En- Round 2

Guess where we went again? EN! We took advantage of the Google Offers "groupon" and had an early dinner at our fav Japanese restaurant.

I have to admit tho, this meal was pretty disappointing in terms of quality. Not quite what we expected from EN.  But I still have to commend them on a visually beautiful meal.

First, bring on the alcohol!

Sake Flight, Plantain Chips

Pineapple sake

I have to comment on this pineapple sake I had. I've ordered this drink every time I've been at EN (so 3 so far). Why? Because it is the most delicious thing you can drink and still be buzzed. Usually, you just taste the fresh sweet citrusy flavor of the pineapple and not really the alcohol, but you definitely feel it so they did not skimp on the liquor.  The past two times a handsome Japanese bartender was the one mixing drinks.  I saw him take out a fresh cut pineapple and actually juice it on the spot! This most recent trip, it was a female bartendar (asian as well), and the drink just came out bland. No strong alcohol flavor but also no pineapple taste either. SO disappointing.

Salt Grilled Edamame

Beautiful dish that has such a zen like presentation. But it is crazy salty! I know, it is rock salt grilled, what do you expect? How exactly are you supposed to eat this elegantly without going into a sodium induced coma?

Blue Crab Miso Soup

This soup was MEH. It wasn't bad per se, but I feel like the crab might not have been super fresh.  Plus, the crab meat was not really edible so I'm not sure what the point was of being in there.

Lobster

I think this lobster was covered with miso. This dish was also crazy SALTY. It overpowered the lobster meat.

Mussels

This dish was decent, still a bit on the salty side, but by this point I don't know if it was the salt from the previous dishes lingering on my tastebud or the actual dish.

Miso Black Cod

Another signature dish of EN's that we typically love. The execution on this was a bit disappointing too. Oye, so sad. The skin was not crispy and the meat was not flakey, but more mushy.

Not sure what happened to EN. We left around 7:30/8:00pm and the restaurant was still quite empty.  Our waiter seemed to be pretty new and not quite sure what he was doing, and it seemed like the entire kitchen staff was new too!

I hope to give EN another chance in the future to redeem itself, but another disappointing meal would mean it gets cross off the "faves" list.

Matsuri-NYC

So while we were looking for places to hold the engagement dinner, there was one japanese restaurant that was considered as a contender for EN,  it was Matsuri. The main reasons were that they had a well priced tasting menu and I heard the serving sizes were larger than at EN. The pictures from this night are not very good since I only had my iphone camera to depend on and the restaurant was oh so dark.

When you first enter, it looks like small place, but you walk down the stairs you see that the main dining room is in a HUGE basement decorated like a japanese anime dream sequence.

Matsuri interior

When we first sat down, we really liked the interior of Matsuri. We were seated in a booth, that had a canopy type structure, which made it feel quite private. The choice was basically made to hold the party here at this point.  DF and his roommate both ordered the $65 tasting menu and the sake flight. I had the rice pot, agedashi tofu, and a cocktail called "Toyko 75".

Tokyo 75

OHhhh.. what could I say about this cocktail? The ingredients: Shochu, yuzu, prosecco, calpico.

I like shochu and yuzu just fine, prosecco is my wine of choice, and I really don't believe you can go wrong with calpico. BUT all together, the drink was quite an assault on my tastebuds. It was pretty bitter and its only redeeming factor was that berry (asian plum?) on the plastic sword. NOT worth the $14. 

Kumamoto Oysters

First up was the oysters served with yuzu ice. I thought this was a good dish. The ice on top is yuzu flavored so there was an icy sour lemony flavor with the oyster.  DF on the other hand did not enjoy it so much, he felt the yuzu was covering up the natural oyster flavor. 

Kobe Beef Tataki

First entree was the Kobe beef with mustard vinegar sauce. The taste of this dish was pretty plain, something you'd expect at a lower end restaurant made with regular beef. A great injustice to the kobe beef used in this preparation.

Agedashi Tofu

After having the Agedashi tofu dish at EN, this tofu dish tasted like something you could make at home. The texture of the tofu was like the ones you buy at the asian grocery stores. Its supposed to be deep fried, but the outside of the tofu was soggy from the sauce. The sauce itself was too heavy and covered the taste of tofu.

Sake Black Cod

Miso black cod is such a common dish at japanese restaurants, you'd think most of them would get them right by now. This one is cooked with sake instead and really left a lot to be desired. The skin was mushy and the meat did not come off in sections like fresh fish should.

Duck Breast

The roasted duck breast was too tough for me to even finish! I did hear that duck dishes are difficult to get right because some chefs tend to cook the crap out of the duck, this is most likely what happened here.

Sushi Assortment

DF and his roommate were really offended when this dish arrived at our table. First of all, the eel and cucumber rolls were falling apart and they didn't think the sashimi looked too fresh. Their main complaint was that this looked like something we used to buy at our college cafeteria. Since I enjoyed the sushi served in college, I happily gobbled up all the rolls.

Rice Pot

The final savory dish was the rice pot. At this point in the evening I was sorely disappointed with my dining experience at Matsuri. This rice pot did not really help. I only liked the two giant piece of shrimp you see at the top of the dish. The rest of the dish was mixed with chicken and I had a really hard time eating it. I think I would have preferred friend rice instead. The chicken was not flavorful and I just felt like this dish only accomplishes the goal of filling you up, it is not enjoyable or satisfying at all.

Ironically, the best dish of the night was the one I did not take a picture of. The green tea tiramisu and red bean ice cream was a delish end to an otherwise disappointing evening. It did take them a good 30 minutes after the last dish served to get us our dessert though. I thought maybe they had forgotten about us, but it was worth the wait to end the evening on a high note. The tiramisu was light and not too sweet. Red bean ice cream was so good I ate it all myself (even though it was technically DF's dish). 

The bill for everything came out to be around $90 per person. It really is too much to pay for the quality of food we received. The restaurant is in the trendy meatpacking district, so it is always filled with well dressed party goers getting a bite to eat before getting completely trashed. Its proximity to the best nightlife in the city is most likely what is keeping it alive despite the food quality and price. It's a skip for me, and I'm very glad we ultimately chose EN instead. 

En Japanese Brasserie - NYC

A few weeks ago my fiance and I hosted a small engagement dinner with our close friends at EN Japanese Brasserie. It was a quite a journey to select a restaurant for this event, but in the end EN won out because of its great quality food and classy ambiance. Honestly, I was a bit nervous and apprehensive before the dinner, but EN has completely won my heart with the dinner they served.

One of the great things about EN that many other japanese restaurants in NYC did not offer was its private rooms. Who wants to struggle to be heard against the other loud patrons? For $75-$100, they have uniquely decorated rooms for a more intimate dinner experience. We selected the Tatami room. It's traditional style tatami seating, but with a lowered space underneath the table so no one has to sit on their feet.

Entrance to EN Tatami room I

The staff at EN were so accomodating to our needs. I requested customized menu's and they happily obliged. They even personalized each individual menu with our guest's names! It made seating much quicker and easier.

Table setting with personalized menus

For a corkage fee you can bring in your own alcohol

Sake

It's no small fee, but if you can find a big enough bottle it will be a better deal than ordering a bottle off their menu. Their cocktails are actually quite delish. At our last visit I enjoyed the pineapple with sake, it was made with the freshly juiced pineapples!

Now finally, the food:

The set menus are served semi sharing style. Everyone gets their own portion but served on communal dishes.

Obanzai - Kyoto Style Appetizer

Unfortu, I was too busy stuffing my face to note the what these appetizers were. I know the red ones are  tomatoes in dashi and the bottom bowl is some kind of bean curd.

Sashimi served with fresh wasabi

The wasabi served at EN are freshly made, so if you mix it into your soy sauce there will be chunks of horseradish in your dish. A foodie friend remarked that you can tell whether a japanese restaurant is any good by whether they use fresh wasabi or from the tube.

Sea Bass Kara-Age

 This sea bass was marinated in sake and fried. Yum! <3 fried. For fried fish, it was light and delish.

Miso Black Cod with Daikon

Miso black cod is a fairly common dish at Japanese restaurants. EN's version is tender and flaky. My first time tasting this dish at EN, it had a crispy skin which everyone raved about. This time however the skin was soft, which was a bit of a let down, but still better than Matsuri's version.

Roasted Duck

Roasted duck served with radish and ponzu. I'm not a big fan of duck, but I tried this anyways. It tasted like chinese roast beef, which tastes good but really isn't anything special.

                                

Freshly made tofu

This dish is what EN is famous for. They make their own tofu at 6:00, 7:30, 9:00, and 10:30 nightly. You can choose to have it served warm or chilled served with wari-joyu, which tastes like a more flavorful soy sauce. I think the traditional way is to serve it warm. It's so silky, but has more depth than the packaged silken tofu you can buy at the supermarket.

Kakuni

Kakuni is described on the menu as "braised Berkshire pork belly in sansho miso, with a boiled egg, spinach, & daikon radish." I believe at this point in the dinner I was so full I couldn't even bring myself to eat the pork belly. I did try some of the daikon, egg, and spinach. This and the previous duck dish really tasted more like traditional chinese food.

Unagi Maze Gohan

This dish is eel with rice with some numbing spices that kinda hurt my tongue. It wasn't so appealing that night due to the abundance of food already in my stomach, but was sooo good for breakfast the next day with some tabasco sauce. 

Green Tea Ice Cream

The set menu dessert was the house ice cream, which was green tea. Tastes great but nothing special. I hear they have special seasonal ice cream flavors, like fig, that are really great. Hope to try that one day. 

So to completely overdo the food consumption we also ordered a cake from Lady M. EN has a special offer with them, where you can order a Lady M cake for dinner for an additional delivery and serving fee. The one we chose was a green tea mille feuille- hundred layer crepe cake held together with creme. 

They arranged the candles in the shape of a heart

Mille Feuille- Look at all the layers!

So delicious it gets another picture

This is a great dessert because its very light compared to a traditional cake, and everyone loves crepes!

After three hours, we finally finished our meal. 

We posed for a pic at EN's gorgeous main dining room with our food babies. ^_^

There's so much to love about this restaurant, even their entrance! see the huge wall of sake in the background

"come backkk"