I’ve been spending a good deal of time in Japanese restaurants over the past few years. Call it in search of the best kaiseki. The opening of Masa in the Time Warner building was what really kicked it off. Masa, with a price point of $350, raised the question of whether dinner at a Japanese restaurant in the U.S. could be worth that amount of money. It also posed the more interesting question (at least to me) which is, does Japanese cuisine rise to the same level as western haute cuisine? Without digressing into the substance of that topic – after all this thread is a restaurant review and not an comparative analysis of cuisines, it does serve as helpful background information for readers when they wonder how I reached my conclusion that Sugiyama is the best overall Japanese dining experience I’ve found in the U.S.
I was late to fine Japanese cuisine. Sure I would occasionally go out to eat sushi but as a compelling dining experience it was not really on my radar screen. Then one night I was having dinner at WD-50 and I had the good fortune to be seated next to Diane Forley, the chef/owner of Verbena, and her soon to be husband Michael Otsuka. We started chatting and I asked them where they liked to eat and they told me their favorite restaurant in the city was Sugiyama. It didn’t take me very long to book a table. I think I was at the restaurant the following week.
Sugiyama opened my eyes to the potential of Japanese dining. I began visiting the restaurant on a regular basis which was about three to four times a year. I struck up a warm friendship with the chef owner, Nao Sugiyama and his wife. But like anything else, after you eat somewhere numerous times you get a little tired of it and eventually I stopped going. When I ate at the restaurant this past August I hadn’t been in about a year and a half. In the interim, I had been to Masa, Urasawa, Karumazushi, Uni, Jewel Bako, had numerous meals at Sushi Yasuda, numerous meals at various Nobu locations etc. all of which reshaped my perspective of Japanese cuisine. Now it was time to see if Sugiyama held up, or was it that I was overly-impressed because lacked sufficient knowledge in what made for great Japanese cuisine.
It was to my good fortune that Akiko, a Japanese friend of mine, was coming to town from London. Okay she was raised in Chicago, but she takes regular trips to Japan to and she understands all about the ingredients and the customs. Let me tell you she was a big help in explaining the ingredients and their quality. I mean how was I to know if the ingredients were as good as what you could find in Japan? We arrived at the restaurant to the warmest of greetings, and we settled in at the counter in two seats just to Nao’s right. He asked us about level of quality we wanted, andI told him the very best. Soon we were on our way and what followed was a classic Sugiyama meal.
We started with monkfish liver tofu, lotus seeds in a very viscous dashi and uni, quail egg and grated mountain yam in a dashi of bonito, seaweed and wasabi. The monkfish liver had a refreshing taste and an amazing creamy texture. Sort of half foie gras and half tofu. The lotus seeds were a bit slimy for my taste. Like drinking raw eggs. But the Uni was glorious. We were instructed to mix the uni, quail egg and mountain yam together and it turned the consistancy of a milk shake that was sweet, salty, fishy and spicy with a kick of wasabi on the end. If one were to compare this to the various amuse you get in modern restaurants like El Bulli or Alinea, where shot glasses with all sorts of savoury/sweet combinations are served, this not only held its own, it probably topped them all. Then came a platter with various delicacies. Bayberry encased in jelly, pickled baby radish, mountain yam, grated Japanese potato with corn & edemame, edemame, whitefish cake, tuna, shrimp and a Baby Crab. An amazing assortment of flavors and textures which like the uni shooter, switched back and forth between salty and sweet. I always loved that baby crab which you eat whole, shell and all. Beautifully crunchy and with a hint of sweetness. The sushi course was next. My recollection of the sushi at Sugiyama was that it was good but not the very best quality. Well maybe I was wrong or things have changed because this was a phenomenol assortment that was up with the top sushi places including a giant clam, tilefish, kampachi, two different types of toro, uni and squid, tuna with gold leaf, daikan radish and a Kumamoto oyster. Great quality but I think that the presentation could be some what better.
Our palates were cleared after this incredible assortment with a bowl of smoked dashi that had a small seafood cake. Delicious but unfortunately we didn’t get a photograph. But think of miso soup with a square fish cake in the middle with the texture of tamago. Then a Half of a Lobster with Garlic Sauce and Mushrooms. Sweet meat with a creamy tomally that had sort of a barbecued flavor. The garlic sauce seems to add (I don’t usually like sauce when I’m served lobster in the shell) something to the dish. Then an assortment of small savoury dishes. Roast Duck with a wine Sauce, Seared Toro, Jelly Fish, Mushroom, Watercress and Tobiko, Shrimp Osaka Style and Eel with Egg and Rice. Again beautiful flavors and textures.
Then Chef Nao produced a dish with the most amazing Kobe beef I ever saw on where the percentage of marbling must have been at least 30%.The texture was somewhere between Beef, Foie Gras and chunks of fresh butter from Brittany. We each got a small hot plate to cook the beef. We would put a piece on the grill, a small pat of butter on top, and surround it with mushrooms and garlic chips. Let me tell you it was phenomenol. A few weeks after would eat at the super secret Japanese beef place in Los Angeles and while it was very good, it didn't hold a candle to this beef. They wind you down with a Thai Rice with Carp, Miso Soup and Pickles. This course was the least to my liking as I didn’t love the carp. But the soup and pickles were nice. Then the classic house dessert. Grapefruit Wine Jelly which is very refreshing. Truly an excellent meal and by the end I was exploding from the amount of food and the richness level. Plus it was loads of fun sitting at the counter with Chef Nao and schmoozing with him. A big baseball fan, as well as a rock and roll fan, there is always a lot to chat about.
As for how Sugiyama compares to the other top Japanese restaurants in the country, here is my take on it. These restaurants are all unfortunately lumped into the same category. The truth is, Masa and Sugiyama are not comparable experiences. Where Masa shines is their sushi. Nobody has better quality and if you are the type that is looking to revel in an ethereal piece of tilefish or fluke, Masa, or Urasaw is for you. But if you like cooked food, Sugiyama tops them all. Better quality than Nobu (although the variety of the cooked food on the Nobu menu is hard to beat,) and Jewel Bako in my book. I certainly won't wait a year and a half to go back to Sugiyama. And at $165 a person for this meal, a veritable bargain compared to some of the other Japanese restaurants in the country. A-
No matter the look of the food and the price I don't think anything compares to eating Japanese food here. Kaiseki is a difficult thing for a lot of foreigners to experience, but if you stay at a top Ryokan you can get top quality complimentary.
Hope that helps if you ever come here.
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This portion of food will not going to make my stomach full. Thanks
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