Night 2 in NYC has one theme in writing - SUSHI. The first sushi encounter was amusing and the second one was disgruntling. Here is how it started...
For dinner that night we decided to go to a hole in the wall sushi place where Brian's friend has been raving about for sometime. This sushi place, which located on 543 E. 5th St, is really tiny (20 ft by 20 ft, no kidding) and doesn't even have a name. So small is the place that Brian has to go in first to ask for a table to accommodate for an oversized party of 5. However, Brian was repeatedly berated by the proprietor with "NO! NO! You go outside!" It was actually funny to watch Brian and the proprietor through the window. As soon as Brian opens his mouth, the lady would just shout back with a "No." So it is of no surprise that this place has now earned the nickname of the "Sushi Nazi" after the fictional character, the Soup Nazi, from the sitcom Seinfeld. For some reason, this hilarious made me want to go back to the sushi place even more.
Feeling rejected, we went to Ebisu on St. Marks Place to satisfy our cravings for sushi. Although Brian has not eaten at this place, he had taken a liking to this place and wanted to try the place out because it bears the same name as one of his favorite sushi place in San Francisco. With its chic and clean decor, this place certainly looks expensive; but we were only too willing to get our lips on raw, fresh fish that are laced with soy sauce and wasabi. Unfortunately, the experience at Ebisu would leave a really sour taste in our mouth. One of my pet peeves is to wait for food when I am hungry; I get really cranky. We ordered the food at around 7:30pm but it didn't get served till 9pm. That's 1 1/2 hour of crankiness not just from me but everyone at the table - and there's no excuse for this wait. We just kept peering at the sushi bar the whole night. This place has a sitting capacity for 40 customers and seems decently well-staffed with 4 waiters/waitresses, 2 sushi chefs, and some unknown kitchen staff. I couldn't understand why it would take the sushi chef 1 1/2 hour to prepare no more than 50 pieces of sushi for our party? When the sushi did finally arrived, we were still disappointed because the portions were small. Having starved for 1 1/2 hours, we easily devoured the sushi in less than 5 minutes - so much for savoring the delicacy. To add insult to injury, this experience ended costing us big bucks!!! This place was a huge let down. The $5 lamb sharwama and falafel that we had later that night at a corner eatery were much more satisfying.
| 1/23/2006 8:12:34 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) |
 |
|
|
Food |
|
|