki had beef on it, and the other had squid.  It took about 10 minutes for them to cook my dinner from scratch, and when it was finished I had them top it with sauce, Japanese mayo (which is sweeter and less intense than its American counterpart), and shaved bonito flakes (fish flakes that add a smoky flavor to the food).  The okonomiyaki, fresh off the grill, was too hot to eat at first, but when I finally dug in, boy was it tasty.  Grilled all the way through, but still gooey, with those Japanese fish flavors mixing with the brown oily grilled goodness of the batter and green crunchy cabbage, I couldn’t help but speed through my first pancake with devilish glee.  Now, if you haven’t tried okonomiyaki before, its seaweed, fish, and cabbage flavors may be a shock to someone expecting more earthy flavors.  The first time I tried this flavor combination, I admit I didn’t like it very much, and it took having the pancake AFTER a wonderful sushi dinner that I really understood the flavors, and okonomiyaki became one of my favorite foods in the world.  The okonomiyaki at Otafuku is perfectly gooey and delicious, but the oiliness of the food was a little bit heavy, and the steak topping was a little bit chewy and flavorless.  All of these flavors, good and bad, resulted in my score of 17 for food.  The quality and creativity both receive scores of 7 because the food was tasty and authentic, but the menu was fairly limited and some of the toppings were not as fresh as they could have been.  The flavor gets a score of 8, however, because Otafuku probably makes the best okonomiyaki outside of Japan itself.

BILL: The costs at Otafuku are fairly reasonable for Lower Manhattan street fair.  For $5 you can get the cheapest thing on the menu (octopus-free takoyaki), and they are still very flavorful and filling.  The okonomiyaki, which costs up to $9, is also more food than anyone needs in one meal, and some of it could easily be saved in the fridge at home.  I wish that the prices for the plain battered okonomiyaki could be cheaper as well, since I don’t want to spend $10 on my favorite street food, and places nearby will serve okonomiyaki of similar quality for $5-6.  These prices are reasonable enough to give Otafuku a bill score of 17, and if they had a seating area, I would actually say they are completely justified.  The service receives a score of 7 for not being the friendliest staff on the planet, but knowing how to make some mean grilled food.  I can’t afford Otafuku everyday, but the cost certainly isn’t the main reason I don’t eat here all the time.  Can you blame me for not wanting to stand through my meal every night, though?

So everybody should go to Otafuku at least once, try their food, and see if they like it.  If so, St. Mark’s is full of wonderful okonomiyaki to try and compare, and I’ll definitely be reviewing those places as well in the near future.  Japanese street food is part of America’s future, so why not get started on a growing trend right now?  It’s more nutritious than Burger King, and about 10,000 times better.

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.

Sometimes, when a restaurant’s fish tastes bad enough, I stare at an unusually large menu and wonder, ‘why do they even bother?’  At Tokyo II, the menu has many variations on the fish and avocado roll, but most of them are made with the same low-quality ingredients and lack variety to a point where I no longer know whether I should ask what their restaurant actually specializes in, or if I should simply walk out the door.  Many Chinese restaurants are finding out that by wrapping their ingredients in rice and calling them sushi, they can make a lot more bang for their buck, and Tokyo II seems to be just another one of these schlock-houses.

Tokyo II Sushi Restaurant, 3801 31st St, Long Island City, NY

Tokyo II Sushi Restaurant, 3801 31st St, Long Island City, NY

Experience: 10

Food: 11

Bill: 15

Quality:  4

Creativity: 4

Flavor: 4

Service:  4

Total: 52

EXPERIENCE: Tokyo II is located directly beneath the N Line Subway, so it’s hard not to feel grossed out by the various substances dripping down from the track at the restaurants facade.  This coupled with the sound of trains and car-horns (subway track mean motorways below) will always make me skeptical of eating an adjacent restaurant’s raw fish.  Inside Tokyo II, the restaurant itself is much nicer than the street outside, but the windows on one end of the restaurant still look out to the subway mess, and mirrors positioned all around the restaurant’s interior ensure that I could see said ‘mess.’  Thus, unable to avoid being a part of the surrounding environs, I tried to take solace in the fact that the wooden chairs and tables were at least clean.  The design of the restaurant itself makes it clear that this restaurant’s interior is also a converted Chinese restaurant, though the staff spoke Japanese, and the menu was written up correctly.  The menu was fairly large, with lots of inexpensive but limited lunch combinations.  As I scanned the menu, I took note of the cheap paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling and relentlessly loud hip-hop music that made me expect my meal to be as intense as possible.  I ordered the $8, three-roll lunch special, with an eel and cucumber roll, a salmon roll, and a chicken tempura roll (since the menu didn’t offer shrimp tempura as part of the selection).  The heavy music continued and the restaurant rattled as subway trains passed above me as I waited for my food, and I also took note of the sushi bar that only took up half of the restaurant, leaving room for a bar beside it that seemed to serve beer and whiskey in the evenings.  Just what I’m looking for to accompany an authentic Japanese meal, after-work whiskey drinkers.  Anyway, my meal came and I thought there was mold on my sushi before realizing that the lights above me were just reflecting the dark ceiling down on the white plate (great decor decisions there, sushi people).  I ate my lunch while the waitress stood by my table.  She seemed to want me to finish so she could clean up, and while I don’t mind a fast lunch, when I did finish, the waitress was nowhere to be found.  Five minutes later she reappeared with cleaning tools, and although  my plates had been clean for a while, she still proceeded to clean the restaurant’s tables before finally clearing my table quickly and quietly.  After taking their time with the check, I was finally able to grab my belongings and go.  As I left (I was the only one in the restaurant that afternoon), I could see the relieved waitress sit down and chat with the sushi-chef, who also refused to look me in the eyes during my meal.  Walking out to the passing subway cars and blaring sounds of traffic, I made my way home.  At least the sounds I heard outside of Tokyo II were quieter than the rap I was being drowned by within.  Don’t get me wrong, I listen to rap and hip-hop all the time, but not usually to calm down and relax for a while, which is one of the reasons I go out for sushi.  For all of the above reasons and more, I gave Tokyo II a completely mediocre but survivable experience score of 10.

FOOD: My lunch special came with a miso soup, which was the first thing I ate that afternoon.  The miso was a little bit too salty, and contained pre-dried ingredients (the soup was powdered, too) that had little flavor and could not overtake the surrounding sodium broth.  I finished about half of the small, Japanese bowl I was given, unable to drink down the whole thing.  Next I received my rolls, which sat on a white plate that reflected dark images onto my sushi, making them look inedible.  Reflections aside, I tried the rolls, and they didn’t fair much better.  The salmon roll was immediately oily and fishy, without much inherent flavor, and slightly chewy.  The fishiness was cut a bit by the sesame seeds on the roll, but not enough to take away my regret for trying this sorry excuse for a maki.  The next roll I tried was the eel roll, and that was also low quality and fishy.  The avocado in the roll was browning and bitter, and mushy eel left a taste in my mouth that I would have deal with for the rest of the day.  The eel sauce was too salty, and I found myself pushing some of it off the roll in an attempt to try to enjoy all six pieces.  Finally, the chicken in the tempura roll was flavorless and chewy, but at least it was cooked all the way through.  The tempura surrounding the chicken was wet and oily, lacked texture and flavor, and made me feel like I was eating a wet paper towel.  The rice didn’t have too much vinegar on it, at least, and the rolls went down easily enough with my complimentary tap water.  The cucumber in the tempura roll was fresh, too, which helped my overall scoring.  The food was barely above mediocre thanks to decent rice and cucumber, and thus received a score of 11.  The quality received a score of 4 for being below par, and I wouldn’t recommend ordering raw fish from this restaurant anytime soon.  Creativity and flavor would have even lower scores if not for a couple of interesting rolls on the menu (the mint and plum roll have a distinctly Japanese flavor that would be even better with quality ingredients), and some of the other positive points I listed above.  All in all, I won’t be going back to Tokyo II for the food, but if I was forced, at least they have a few authentic enough Japanese selections.

BILL: The bill at Tokyo II was the only saving grace.  This restaurant offers their food and more than decent prices that didn’t make me horribly regret the aftertaste in my mouth at the end of the meal.  I wasn’t pleased that I still would have had to pay at least $5 for a shrimp tempura roll that I knew would be a soggy, disgusting mess, but I only had to drop $10 on a very forgettable and vastly unappetizing meal.  I gave the food a score of 15 for having prices on par with their service and quality, but for still having the gall to put expensive deluxe rolls and meal options on a menu that no one in their right mind should ever order.  The terrible service wasn’t as slow as some other restaurants, so it gets to keep, low and intolerable score of 4.

Just because a restaurant is cheap doesn’t mean I’ll go back there, and Tokyo II is a perfect example of those circumstances.  The food was bad, the service was bad, and I left the restaurant in a worse mood than when I entered.  I will not be going back to Tokyo II for lunch or dinner any time soon, nor will I be ordering take out from them.  If they improved their fish quality they will have done only one thing in a list of many that would be required to improve their restaurant.  Someday restaurants like this will realize that there is more to sushi than rice and seaweed.  Until then, cheap places like this will continue to exist all over the world.