Ninja Restaurant.
During my New York food trip, there was one place that my cousin Quito had suggested we check out called Ninja.
This video will explain why we were willing to pass up an evening of drinks for it.
Alas… By the end of the night, I was pretty damn disappointed with Ninja. Now, I hadn’t seen this video beforehand, and dining at Ninja is definitely an experience worth having. I mean, how often do you get to enter a secret passage just to get to your table? The restaurant was designed with stone walls and individual booths per table. Ninjas with swords stealthily maneuvered their way around the restaurant. Upon my arrival at my table, I had decided that Ninja was my favorite restaurant ever.
And there goes Trix with her tendency to jump to conclusions.
First off, we were handed prefixed menus without informing us that there was an a la carte menu that served dishes other than sushi. So, for my cousin and my nephew who don’t eat seafood, it seemed like the outrageously priced prefixed menus were the way to go for us that night.
The appetizers started off well. I had the “Bombshell” which was a salad topped with lobster and scallop sashimi followed by an assortment of the chef’s nigiri sushi selection. We were off to a fresh start. I stuck to my decision that Ninja was the best restaurant ever. Then I was served the “Red Pond,” which was described as “fried Chilean sea bass in a bloody spicy pond“. Yeah… I don’t know! It sounded so crazy I had to try it! Which was an unfortunate decision… Because it REALLY didn’t taste very good. There was no way for me to appreciate the tenderness of the sea bass with it being battered and fried, and the bloody spicy pond? It tasted like a thick, red ponzu sauce with grated radish-like consistency, which also kept me from enjoying what I would have expected to be a fresh cut of tender and light sea bass.
Then came the rib-eye steak. A fat hunk of meat, which wasn’t even close to the kind of juiciness that I’d expect from the price this freakin’ meal was. Although I gotta admit… It was one LARGE piece of meat. Which got me thinking… It seemed as though the money went to the size of the meal as opposed to the quality of it. That works for some people. However, I don’t hit up a reputable restaurant for half-assed deliciousness. Give me quality, baby!
Not to mention… Our server and bus boy weren’t the most enthusiastic of the bunch. However, towards the end, another bus boy came to serve us our dessert and had a lot more commitment to his ninja character.
And my dessert, which was a dark chocolate ganache ninja star, may not have been exceptional, but was definitely delicious enough to end the evening on a good note.
Moral of the story is: Worth the experience, order from the a la carte menu, and don’t expect the food to be out of this world.
Trixie.
PS. It was too dark for photos. Sorry!
Food is Delicious. 