Omakase (chef's choice)

by Celia Sin-Tien Cheng
June 10, 2005

TSUKUSHI
300 E 41st St
@ 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10017
212-599-8888

Tsukushi was recently written up by Peter Meehan in the Times. Peter has been doing a great job with reviews on Japanese restaurants in the city. However, when I visited Tsukushi after reading his raving review, I was disappointed both with his assessment and the restaurant.

The concept is not entirely original as there are other Japanese restaurants that serve only a chef’s choice menu, and the atmosphere is hardly unique as a Japanese home-style restaurant. Peter writes about bottles of shochu at the bar with names attached, denoting the patron whose personal bottle it is. Again, this is not a new concept, as it is a frequent practice in Japan and numerous Japanese restaurants in the city have this as well. What this does say is that Tsukushi has a good number of regular customers who return repeatedly to enjoy their shochu and meal — a good sign. As simply a neighborhood restaurant, it has the requisite comfortable atmosphere. But as for the quality of the food and the price, they are such that I don’t have an urge to come back.

What is lacking at Tsukushi is really a sensibility for detail. The portions of each dish are grotesquely large for any Japanese standard. If this is to make up for the price, to make the customers feel like they are getting the full bang for their bucks, it didn’t work for me. Some dishes were good in concept, like the hakusai with yuba, but the serving was too large. Granted this is not kaiseki, there is still something to be said for presenting the food exquisitely in more sensible, delicate portions. The slices of roast duck with side of macaroni salad was a good combo, but it wasn’t amazing. The best dish I tasted was the takana chahan, pickled vegetable fried rice, which I ordered separately from the set menu.

The service was also very uneven. I spent the entire night observing how much fun the waitress was having chatting with Japanese male diners at the bar, while each time she came by our table, which wasn’t often, she put on a nonchalant face and attitude.

I love finding little Japanese gems, whether it be a tiny bar or restaurant; places that transport me back to Tokyo. But Tsukushi conjures only a feeling of mediocrity, not the nostalgia for great bars or restaurants found in little alleys that make your day.

Also in Japanese, Midtown East