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Sake Bar Hagi is sort of like a Japanese tapas restaurant that’s been written up about in numerous papers and magazines and was featured on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. It’s in midtown so it draws the happy hour crowd, and it’s a great place for pitchers of beer and lots of little snacks. It’s important to get there early though because the place really fills up quickly. Josh and I had been there once after work and really enjoyed it so one Sunday night when it was just us and Josh’s parents, we suggested trying to get in for dinner.
The restaurant is located downstairs below street level but it’s a pretty large and bright space. The tables are kind of cramped together though, and it does get a bit noisy. We had to wait for about half an hour before we could get a table. Fortunately the waiting area wasn’t crowded and we were able to sit on some benches while we waited.
After we were seated an ordered a pitcher of beer, we set about perusing the extensive menu. There are so many different options to choose from, it was almost a bit daunting. There were the usual Japanese appetizers, like gyoza and edamame, different types of yakitori, as well as some more unusual offerings.
We started out with an avocado salad, which was pretty standard. It featured a good portion of sliced avocado on top of iceberg lettuce, shredded carrots, tomatoes, and asparagus. The ginger dressing was flavorful and not too sweet.
We also got a yakitori set that included skewers of chicken meatballs, chicken, garlic, pork belly, and beef. The meatballs were a bit bland but the other meats were well seasoned and had good barbecue flavor.
Agedashi tofu is something that we always order when we’re at a Japanese restaurant, and this version was pretty good. It’s deep fried tofu that’s silky on the inside sitting in flavorful broth, topped with grated daikon, bonito flakes, and shredded seaweed. It’s a good mix of textures and flavors.
The bonito sashimi was one of our favorites of the evening. It was served with citrus soy sauce and topped with chopped scallions, fried garlic chips, and thinly shaved daikon. The fish was a gorgeous deep red color and tasted fresh. The combination was light and refreshing.
The tatsu age, or Japanese fried chicken, was light and crispy on the outside, though I think there may have been a bit too much breading. Still, the chicken was pretty juicy and all it needed was a squeeze of lemon over the top.
An interesting dish we ordered was grilled clams topped with scallions. They were big and juicy, not too chewy, with lots of briny flavor. We just shot them straight from the shells, making sure to drink up all the delicious liquid.
Another one of my favorite dishes was a grilled eggplant topped with miso sauce. The sauce was nicely caramelized on top, and it had sweet, slightly smokey flavor. The eggplant had a creamy texture and wasn’t bitter.
I had high hopes for the grilled yellowtail collar as it’s usually a tender, luscious part of the fish. This version, unfortunately, was a bit dry and really bland. There was no seasoning or sauce on it, and even after we squeezed lemon over the top, it was pretty flavorless.
We got an order of gyozas filled with pork, which were decently pan fried and brown on the bottom, but flavor-wise they were just meh. These were probably the frozen pre-made kind, and not great ones at that.
Much to Alice’s dismay, Josh and I shared a yakitori of chicken skin. Crispy on the outside, slightly chewy, well seasoned, and very flavorful, we thought these were pretty fantastic. Probably not great for our cholesterol, but we only had one bite each.
We got an order of shiitake mushrooms, which were topped with lots of bonito flakes. They had a meaty texture but were kind of plain, and I probably wouldn’t order these again.
I enjoyed the fried octopus balls (takoyaki), which was kind of like eating an octopus doughnut. The balls had a light, slightly chewy texture and were filled with little chunks of octopus.
I wanted to try a grilled rice ball (onigiri) filled with spicy cod roe. I’ve eaten regular rice balls before but never the grilled kind. The rice on the outside was browned a crispy, and the spicy cod roe filling was definitely spicy. I just wish there was a bit more filling, and that it was more evenly dispersed throughout the middle of the rice ball. Otherwise it was pretty good.
Last, and definitely least, we got a yaki udon with chicken. It’s pan fried udon noodles but the sauce they used was cloyingly sweet and gloppy. There was so much sauce that it totally overpowered everything on the plate, so that was all we tasted. It was probably the worst yaki udon I’ve ever eaten, and it was a disappointing way to finish our meal.
Even though the yaki udon was terrible, the rest of our meal was pretty good. They have a nice variety of yakitori, and I liked being able to try all the different skewers of meat. The fried items were all served fresh right from the fryer, which meant they were hot and crispy, as they should be. I think the best part of Sake Bar Hagi is the extensive menu and getting to try lots of different things. Most plates are small but shareable, and we washed them down with cheap pitchers of Sapporo. It’s definitely a great happy hour spot, though if you plan on being there for a while, you have to keep ordering food and drinks, otherwise the servers will tell you that other people are waiting for a table. It does get crowded but it’s got a nice low key vibe. I highly recommend checking it out.
Sake Bar Hagi
152 West 49th St. between 6th and 7th Ave.
New York, NY
My parents had some friends over when Josh and I went to visit them one weekend in NJ, so we all decided to try out a Japanese restaurant called Matsushima, which is located in Edgewater next to the famed Mitsuwa Marketplace. The restaurant is right on the Hudson River, giving it sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline. To fully take advantage of the impressive scenery, the side of the restaurant that faces the city has floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap all the way around.
It did make it a bit unbearably hot though for the person sitting right next to the window (me), as it was a particularly sunny day and the table behind me had control of the window blinds. Halfway through the meal, however, they mercifully lowered the blinds, and I no longer had to worry about getting sunburned. That was the only disadvantage of the panoramic windows, so just be warned if you plan on taking a window seat to best admire the view.
We were given two menus, one that looked like the regular menu and was quite extensive, and a one-page menu that featured a variety of lunch specials. We opted to order our entrees from the lunch special menu, supplemented by some sushi and sashimi from the regular menu. At $12.50, the lunch special was actually quite a bargain, as it included a salad and a pretty generous bowl of soup with udon noodles. The salad was pretty basic, featuring mixed greens topped with a very thin, vinegary ginger dressing. It wasn’t my favorite kind of ginger dressing but the salad was quite refreshing, especially since I was still baking in the sun at this point.
The soup, however, was really quite delicious and chock full of udon noodles, seaweed, little fried bits, and scallions. The broth was savory and a bit smoky, evoking the fifth taste, umami. The noodles had a pleasingly chewy texture, and I had fun slurping them up.
For my entrée, I selected the pork katsu, which came on a pile of shredded cabbage and was served with a scoop of potato salad and a bowl of white rice. The katsu was perfectly fried and had a crunchy coating, though the pork was a little tough to bite through. The katsu sauce, however, was pretty dreadful. It was overly sweet and had a strange flavor to it, kind of like hoisin sauce, and it didn’t go too well with the pork. I ended up scraping off most of the sauce and eating the katsu plain, which made it a bit dry.
Josh opted for the broiled yellowtail entrée, which was also a bit dry but was very flavorful and had a nice crispy piece of skin attached. The fish was very meaty and well seasoned, needing only a squeeze of lemon to brighten it up.
Two people in our group ordered the salmon sashimi and ikura over rice, which was a surprisingly generous portion. They aren’t fans of ikura (salmon roe), so I volunteered to take some off their hands. As you can see in the picture, there was a huge serving of ikura in each bowl. I love the salty, briny flavor as the eggs pop in my mouth. It can be quite overwhelming for people who aren’t used to or don’t like the flavor of caviar, but to me, it’s absolutely delicious.
We also decided to share a sushi and sashimi combination platter, which featured lots of fresh fish and also included a tuna roll. Josh thought the rice was packed a bit too densely in the pieces of sushi, but the sashimi pieces were all well cut, tender, and flavorful.
We also had a roll combination platter that included a huge spider roll and a dragon roll. The spider roll featured tasty soft shell crab, though the roll itself was a bit unwieldy to eat. I couldn’t fit a whole piece in my mouth and when I tried to bit it in half, it all fell apart into a messy heap on my plate. The dragon roll, which featured eel and avocado, was much easier to eat, with the sweet broiled pieces of eel matching perfectly with the buttery avocado.
Even though it was freezing outside, I think we were all a bit overheated from the sun streaming through the windows and decided to finish up our meals with some green tea ice cream topped with mashed azuki beans. The ice cream was rich and had a slightly bitter flavor from the matcha, which I liked. Sometimes green tea ice cream is too sweet and tastes fake, but you could definitely taste the tea in this version. There was also an almond cookie on top that was light and crispy and perfectly satisfying.
Overall I think we were more impressed by the sushi and sashimi than we were by the cooked entrees. Even though my pork katsu had a nice outer crust, the pork itself was tough and dry, and the sauce was terrible. The broiled yellowtail was also overcooked and dry, and it was pretty plain and a bit boring. We did enjoy the udon soup though, which hit all the right umami aspects. I think that if we went back to Matsushima we’ll probably stick with the sushi and sashimi, as the fish was very fresh and well cut. We also didn’t try the “steakhouse” part of the restaurant, as there were hibachi tables on the first floor while we sat at the regular tables on the second floor. Despite some of the shortcomings, the lunch specials were a really good deal, and the regular menu looked slightly pricier but not super expensive. It might be a good option if the food courts at the Mitsuwa Marketplace are too crowded, or if you’re looking for Japanese food in a more upscale setting. And the view really can’t be beat, though it’s probably even better (and more comfortable!) at night after the sun has set and all the city lights are shining.
Matsushima
595 River Rd.
Edgewater, NJ
Once again we decided to share lots of dishes to try as many items as possible. We started off with steamed edamame, per usual. It was standard, with an ample sprinkling of coarse salt on top.
Up next was the nori green salad, which had lettuce, red onion, cucumber, and pieces of nori on top and scattered throughout. The dressing was flavored with yuzu, which gave it an interesting tangy and citrusy flavor. It was a refreshing salad, and miles better than the soba salad we had last time, but I thought it was a bit boring and one note.
The age gyoza, which we loved the last time, were disappointing this time around. The filling, which is made from chilean sea bass and shrimp, was really fishy-tasting, and the dumplings were a bit over fried, making the skin extremely brittle and a bit burnt.
The tatsuta age, which I wasn’t a fan of last time, failed to impress me again. I thought the pieces of fried chicken were still too dry and pretty tasteless.
The agedashi tofu was still good though, with big pieces of of fried tofu that had nice silky interiors. The broth is flavorful and they put good amount of bonito flakes on top for extra punch.
The shrimp shumai were also a crowd-pleaser yet again. They’re soft and meaty and the shredded skin on the outside provides an interesting texture in your mouth.
Last, but definitely not least, I had to order the hamachi carpaccio with jalapeno sauce again. I loved this dish the last time we were here, and it was even better than I remembered. The beautifully pink slices of fresh, raw yellowtail are drizzled with a light dressing that has the flavor of jalapeno but none of the spiciness. It’s very delicate and really lets the flavor of the yellowtail shine through.
We finished up our meal with some maki rolls and pieces of sushi. Even though I complained about the size of special big maki rolls last time, we couldn’t resist some of the combinations offered. The Taxi Driver featured tuna, salmon, yellowtail, cucumber, and avocado, all rolled up inside a soybean wrapper. It was a delicious roll, with lots of fresh fish and refreshing ingredients, but it was still really hard to eat. Same thing with the Apollo 13, which was shrimp tempura, cucumber, avocado, and a spicy mayo sauce. Tasty flavor combination but a pain to pick up, and there’s no dainty way to shove the whole thing in your mouth. I preferred the classic rainbow roll instead, which had tuna, yellowtail, salmon, and shrimp on top of a maki roll that had cucumber and avocado wrapped in the middle.
And finally, we had some pieces of tuna and yellowtail sushi. Fresh, beautifully cut, and delicious. Alice (Josh’s mom) also had some tamago sushi (sweet egg omelet), and Lisa (Josh’s sister) had a piece of ikura sushi (salmon roe).
No dessert this time, as they had run out of the green tea mille crepes. Hugely disappointing!
Overall, I again thought Takahachi hit some pretty high highs, as well as some pretty low lows. However, whenever we go, we just stick with the appetizers and the maki/sushi, so I can’t really speak to their entree offerings. What I like about the restaurant is the fresh fish. All of the pieces of sushi that we’ve had have been fresh, beautifully cut, and delicious. I would come back to the restaurant just for the amazing hamachi carpaccio. I think if you stick with the fish, you’re golden. Just beware that the special big maki rolls are pretty unwieldy, so don’t order those if you’re on a date and trying to impress someone. While I think there are some better and more well-rounded Japanese restaurants in the city, the sushi at Takahachi is some of the best that I’ve had.
Takahachi (multiple locations)
145 Duane St. between West Broadway and Church St.
New York, NY
The Akai Lounge is a Japanese restaurant in Englewood, NJ that has become one of our favorite places for sushi so we were really excited when they opened up a branch on the Upper West Side. The menu is pretty much identical to the one in NJ so when a sushi craving hits, we know exactly where we can go to get fresh fish and our favorite specialty rolls. While the restaurant is out of our delivery range, it makes a perfect destination for Sunday night dinners.
The restaurant does have a lounge-like feel to it, with vibrant red décor and lots of specialty martinis available. The lychee martinis are always deliciously dangerous because you can barely taste the alcohol but you’ll definitely feel the effects. The food menu is also extensive, with lots of appetizers and hot entrees to choose from, in addition to the sushi, sashimi, and maki rolls.
We always start our meals off with garden salads, which are just simple bowls of iceberg lettuce, shredded red cabbage and a few tomato slices. But what makes these salads so great are that the ingredients are always fresh and crispy, and they refrigerate the bowls until they’re ice cold, which keeps everything cool and refreshing until the very last bite. The ginger dressing is also really fresh and light, with a nice mellow ginger flavor and a slight tanginess that doesn’t overpower.
We decided to share a bunch of different appetizers, starting with the ebi shumai, which are steamed shrimp dumplings. These are pretty standard and can be found at many Japanese restaurants but they’re always tasty.
The agedashi tofu is deep fried tofu in a fish broth. This version isn’t drowning in the broth so that the skin still stays crispy, breaking open to reveal the silky tofu innards.
The rock shrimp tempura features plump, firm pieces of shrimp with a super crispy outer shell. The pieces of shrimp are coated with a spicy sauce that I think is made from sriracha and mayo. There are pieces of shredded cucumber at the bottom of the bowl to help cool your mouth down, as it is a pretty spicy dish. We sometimes ask for the spicy sauce on the side so that we can control the amount on each piece of shrimp.
We also decided to share some hot entree platters. The first was chicken katsu, which has a coating of bread crumbs fried to a nice golden brown color. The chicken is served on top of a bed of shredded lettuce, tomato slices, and cucumber slices. The vegetables are drizzled with a light vinaigrette and are a nice accompaniment. The chicken is never greasy or oily and the coating stays crispy. In addition, all entrees come with a choice of miso soup or salad, and white rice.
Our other entree was grilled skirt steak topped with a miso-teriyaki sauce. Though skirt steak is a cheap cut of meat, Akai prepares it perfectly so that it’s a nice medium rare and surprisingly tender. The sauce is absolutely addictive, as it’s sweet and tangy and a little bit smoky. The steak comes with assorted vegetables and wasabi mashed potatoes. This is my favorite entree here and I often crave it when we haven’t been to the restaurant in a while.
We finished up our meal with some fresh sushi and specialty maki rolls. The King Crab 2 Roll features Alaskan king crab and avocado topped with spicy tuna. The crab meat is sweet and helps to temper the spiciness of the tuna. The Super Tuna Roll is spicy white tuna and avocado topped with red tuna and black tobiko. It’s a must-order for any tuna lover, and the tobiko on top gives it a nice little crunch with bursts of saltiness. The Mets Roll has spicy tuna, tempura flakes, and avocado topped with salmon and white tuna. Although all the spicy tuna started to blend together after a while, all of these rolls were really tasty. Next time I would order just one roll with spicy tuna and mix it up with other kinds of rolls. There certainly are many options to choose from on the menu.
Finally, we had pieces of mackerel, tuna, yellowtail, and salmon sushi, and a few pieces of tamago. Yellowtail is always my favorite fish, but I love the mackerel as well. It tastes like it’s been smoked a little so it’s nice and salty and has a brinier flavor.
The tamago is a a piece of sweet egg omelet on top of sushi rice. Those who aren’t familiar are usually put off by the sweetness of the egg, but I like to dip it into soy sauce to make a nice sweet/salty combo.
Overall I love the food and the atmosphere at Akai Lounge. Both the Englewood, NJ and Upper West Side branches feature basically the same menu and a friendly waitstaff. The owner of the restaurants, James, is very personable and treats his customers very well. Although he is usually at the NJ restaurant, his brother manages the UWS location and is also very cordial, stopping by at the table during meals to check that everything is ok. The menu is extensive and even non-sushi eaters will find something they like. I definitely recommend this restaurant if you’re looking for a more upscale Japanese restaurant that serves quality food at a reasonable price.
Akai Lounge (multiple locations)
507 Columbus Ave. between 84th and 85th St.
New York, NY
Francois requested Japanese food for Sunday night dinner, and we happily obliged. After debating a few restaurants, we ended up going to Takahachi on Duane St., a place that we’ve been to a few times previously. They also have a branch on the lower east side that is slightly cheaper but the atmosphere is much nicer at the Tribeca location.
We decided to order lots of different items and share everything. We started with some boiled edamame that was topped with an ample sprinkling of coarse salt.
Next we had soba salad, which is buckwheat noodles topped with shiitake mushrooms, avocado, onion, daikon, and seaweed with sesame dressing. The ingredients sounded promising but the noodles and dressing were a bit gloppy in texture. The dressing also lacked enough seasoning, and the avocado in the salad was seriously unripe. So unripe that it was crunchy and bitter, and definitely unpalatable. I was very disappointed with this dish.
I also wasn’t a huge fan of the rock shrimp and broccoli tempura. They were too heavily breaded and completely drenched in the spicy mayo, which made them really soggy. The mayo also didn’t have enough of a spicy kick to it. Overall the dish just tasted heavy and greasy.
That tatsuta age, which is deep fried pieces of chicken, was another disappointment. It’s supposed to be soy marinated chicken with ginger flavor, but I didn’t taste any of those flavors. Plus the chicken was over fried and way too dry.
Fortunately we had better luck with some of our other appetizers. The age gyoza, which are fried dumplings with Chilean sea bass and shrimp, were absolutely delicious. The thin skins on the gyoza were fried to a perfect crisp, and the filling was really tasty. I’ve never had Chilean sea bass in a dumpling before and it added a nice delicate fish flavor to the standard shrimp filling.
The shumai, which are steamed shrimp dumplings, were also not like what I’m used to having. These were like shrimp balls rolled in shredded dumpling skin. They had tons of shrimp flavor and were deliciously meaty, kind of like eating a shrimp meatball.
The agedashi tofu is fried tofu served in a broth. While the tofu doesn’t stay crispy being soaked in the broth, it develops a nice skin and the insides stay really soft and tender. This dish is one that we always order at Japanese restaurants.
The best appetizers of all, however, involved some of Takahachi’s fresh raw fish. Yellowtail is my favorite sushi fish, so I requested an order of the hamachi tartare, which was chopped yellowtail and sea urchin marinated in tabasco. Unfortunately, they ran out of sea urchin. Darn! I love sea urchin (uni) and was looking forward to pairing it with the yellowtail. Nevertheless, the dish was beautifully presented and the yellowtail was mixed with tobiko. I don’t know if the tobiko was in place of the uni but it added a nice salty textural contrast to the chopped yellowtail.
My favorite appetizer of the night also featured yellowtail. The hamachi carpaccio with jalapeno sauce was absolutely delicious. The yellowtail was sliced super thin and basically melted in my mouth. The jalapeno wasn’t too spicy and complemented the fish perfectly. The dish just tasted so clean and fresh.
For our main course, we opted to share a bunch of different sushi rolls and pieces of sushi. The special rolls at Takahachi all have names that are related to movies for some reason. The “Anaconda” roll, which is featured under the Special Big Maki section, was a shrimp tempura roll topped with broiled eel.
The “Year of the Dragon” roll included eel, cucumber, avocado, and flying fish roe. Fortunately the avocado used in this roll was riper than the avocado we had in our soba salad. The “Kiss of the Spider Woman” roll had deep fried soft shell crab, avocado, lettuce, smelt roe, radish, and mayo. We also had a rainbow roll, which was pretty standard but the freshness of the fish really stood out in this roll.
The problem with the Special Big Maki rolls was that they were humongous. We couldn’t pick them up with our chopsticks because they would fall apart. I ended up using my hands and could still barely hold a piece, let alone eat it properly. Sushi should be eaten in one bite, and even with my big mouth there was no way I could fit it in. One piece was the same diameter as the palm of my hand and almost as long as my fingers.
We followed up the maki rolls with some individual pieces of sushi. First we had some tuna and fluke sushi…
Followed by some salmon and yellowtail…
And finally, some tamago, octopus, and mackeral sushi.
Whew it was a lot of food! But don’t worry, there were eight of us partaking in this meal so we weren’t huge pigs. And we still saved room for dessert, because we can never pass up dessert at Takahachi. They sell slices of green tea mille crepe cake that they get from Lady M Confections. These cakes are made out of over 20 thin crepes layered with green tea pastry cream. It’s absolutely awesome, not too sweet or too rich, and a must-have for any green tea lover. One day I will try to make one of these cakes, if I’m feeling adventurous. It’s seriously one of my most favorite desserts ever.
Overall the food at Takahachi is decent, but not spectacular. Most of the appetizers were hit or miss, without much consistency in between. And while their fish is pretty fresh, I think the flavors kind of get lost in the specialty rolls because there is just too much going on. You’re probably better off sticking with the plainer regular rolls and getting individual pieces of sushi or sashimi. The only thing that I can say for sure is that if you do go, get the green tea mille crepe!
Takahachi (multiple locations)
145 Duane St. between West Broadway and Church St.
New York, NY
The curry, however, doesn’t look anything like any curry that I’ve ever had. It’s a super dark brown color, whereas all the other curries I’ve had previously at other Japanese restaurants have been a lighter greenish color. This curry is mixed with little bits of pork so it’s definitely not vegetarian friendly. It has a thick, rich texture and is slightly sweet tasting. It also doesn’t have the same complexity of spices that is found in other curries, so it might be a bit friendlier to people who claim they hate all curry.
The chicken katsu and pork katsu are always perfectly fried and still remain a little crispy even after being transported in a styrofoam container. The chicken is a bit thicker than the pork, though the pork is always a bit more moist and flavorful.
The shrimp tempura is a large piece but it’s heavily breaded and always comes slathered in mayo, which makes it soggy. I could do without the mayo, as this dish is rich enough.
The sausages are pretty fatty and greasy but mild in flavor. They taste more like hot dogs than sausages, which I like, since I’m not a sausage fan. I’m not sure why the hard boiled egg is there, but it’s just another protein option for this already packed meal.
Go Go Curry is basically an homage to Hideki Matsui of the Yankees. “Go” in Japanese means “five”, and Matsui’s number is 55. When Matsui hits a home run during a game at Yankee Stadium, the restaurant gives out free topping cards the next day. They also give out free topping cards on the 5th, 15th, and 25th of each month. Keep in mind that toppings at Go Go Curry are things like chicken katsu, and they give you the whole chicken cutlet; it’s a pretty good deal. While I don’t know how authentic the curry is (reviews vary), I find it pretty tasty and very filling. Grab a friend and split a Grand Slam so you can get a taste of lots of different toppings. I just don’t recommend trying to finish one off yourself, but if you can, I will be super impressed.
Go Go Curry
273 West 38th St. between 7th and 8th Ave.
New York, NY
We started out with miso soups that had lots of tofu and seaweed in it, but it was lukewarm at best. The miso was mild in flavor, which I liked, since a lot of versions tend to be too salty. I supposed I could have nuked it in the microwave to warm it up a bit, but I was hungry and too lazy.
We also ordered a chicken katsu combination, which came with rice, a small salad, and side dish of our choice. We opted for shrimp shumai, which were clearly the pre-made frozen kind and were totally ice cold in the middle. Too bad, because they were actually really tasty, but I guess I can just go to an Asian supermarket and pick these up for myself and warm them up correctly. The chicken katsu was a bit hotter, but not by much, and it was pretty soggy and greasy. I can forgive the soggy, since it has to be delivered in a covered container, but the greasiness was kind of gross, as the breading just tasted oily. Not pleasant. And also boo for the prepackaged katsu sauce. The salad was just chopped up lettuce and one tomato slice, but I did like the ginger dressing.
We ordered a variety of our favorite standard sushi rolls, which included a tuna roll, a salmon avocado roll, a spicy tuna roll, and a yellowtail and scallion roll. I tend not to go for special rolls since all the fish just kind of gets mixed together and it’s hard to taste each component individually. I enjoyed the spicy tuna roll, which was not too mayo-y tasting, and the yellowtail and scallion roll, since yellowtail is my favorite fish. The tuna in the tuna roll was kind of stringy though, and the salmon was way too fishy, which is kind of scary. I also thought the sushi rice was a tad too sweet for my taste.
Overall I thought the food from Hayashi Ya was pretty bad. The only thing that I really liked was the miso soup, but I can pretty much get that anywhere or have Josh make it. I didn’t enjoy their greasy chicken katsu at all, and the sushi was obviously not the freshest. Even though prices are pretty cheap, sushi is not something that you would want to trade quality for just to save a few pennies. And there are plenty of other restaurants that offer cheap prices, like Oyishi, and still provide pretty decent fish. I will definitely not be ordering in from here again.
Hiyashi Ya
857 9th Ave. between 55th and 56th St.
New York, NY
We had an extra special treat for this rendition of Sunday night dinner. We were trying to decide where to eat and somehow we ended up having the omakase at Morimoto. It was a nice surprise and quite a change from our usual Sunday night choices.
I was really excited as we walked through the red curtains into the entrance of restaurant. I was surprised by the décor, as it was super sleek and modern. I guess I was expecting something a bit more Japanese in style? The tables are separated by glass walls, so it kind of feels like you’re sitting in clear cubicles. The glass is only a little bit frosted so you can still see the people around you. I guess it helps keep the noise level down, and so you don’t feel like the tables are too close together, though they are. Every time a server brushed against the glass to serve the other table, the glass shook and knocked into our table.
Our waiter described the “chef’s choice” omakase menu to us, which varies every day. Today’s offering was seven courses, all of which sounded pretty good. Everyone at the table opted for the omakase, and ordered a few bottles of special Morimoto beer to start. The beers, which are made by Rogue, range from light to dark. Josh and I tried the Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale, which was like a dark porter and had a nice coffee taste to it.
Josh’s dad had the Morimoto Soba Ale, which was much lighter and crisper.
Our first course was the toro tartare, topped with a little bit of osetra caviar and served spread out on a wooden plank on ice. At one end were the “condiments”, which included wasabi, crème fraiche, nori paste, chives, avocado cream, and rice cracker crumbs. There was a bowl of dashi soy for dipping as well.
The bowl came with a little metal spatula/shovel, which you use to scrape up some toro, dip into the dashi soy, and scrape on whatever condiments you like. I was partial to the nori paste, the avocado cream, and the rice cracker crumbs, which provided a nice crunch. The toro was really delicious and we all scraped up every last bit. My only complaint was that the spatula/shovel is flat, so when I dipped into the dashi soy I tended to lose some toro in the liquid, as there was nothing really to keep it in place. Regardless, it was a fun dish to eat.
The second course was fluke crudo seared with hot sesame oil accompanied by yuzu, microgreens, shiso, and mushroom. The sauce for this dish tasted exactly like the hot oil, scallion and soy sauce that my dad pours over steamed fish, a classic Chinese dish. It’s my favorite way of preparing fish, but meaty steamed fish, not thin slices of raw fish. I’m not saying that it tasted bad, which it didn’t, but the sauce totally overpowered the fluke, and the delicate flavor of the raw fish was completely lost. I liked the sauce, but I didn’t like it in this dish because I felt like it wasted the fish, if that makes sense.
The third course was the “salad” course, with seared sockeye salmon on shiso tartar sauce accompanied by greens tossed with apple vinaigrette. The salmon was cooked perfectly – lightly seared on the outside and still very pink in the middle. The tartar sauce fortunately did not taste too strongly of shiso, as it’s an herb that tends to overpower, and had an interesting pink color to it. The salad and apple vinaigrette on its own tasted a bit too acidic, but when combined with the salmon and tartar sauce all the flavors worked out well together. This was one of my favorite dishes of the omakase.
When we first placed our order, we were given a choice for the fourth course, either an oyster dish or a smoked salmon ravioli. Josh, his dad, and I all opted for the oyster while Josh’s mom and sister chose the smoked salmon ravioli. While we were waiting for this course to arrive, the waiter came by and told us they had run out of foie gras for the oyster so we would all be getting the smoked salmon ravioli. I thought it was poor planning on their part, and it was disappointing that they didn’t offer a substitute choice for the oyster. They should have come up with an alternative option, rather than just giving us all the smoked salmon by default. Not everyone wants to have salmon two courses in a row. Fortunately, I love smoked salmon, but unfortunately, I was disappointed by this dish. It was one tiny ravioli, filled with an insignificant portion of smoked salmon, sitting on top of pureed mountain yam and covered with yuzu foam. There were a few dots of salmon roe and dill as well. I found everything to taste a bit too bland, and there really wasn’t much textural difference between the ravioli and the yam. The salmon roe helped, but there wasn’t enough of it to provide enough of a salty punch. And I couldn’t help wishing that we had had the oyster instead.
Our fifth course was sushi, which included pieces of unagi (eel), red snapper, Boston mackerel, silver whiting, and toro. The unagi was one of the better versions that I tasted, as it wasn’t covered in so much sauce so you could still taste the eel. The red snapper was also super fresh, and I enjoyed it even though I’m not usually fond of it. The mackerel was tasty as well, but my favorite was the toro. It was lush and fatty and just delicious. I didn’t like the whiting though, as I found the texture to be a bit too firm and it had a weird flavor to me but everyone else seemed to enjoy it.
Prior to our main course, we were given a palate cleanser of a shot of hibiscus tea topped with yuzu foam and pepper. It was actually really tasty, with the sour shock of yuzu bubbles followed by the sweetness of the tea, and just a tiny bit of pepper in the back of your throat. It was a beautiful presentation and definitely woke my taste buds up for the next dish.
For our main course, we had half a roasted lobster that was covered in garam masala and served with a little bowl of lemon crème fraiche. Also on the plate was a serving of wagyu beef with a sweet scallion sauce.
I liked the garam masala spices on the lobster, though if you’re not a fan of Indian food this wouldn’t be for you. I thought the lemon crème fraiche didn’t really go with the dish (it tasted like super sour lemon-flavored yogurt to me), but Josh’s sister liked it because it tempered the spice on the lobster.
The wagyu beef was pretty good, but it was a super thin slice and I thought the sauce overwhelmed the flavor of the beef. It was also a bit tougher than I thought it would be, considering it’s wagyu. There were pieces of yam with the beef that I enjoyed, but overall I found the dish to be a bit too sweet and cloying.
For the last course, dessert, we had a steamed almond cake with apricot ice cream and torched meringue. When they brought us the dessert, we were told it was mango ice cream, but when we tasted it, and had no mango flavor whatsoever. It tasted more peach-like but we couldn’t exactly place the flavor. We asked a different waiter, who told us that it was apricot. Apricot and mango? Not exactly the same thing. Regardless, I really enjoyed the almond cake, which was a bit gritty and chewy and sticky, if that makes any sense. Josh’s parents didn’t like the texture, but I guess maybe it’s an Asian thing to love things that are “QQ”. And once we found out it was apricot ice cream, then we could really taste the apricot flavor. However, I’m not sure that the apricot went well with the almond cake; I ended up eating each component separately.
The service kind of surprised me a bit, as it was pretty casual. I would have thought a place like Morimoto would strive for perfection in every way, including service. While they did sweep the table when serving each course, plates were cleared before everyone at the table was finished eating. That’s a pet peeve because it makes everyone else feel rushed, me especially since I’m a slow eater and I like to savor my food. They also didn’t take much care when providing utensils for courses that required more than just chopsticks. Spoons and forks were haphazardly placed on the table, sometimes piled on top of each other messily. They took away Josh’s mom’s napkin when she went to the bathroom, and we had to ask them for a replacement. It was mostly little things, like incorrectly telling us what was in our dessert course, but all of that put together makes a huge difference in the end. For the amount of money that you spend at Morimoto, you want a nice complete experience.
Overall I was a bit disappointed with the omakase meal. I’ve always read that omakase is the way to go at Morimoto, but most of the items we had can be ordered a la carte, and nothing really blew my mind. I think we would have been better off ordering lots of different things and sharing them. The food that we ate wasn’t the best Japanese food I’ve ever had, nor the freshest tasting. A lot of courses were drowning in sauce, which really detracted from the overall flavor. If you’re supposedly serving high quality ingredients, why would you need to cover it up? It didn’t make sense to me. I might come back to Morimoto and order a few things off the regular menu, but I won’t be doing the omakase again.
Morimoto
88 10th Ave. between 15th and 16th St.
New York, NY
We started off our meal with a la carte orders of hand rolls – yellowtail and scallion for me, tuna for Josh. My yellowtail, though more reddish than normal, was fresh and tasty, and the little bits of scallion really go well with the fish. Josh’s tuna, though beautifully red, was tough and stringy. It was hard to bite through the fish, which is not a good thing. Oh well. This is why we come for the hibachi and not for the sushi.
Hibachi dinners start off with soup, either miso or clear. I prefer the clear, which is a peppery and salty broth with mushrooms and scallions floating in it. There are also little bits of fried onions, similar to the kind that tops off green bean casserole. Yum!
Next up is the salad, which is a bowl of mixed greens topped with delicious carrot ginger dressing and one sad cherry tomato. I can’t get enough of the dressing though, and my attempts at replicating this at home have failed miserably. Does anyone have a good recipe to share? Ichiban’s version is light, sweet and tangy, and there’s no mayo in it, so it doesn’t come off like a watery thousand island dressing. I could drink this stuff, so I don’t mind that they use such a heavy hand in dressing the salad.
Now this is usually time for the show, when the hibachi chef comes and shows off his skills (I’ve never seen a female hibachi chef. Why is that?). Our particular chef this evening didn’t seem to keen on entertaining though, and stuck with straight cooking. We didn’t even get an “egg roll” joke out of him when he was making our fried rice. This has never happened before (the lack of entertainment) so I was surprised but I didn’t really mind. Usually I can’t stand when they bang utensils around, but I do enjoy an onion volcano once in a while. Nevertheless, he prepared our food in front of us methodically, only pausing to ask if we liked garlic in our fried rice (of course), and how we wanted our steaks cooked (rare).
First thing off the grill is fried rice, which I think costs about $3 extra (the hibachi dinners come with white rice). It’s just eggs, diced onions and carrots, garlic, soy sauce, salt and pepper – you can make this easily at home and it’s very tasty.
Next up were our shrimp appetizers, which are three big pieces that come with your set dinner.
Then come the mains, which for me were sirloin steak and chicken. He cooked my steak well past rare, rendering it a bit tough, but the chicken was cooked perfectly and still juicy. I guess it’s hard to regulate temperature when everything is cut into little squares. Josh’s order of filet mignon was cooked better and much more tender. The mains are quickly followed by cubes of vegetables that have been grilling on the hibachi, and noodles quickly sautéed with soy sauce and garlic. The portions here are enormous; I could barely fit everything onto my plate.
What makes the meal complete for me are the sauces, ginger sauce and mustard sauce. I’ve been to lots of hibachi places that don’t offer mustard sauce, and it completely detracts from the experience. Mustard sauce is to hibachi as ketchup is to fries. I don’t enjoy one without the other (though I’ll still eat it!).
Finally, after most of my food has been placed into takeout containers for future meals (seriously, I can stuff myself silly and still have enough leftovers for at least two lunches at work), we get ice cream. They offer green tea and red bean, as well as chocolate, vanilla, and sherbet (usually orange). I always go for the green tea. Josh likes to mix it up and chose the red bean this time. The ice cream is always just a bit icy but it’s included in the meal, so that just makes it a bit more forgivable. I wouldn’t pay extra for it though.
Overall Josh and I both love the hibachi dinners at Ichiban. It’s one of our more frequently requested dinners when we’re in NJ with his family. The prices are reasonable, especially for the amount of food that you get. I usually order steak and chicken because it’s only about a dollar or two more than just getting steak, and you get full portions of both (I’m a pig, but like I said, I also take home a lot of leftovers). Josh’s filet mignon is pricier, but most dinners top out at under $30, and that includes the soup, salad, white rice, shrimp appetizer, noodles, vegetables, and ice cream. For us, it’s always a nice treat since there aren’t many hibachi restaurants in the city (Benihana doesn’t count), and the food at Ichiban is consistently good.
Ichiban Japanese Restaurant
414 Hackensack Ave.
Hackensack, NJ
Before we set sail on the Norwegian Pearl, I did what I usually do before going somewhere, which is check out the restaurant situation. I did a bunch of google searches but I couldn’t find full reviews of the restaurants on board. I knew there were restaurants that were included in our cruise fare, as well as ones that required a cover charge, but I couldn’t find too many details about each one.
After we got back from the trip, I was initially just going to write a brief overview about the food on the ship but thinking back, I decided to write full reviews so that other potential cruisers might get a better idea of what the food is like on the Pearl. Personally, I wish that I had known beforehand more about each restaurant and which restaurants were worth the extra cover charge because we might have chosen differently. I won’t cover every single thing we ate (which was A LOT of stuff) but I’ve highlighted some of the hits and the misses.
Garden Cafe
The Garden Cafe is the buffet on the ship. We ate breakfast and lunch there basically every day, and though some of the hot entrees changed during lunch, it was the same food for the most part. For breakfast, I usually had smoked salmon either on a roll with cream cheese or as salmon eggs benedict. Breakfast potatoes with peppers and onions fulfilled my carb craving, and there was plenty of bacon, both crisp and chewy for people who prefer one over the other.
For lunch, I mostly stuck with the same things each day – hamburgers, pizza, sandwiches, and salad. I did try some of the hot entrees occasionally, but none of them ever tasted that good and were often the wrong texture. Meats were often tough and overcooked. There was a sushi station, but it didn’t serve any raw fish, just vegetarian and california rolls.
The burgers were standard, but I liked them better than the other options. And when there was a huge lunch rush, it actually worked out better because they cooked the burgers more quickly, resulting in a less dried out patty.
There was also a pasta bar in the buffet, where you can pick your noodle and have your choice of sauces. I tried the farfalle with bolognese sauce one day and it wasn’t too bad. Fortunately the pasta wasn’t horribly overcooked, since they par boil it and then heat it through in a pan with the sauce.
I was really impressed with the salad bar at the buffet, as they had a wide variety of lettuces and toppings. They had all the usual standards (romaine, iceberg, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.), but they also had artichokes and olives and different meats and cheeses available. I was surprised to see arugula offered by itself, as it’s a pricer lettuce than romaine or iceberg or those prepackaged mixed greens.
Most days I’d have a big plate of arugula topped with some parmesan cheese and lightly dressed with olive oil and lemon wedges. I also enjoyed the caesar salads, which they would toss in front of you to spread out the dressing. Topped with pieces of grilled chicken, this was another lunch staple for me.
The most dangerous thing about the buffet is the unlimited daily access to french fries and soft serve ice cream. When we were bored on the ship, which was a lot of the time, we’d go for a snack of french fries and ice cream. The thinner fries were best, but you never knew when they would pop up. One batch might be skinny, and the next batch would be thicker fries. There was high turnover for the fries though, so at least they were always hot and crispy.
The soft serve ice cream also varied for some reason. Sometimes it would be a bit icier, and for a few days, it was super thick and creamy, like custard. Ice cream was so popular on this trip that they actually ran out of ice cream cones before the cruise was over.
Overall I didn’t hate the buffet. There was decent variety and you just figure out right away what you like and don’t like, and you stick with it. Even picky eaters will find something they like. I ended up eating the same things each day, but I didn’t mind. There are seats inside and outside, so most days we sat on the back deck and watched the scenery go by as we ate. It was relaxing and helped pass the time.
Indigo
Indigo was the more casual main dining room on the ship. It served the same menu as the Summer Palace, the other main dining room, but it didn’t have a dress code. It operated like a restaurant, with waiters and waitresses and a large menu offering appetizers, soups, salads, and entrees. Reservations were recommended, but not required. The menu changed every day, and would be posted outside the restaurant each night. We would always check out the next night’s menu and decide if there were enough items that interested us. If there weren’t, then we would opt for one of the other restaurants that required a cover charge.
We ended up eating at Indigo twice during our cruise. The first time was lobster night, one of the more popular nights at the main dining rooms. The lobster ended up just being eh, as they were frozen tails shipped in from Australia. They were tough and chewy and a total disappointment to the New Englanders in our group.
I happened to order the duck that night, and it was absolutely delicious. It didn’t have crispy rendered skin, but it was actually cooked to medium rare and was juicy and tender.
Appetizers were a mixed bag. I had a decent tuna tartare that tasted pretty good, but Josh’s mom was put off by the gray color of the tuna.
But on another night, what was described as a scallop appetizer turned out to have only three tiny bay scallops in the dish.
Desserts also varied in quality depending on what you ordered. Crème brulee was pretty decent, if a bit too sweet. But it had an appropriately crispy sugar crust the crackled under the spoon.
Chocolate cake with vanilla sauce, which was billed as one of the “Cooking Light” options, tasted as such. It was neither chocolately nor satisfying.
Overall Indigo wasn’t terrible, but it was far from great. There were some offerings, like caesar salad and steak frites, that were available every night so if you weren’t into whatever specials they had on the menu that day, you could always go with a standby dish.
The restaurant was a nice change from the buffet, and the only thing you had to pay extra for was drinks (soda, alcohol). You don’t have to tip the waitstaff (unless you really wanted to), as an automatic gratuity is charged to your cabin at the end of the trip ($12/person per day). And because food is unlimited on the cruise, if you want to order two appetizers, go ahead. If you want an extra lobster tail at dinner, don’t be shy about asking. The waitstaff is pretty accommodating and no one is in a rush to kick you out. You could eat at Indigo (or the Summer Palace) every night and be perfectly satisfied.
Teppanyaki
In addition to the buffet and the main dining rooms, the ship also offers other restaurants where you pay a cover charge to eat in. The charges ranged from $10-$25, but I’m not sure if all of them are worth it.
We ended up checking out the dinner menus at Indigo every day before deciding whether we wanted to eat at a pay restaurant. If there wasn’t much available that we liked, then we would go for the pay restaurant. While Indigo’s menu changed every day, the others always stayed the same so it didn’t matter which day you went.
The Teppanyaki restaurant was an additional $25 charge per person and offered seafood and prime cut meats that were cooked on the hibachi in front of you. This was one of the more popular restaurants, especially with families that had children, as the hibachi chefs put on quite the show. Seating was also limited, as the ship didn’t have too many hibachi tables, so reservations are a must have.
We started the meal off with miso soup, which was pretty standard but tasty.
We also received a small portion of edamame but they were kind of limp and sad and didn’t have enough salt on them.
Next came the seaweed salad, with strips of seaweed and cabbage mixed together, topped with cucumbers, carrots, and tomatoes. The dressing was sort of a watered down thousand island dressing, not the tangy carrot ginger dressing that I’m used to.
All the meals came with vegetables cooked on the hibachi. The chef meticulously laid all the ingredients out, and made sure to flip over each piece.
It was kind of amusing to watch, since hibachi chefs usually just flip the vegetables around like if he were cooking stir fry, but this chef was really methodic about it and presented each person with a beautiful little stack.
We also got fried rice, which is just rice, eggs, and soy sauce all cooked together on the hibachi.
Josh and I both ordered the Land & Sea option, which came with filet mignon that was pretty tender and cooked rare to order.
And it came with shrimp, but only four tiny little pieces.
For dessert, there was fruit “sashimi”, which were thin slices of fruit that came with assorted dipping sauces. I thought it was a simple dish, and kind of disappointing because you can get all the fruit you want at the buffet.
There was also mochi ice cream, which were small balls of mochi filled with mango ice cream and green tea ice cream. I like mochi so I enjoyed these, but people who aren’t familiar found the texture to be off-putting.
Overall the food wasn’t bad but portions were pretty tiny. We ate here on our first night, so we didn’t realize that you could actually order more than one main course if you wanted to. Some other people around us added lobster tails to their order, but we didn’t know you could do that.
So if you do decide to eat at the Teppanyaki restaurant, just remember that you’re not limited to just one menu choice. We were pretty unsatisfied after our meal, and I didn’t think it was worth the extra $25. The food was not as tasty or as well seasoned as the food we get from our hibachi restaurant at home, and at $25, it was actually more expensive than most of the options we get at home. You don’t get as much food, and they didn’t serve noodles, which are usually my favorite. There was also no mustard sauce, which is a huge deal for me because hibachi just doesn’t taste as good without mustard sauce. So in my opinion, unless you’re really craving hibachi for some reason and can’t live without it for a week, skip this restaurant and just wait until you get home.
Shabu Shabu
Of all the restaurants that required an extra cover charge, I thought Shabu Shabu was the best value. For $15, we got a massive amount of food that we couldn’t even finish, and there was a lot of variety as well. In addition to the edamame and seaweed salad that we also had at the Teppanyaki restaurant, we received assorted vegetables, tofu, meat, noodles, and dumplings that we could cook ourselves right at our table.
Shabu shabu is basically like Chinese hot pot, or like fondue. You receive raw ingredients and cook them in a broth that is heated on a hot plate at the table. As the ingredients finish cooking, you scoop out whatever you want to eat and it’s guaranteed to be hot and cooked to the temperature you want. It’s a lot of fun to dump stuff into the broth and watch it cook in front of your eyes. As the meal goes on, the broth acquires more and more flavor, and then you can drink it if you’d like. If the the broth runs low, they’ll add in more. It’s as simple as that.
We opted for the seafood broth instead of the chicken broth, because my dad has a serious aversion to poultry (he grew up in a market in Taiwan with a lot of chickens and can’t stand the smell, even to this day). The meat that comes with the dinner includes beef and chicken, but we just asked for extra beef and no chicken for the same reason. No one gave us a hard time about that. We added vegetables to the broth first, to give it some more flavor. They gave us cabbage, carrots, onions, shiitaki and enoki mushrooms, as well as some tofu. The mushrooms were my favorite and added an earthiness to everything.
A second plate of vegetables came with lettuce, spinach, snow peas, broccoli, and more mushrooms.
Once everything was bubbling away, we started adding the beef. The smells coming from the broth were absolutely incredible.
The beef was sliced super-thin and cooked very quickly. It only needed to be dunked for about a minute or two before it was ready to be eaten.
Next up were the noodles, and they gave us lots of different kinds to choose from. There were thin and thick rice noodles, ramen noodles, and udon noodles.
My favorite were the thicker udon, which I cooked briefly to retain their bite.
Last up were the dumplings, which came with pork and leek, shrimp, and vegetable. These were frozen but still cooked quickly in the broth and were pretty tasty. My favorite was the pork and leek; the vegetable ones were kind of bland. It was hard to tell which kind you fished out of the broth though, so you wouldn’t know which dumpling you got until you bit into it.
We were stuffed but made room for ice cream. I got green tea, except it was really pale and had no green tea flavor at all. Bleh! Josh fared better with the coconut ice cream, which was appropriately coconutty and rich.
I really enjoyed Shabu Shabu a lot. It was a fun and interactive meal, and completely satisfying. I liked the variety of food we got and all the vegetables and meat were really fresh. The waitstaff was really nice and very attentive. They made sure our pot was always full of broth and brought us more of whatever we wanted. This was definitely one of my favorite meals during the whole cruise.
Blue Lagoon
The Blue Lagoon was a casual restaurant that’s open 24 hours. There’s no cover charge, it has table service, and it serves a bar menu (i.e., chicken tenders, buffalo wings, artichoke dip) that is good for days when you’re craving comfort food.
We were sick of the buffet one day so we decided to come here for lunch. The restaurant is located in the middle of the ship, and we made sure to snag a table right next to the window. It was great for doing some whale watching, and we saw several whales during our meal, as well as some seals that were slipping in and out of the water next to us. Pretty cool stuff.
We started out with an order of spinach and artichoke dip topped with romano cheese. It was a little bit greasy, but creamy and gooey. It wasn’t the greatest spinach and artichoke dip, but it was pretty satisfying. My main complaint though was that it was served lukewarm.
My mozzarella, roasted pepper, and basil panini was also a bit lukewarm. The cheese wasn’t quite melted all the way, which was too bad because it was actually a really tasty sandwich. The bread was pressed and crispy and the ingredients really worked well together. The sandwich came with fries that were just ok, decent cole slaw, and a few random leaves of arugula.
Josh got an order of hot wings, which were served hot and spicy and were really delicious. The hot sauce wasn’t quite like buffalo sauce, maybe a little bit more tomatoey in taste, but it was really good. It was a large order and completely satisfying.
Overall the Blue Lagoon was a nice break from the lunch buffet and a relaxing way to spend some time whale watching indoors. We ordered a bucket of Alaskan Amber beer and ate our lunch at a leisurely pace. The food was ok, but would have been better if they were served hotter. The advantage of the restaurant is that it’s open 24 hours, so we would stop by after having some drinks late at night and get an order of chicken tenders or some pick up some dessert to cap off our evening. It’s a very convenient go-to place on the ship.
Le Bistro
Le Bistro was the fanciest of all the pay restaurants we went to. It even had Versace dinnerware as its place setting, which I thought was pretty neat (yes, we turned the plates over to see). Despite the fancy décor, however, the cover charge was on the lower end at $15, and I think it was worth the extra money.
I had a hard time choosing what appetizer I wanted so I spent a long time negotiating with Josh to pick our top two choices and split them 50-50. We decided on the onion soup au gratin and the escargots bourguignonne. When we placed our order, however, the waiter encouraged us order two appetizers each. Perfect! So I ended up having the onion soup as well as a duo of foie gras terrine and smoked duck breast, while Josh stuck with the onion soup and escargots.
The onion soup was one of the best things I had all cruise. It was rich and beefy and absolutely satisfying. My only complaint was that it wasn’t completely covered in cheese; only the crouton had cheese on it. Still, it was really delicious as is.
The foie gras terrine was a bit of a disappointment as it was way more livery than foie gras usually tastes. It definitely had the funky flavor that you would find in any liverwurst. The smoked duck breast was good, but it didn’t really go with the foie gras. I ended up spreading the terrine on accompanying brioche toast and eating the smoked duck separately.
The escargots were served with the traditional garlic herb butter, and they were hot and delicious. But how can you go wrong with garlic and butter?
For my main course, I chose the roasted rack of lamb. It came with sauteed artichokes, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and a green olive sauce. The lamb was cooked rare to order, but it had a huge layer of fat on it. I know that cooking it rare means less time for the fat to melt, but this was an excessive layer. I tried to cut it off but there was just too much of it, so I didn’t get to nibble on the lamb bones, which is usually my favorite part. The dish was just ok; I’ve definitely had tastier lamb elsewhere.
Josh had the special of the night, a veal chop served with asparagus and potato gratin. The waiter failed to mention, however, that the veal chop was stuffed with bleu cheese. Ugh. Josh and I both hate bleu cheese with a passion. Although he tried to scrape it out, there was just too much of it and we could taste it throughout the dish. Cutting the veal chop in half to stuff it also caused the meat to be overcooked, so it was pretty dry and tough.
For dessert I had a chocolate “napoleon” that was kind of weird. It had chocolate cake at the bottom, and a ring of chocolate on top, but I have no idea what was in between. Maybe some sort of hazelnut cream? No clue. It was pretty though.
Josh had crepe suzettes, which were doused with grand marnier. They had a nice orangey flavor but were way too sweet.
Overall I was a bit disappointed with Le Bistro, but the restaurant had so much potential. The appetizers were definitely better than the entrees so I’m glad the waiter encouraged us to order two. I still left the restaurant full but not completely satisfied. Josh’s mom had a filet mignon, which was cooked perfectly, but she said it had absolutely no flavor. The onion soup was really wonderful though. The $15 cover charge isn’t totally outrageous, and you do get to dine in a really nice atmosphere. If you really like french food, then I think it would be worth the extra charge.
Summer Palace
We only ate at the Summer Palace on the last night of our cruise, as we were deterred by the dress code. However, we heard from other people that the dress code was not enforced, so we went in jeans and sweatpants and it was totally ok. No one bothered us about how we looked.
I couldn’t decide which appetizer I wanted, and this being a cruise with unlimited food, I ordered two appetizers (my sister did as well, so I didn’t feel as bad). The first was a seafood ceviche, but it was kind of gross. It had overcooked shrimp and calamari and bay scallops in it, and it was covered in what tasted like salsa. Definitely not like ceviche.
The second, a strawberry soup with a balsamic reduction drizzled on top, tasted like a smoothie. It was really good but more like dessert than an appetizer. I think it needed a bit more balsamic vinegar to make it more savory. I still enjoyed it though.
The last night happened to be another lobster night, and it was the same tough and dry Australian lobster tails, served over pasta. The pasta wasn’t so bad, but the lobster was still a disappointment. Josh wasn’t thrilled with his meal.
I ordered the rack of lamb though, and it was fabulous. It was way better than the rack of lamb that I had at Le Bistro, and this one didn’t have an extra cover charge! To avoid the same problem I had last time with the huge layer of unmelted fat, I ordered my lamb medium rare and it was cooked perfectly. They also cleaned the bones better this time so I was able to nibble away happily. The accompanying lentils were also cooked perfectly, with just a little bite to them. Overall this was a really well put together dish.
For dessert we had a pistachio pot de crème, which was good but not so strong in pistachio flavor. It was rich and creamy though.
We also had a molten chocolate cake, which was standard.
Between the two main dining rooms, Indigo and the Summer Palace, I prefer Indigo. The Summer Palace is a bit stuffy in décor, though it might make people think they’re dining on the Titanic or some other classic cruise ship. They didn’t enforce the dress code with us, but we dined pretty late and the huge room was almost empty, so maybe that was why they let us slide. Indigo has much more modern décor and just seems a bit hipper. They both serve exactly the same food though, so it just depends on your personal preference. Either way, these restaurants are a nicer option than eating at the buffet yet again.
Overall I didn’t think the food on the Norwegian Pearl was that bad. It certainly wasn’t the best food, but it was passable. I was never really wowed by anything, but I also wasn’t grossed out by anything. We ate a lot, and often, because there wasn’t much else to do on the ship. Yes there’s a casino and a pool and bars and sports courts and a gym and a spa and other activities, but you’re on the ship basically for an entire week, minus a few hours when you’re in port. And some days you don’t go to any port, so you’re stuck on the ship the entire day. Only little kids played in the pool (it was freezing out on deck but I guess the pools are heated), and the sports courts were generally always occupied.
We did clumb the rock wall on our last day, but it only took 15 minutes and made me super sore (I’m very out of shape).
We bowled one night, but at $5 a game, it’s not exactly cheap.
Drinking was our main activity, whether it was drinking while whale watching in Spinnaker’s Lounge or having drinks before dinner at the Crystal Pavilion, but drinks are also pretty pricey. We stuck mostly with beer, which was $5-$7 a bottle. Everything is charged to your room (you carry around a key card that they swipe) so beware of sticker shock at the end of the trip. They’re also super pushy with the alcohol, which was a huge turnoff for us. Within 30 seconds of walking into a bar, at least two different people will come by and ask you if you want a drink. Even if you’re already holding one. It was pretty ridiculous and very annoying, so just be warned.
As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think cruising is for me. I didn’t feel active and most of the time I was pretty bored. But I loved all the ports we went to and all of our excursions. The scenery in Alaska is worth suffering through a cruise for. I’d love to go back and explore some of the other areas that we didn’t get to go to on this trip, but hopefully I can do those areas without having to cruise.
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