Sushi with Ultimate Power: Ninja NYC trip report (pics)

[sushijerk]

If there is one thing which ultimately trumps bad buzz and potentially horrific gimmerickery in a nerdy asian's mind, it would be Ninjas. Having been outvoted by my peers, plans for Nobu 57, Peter Lugar's, and Morimotos were scrapped so we got drunk, hopped into a cab, and headed here:



Ninja NYC. A million dollar underground complex built on the sole idea that many people will pay lots of money for anything ninja related. They might be right. We walked for out 8 PM reservation and the hostess promptly led us to an elevator which took us underground. When the doors opened again our Ninja guide appeared. From the looks of it he was from the Hidden Village of Puerto Rico.

"Easy path or the difficult path?"
"Difficult!" We chorused.

The difficult path was basically a dark narrow maze leading to a draw bridge. When our guide gave the secret ninja code which we "must not reveal to the enemies", the bridge was lowered and we were lead through the dining area to our private room.

Our menus:

These menus had to be unfurled as they were in the style of secret ninja scrolls. Sweet! I think I ordered the $80 omakase meal.


I started off with a very untraditional mojito. In addition to the traditional ingredients there were slices strawberries, passionfruit, and god knows what else. Infused with fragrant fruit and tart flavors and a decent amount of booze, this was one of the most enjoyable cocktails I've had in a while.


Here is a sake tasting of different types/grades of sake. The filtered clear ones were less sweet than the unfiltered. That's about all I remember.


First course is sliced octopus paved to resemble a cobblestone road, with a ball of chopped scallop on top. The octopus was cooked in wine and drizzed with some herb puree. The octopus was a failure but the scallops were tasty.


"Meteorite Soup" Vietnmese tom yum soup base was mixed with clam broth, soy milk, japanese greens, and about 50 other ingredients to be cooked by a 800 degree rock in of us. Cool prep, look gross, but tasted surprisingly good.


Snow crab served with grapefruit slices and some kind of sea kelp gelee. A sword was stuck through the bottom grapefruit, which when removed released the dry ice placed inside to create a smokey effect on the table. The snow crab and gelee tasted like salty water, but the presentation was cool.


Conch cooked in butter, garlic, and parsley. Before this course was served a our ninja waitress performed a fire "spell of protection" using some sort of weak firework. The conch was extremely tender and flavorful, resulting in this being the best dish of the night.


Cubed steak with choice of garlic, soy, or wasabi flavoring. Edible. Not flavorful, not juicy, not melt in your mouth. Just edible. A 5/10 on the steak meter. This plate is about $40 on the a la carte menu, and if I paid that much for it I'd have to fight all the ninjas and burn the place down.


My sushi platter. A combination of toro, salmon, mackeral, butterfish, and something else. Notice the lack of marbling on the "toro" tuna. The fish tasted fresh, but the preparation of the sushi was disappointing. Better than the sushi box from Whole Foods, but not close to joints like Tomoe. Shinobi would not be satisfied. But again the presentation kicks in.


Dude they grate fresh wasabi root for you on sharkskin! Fresh wasabi is less pungent and slightly sweeter than the green stuff you get out of tubes. A nice change of pace.


"Bonsai dessert" A tree of light puff pastry is decorated with leaves of moist cake pine needles and planted in dark chocolate dirt with green tea ice cream underneath. Frank Bruni hated on this dessert in the NYT but I loved it. Awesome presentation and preparation. If Ninja had a bar area I'd go there again just to order this.

Atmosphere: 8
Food: 6
Fun factor: 9


Ninja Challenge! Can you pick sushijerk out of his fellow nerdy asian brethern? Yes I know we all look like we're aout 14 in this picture.