Sushi Nakazawa - Chef Daisuke Nakazawa Comes From Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo

[cheezepowder]

Quotes That Resonated:

...

"After Nakazawa opens his own place"¦ Takeshita and Masuda will be promoted to Nakazawa's position." [Watch for Nakazawa in future years.]

Or eat at his restaurant in New York now.

New York Times reviews Sushi Nakazawa and awards four stars.

[DonRocks]

New York Times reviews Sushi Nakazawa and awards four stars.

It's critical that they change the colors of this web page. On my MacBook, I can barely see the links.

Man, I hate to nitpick, but when you're playing ball at this level, you've got to get the details right.

I can't wait to dine here, and Sushi Nakazawa is absolutely in my 2014 future. The funny thing is: I've never dined at Masa, and have never been compelled to do so. Any pop psychologists want to try and explain this one?

 

Terry Theise, I believe they're serving your (?) Chartogne-Taillet. Pick the date.

 

Don-San

[TrelayneNYC]

A friend and I are probably going in a month or so.  Will report back, maybe with pix. 

[Tweaked]

Written up in the New Yorker this week as well

[turbogrrl]

We escaped up to nyc a day early to try and avoid the (first) storm, and on the way up I decided to see if there were any seats available. There were! So we ate in the dining room this past Saturday evening. I would been more heartbroken about not being at the bar, except that Chef Nakazawa is only behind the bar Mon-Fri.

I hadn't planned on dining quite so upscale on this trip and so my wardrobe was a bit lacking, but in the end our attire wasn't too terribly casual nor did it stand out. Some people were dressed up to the nines, some people were in sweaters and jeans. It was all good. We arrived on time, and were immediately led to our table. Staff gave us the option of still or sparkling water, a warm cloth was brought to us, and then chopsticks, house-pickled ginger, and a damp finger-towel were laid out. This left us the option of using chopsticks for the sushi or using ones fingers. No soy sauce here!

Nick elected to go for the standard sake pairing for $40, which is quite a reasonable value. I believe he had significantly-sized pours of 5 different sakes. I went with a single glass of a nigori ($17).

The dining room is $120 for a 20-piece omakase; in general the pieces were brought out two or three pieces at a time, to be eaten from right to left. The standouts, for me, were: spanish mackerel with yuzu and an explosive peppery flavour;  an intense hay-smoked bonito; and the otoro. I got an second of the mackerel and nick got a second of both the bonito and the otoro. The iconic tamago was tasty but not outstanding; the anago that was served on the same plate had a lovely texture and taste. Dessert was a delicious lychee sorbet served with tea.

I'm sure we'll want to return and go to the bar, but the dining room experience was quite lovely and allowed nick and I to focus on each other and the delicious fish. We finished up a little over 90 minutes after sitting down. All in, it was $440 for the dinner, plus my lost hat. (my hat was in my pocket when I handed my coat over, but they were unable to find it.) Fortunately, the weather wasn't too terrible and I was able to buy a new hat on my way back to the hotel.

[darkstar965]

Knew I'd neglected to post on Nakazawa! And, it has now been long enough that I can't recall all the dishes we had. Still, last year when we scored a table here due to an internet glitch with their online booking system, we felt fortunate given the hype and frenzy at the time driven by Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a hedge fund titan who made the restaurant possible and, of course, Pete Wells.

We loved it. Different from but the equal of Yasuda in terms of fish quality imho. The presentations here were maybe more creative than Yasuda and the space is surely more intimate and less corporate.

One of the things that stands out in memory was how this is a place that I think would restore confidence in anyone questioning the value of a tasting menu.

Nakazawa is very thoughtful about the sequencing of dishes and presentation of fish on serviimg plates. Several dishes allowed us to compare and contrast different cuts of the same fish or different preparations of the same fish or like fish. And, one of the more novel things which might seem gimmicky but was very much serious and experience enriching was the focus on temperature with certain cuts served a bit cooler or warmer than others as always narrated table side.

Just a very special, positively delicious and very memorable experience I wish all sushi lovers could have.

Edited February 3, 2015 by darkstar965