Archive
NYC: Dovetail (Dec. 2012)
Authors: Victor and Monty
Restaurant: Dovetail
Exec Chef: John Fraser
Date: December 6, 2012
Victor:
Monte and I were trying to figure out somewhere to go; we basically wanted to get dinner to celebrate the end of classes for this semester (and the start of finals time, I guess…)! Anyway, Dovetail was in the area and had reservations available, so we just decided to go here. It was a good choice!
…And back to studying, I guess. Or not. We’re going to Minetta Tavern for lunch tomorrow! Whoohoo! (And I guess I have a birthday party to go to tomorrow night and dinner at Soto with Monte and two other friends on Saturday night… I am not going to get any studying done this weekend.)
Monte: I never have a bad time at Dovetail. The food and ambience just puts me at ease, even with impending finals.
NYC: Atera (Dec. 2012)
Author: Victor
Restaurant: Atera
Exec Chef: Matt Lightner
Date: December 12, 2012
Notes:
-I’m not adding any commentary on these dishes, at least for the time being. It’s a combination of my laziness + finals week!
-It’ll be useful to compare how the dishes have changed from the previous time we ate there in August. You can go to the review here.
-Overall, it was a lot of fun. The service is great at Atera, and it’s fun talking to Chef Lightner and the staff.
-According to Chef Lightner, they’re planning on changing a lot of stuff up in February. I’m excited!
NYC Sushi: Sasabune (Nov. 2012)
Authors: Victor and Monty
Restaurant: Sasabune
Chef: Kenji Takahashi
Date: November 29, 2012
Victor’s Notes:
-The fish was fantastic; it felt almost on par with Sushi Yasuda, which says a LOT.
-I’m a little sad that we didn’t get to try the toro. Also, they don’t make tamago, so we didn’t get to try that either.
-The rice was really soft and fluffy, BUT it was also a little too warm for my taste. It was significantly above room tempterature (It was even warmer than Sushi Yasuda’s rice, which is already slightly above room temp!).
-One or a few grains of rice would occasionally drop when I went to pick a piece up; I don’t quite like it when that happens. I’m guessing that the temperature of the rice has to do with how well the rice sticks together…
-I don’t really like how they serve you three pieces at once. I’d rather they serve it one by one so I can finish each piece within a few seconds. (Then again, I already do that; I still prefer that they come out one by one, though, so I have more time to enjoy each piece haha.)
Monte’s thoughts:
I thought this place was amazing and worth the experience. The ambience is very intimate, but the chefs are quite busy putting out orders to the separate dining room. The rice is really warm like Victor said, and while I like warm rice, I think it was a tad (Hi Tad) too hot at times, and I wonder if it affected the stickiness of the rice. Two or three times for me, the pillows of rice beneath the sushi would just crumble into 5 smaller clumps the second I picked it up, and I would have to basically eat sashimi and try to reform the rice ball. Still, the quality of everything was really great and tastewise, I think it’s up there with the best.
Also, there’s apparently an “Asian”-focused omakase that focuses on shellfish, and a …non-asian focused omakase that I think has the more popular fishes in American sushi. Shrug.
Food:
1.
Right: Kumamoto oysters
Left: Reconstructed “egg” (squid wrapped around crab meat)
Victor: The oysters were good, but they weren’t too amazing. The squid and crab meat were FANTASTIC.
Monte: Yeah, the squid and crab was really unique. I felt like I was eating a deviled egg, but it’s only seafood! The meat was sweet but creamy.
Click here to see our thoughts and pictures of the whole meal!
Monte
Victor
tadv3
Happy Noms 