This review is a total joke. This place certainly does not deserve this very good review.
Can we have some Asian people review Japanese food???
I feel Westerners like this reviewer do not qualify.
I can see fish flown all over the world from Japan. Somehow it reminds me of a writer visiting 52 places in one year. Paola Antonelli has a good show in Milan right now. Maybe Pete could fly over there to see it and then fly to Japan to pick up some fish.
1
I thought Odo was back with the Great Link.
1
"....behind an unmarked door inside a cocktail parlor..."....these are the types of restaurants that Wells seems to love. If there's one thing that Manhattan does NOT need it's another restaurant that's hidden "behind an unmarked door" that offers food at $200 a pop. I don't care how beautiful the cedar plank is, it's simply not what Manhattan needs more of. Nothing personal against the restaurant - I haven't been there - and like most of those places that Wells loves, I don't intend to either. How long, I continue to ask, is too long for one critic to remain at the helm as The Times' food critic?
3
As far as food is concerned, one word: Queens.
4
Ah, soju, my first also came out of barrel shaped crockery, buried in the ground in an off-limits village near the DMZ in fifties Korea, and served with kimchi and a meat they said was pork. Although I never saw any pigs (or dogs, for that matter).
2
Fascinating! Thank you, Mr Wells.
3
All these comments about the meal being expensive, about it not being authentically Japanese, about it being disjointed. Pete literally said as much in the last paragraph:
"As with the cocktail and the sushi, each of these dishes could, if Mr. Odo wanted, be leveraged into separate specialized restaurants, or food-hall stands. You could tell yourself that $200 is a large amount of money for a single meal or you could say that for the chance to visit all these different establishments without leaving your seat, it’s a pretty good deal. Either way, you’d be right."
And earlier:
"Somewhere along the way Mr. Odo also picked up technical skills in traditions far outside kaiseki."
10
The menu at Odo reads like "Yankeeized" Japanese cuisine. Disturbing is that "at Odo, almost all the fish ... may be several weeks old before" it is served.
As an aside, I do not like fermented cabbage and other vegetables, and would much rather savor Japanese fresh fish and sea-products.
2
But most sushi has aged fish. Like beef, properly aged fish tastes better.
19
@ Michael Lazar Bethesda MD
This is big news to me. Are you certain that fish "should be aged"? I would never buy a fish on ice, the eyes of which are not bright.
@Tuvw Xyz If you've ever had a sushi omakase more upmarket than, say, Sugarfish, you've had aged fish.
5
Cherry leaves.
In early March, presumably. Just past the dead of winter. All the trees are busted out.
Oh that's right, I see them in the markets. Cherry leaves are a standard. I know right away "hey, that's cherry leaf, right? I think probably black cherry, not sour cherry...wait, let me chew on it longer..."
2
Something to chew on indeed! Well played, sir. Well played!
Please don't call this "Kaiseki".
Kaiseki changes daily depending on season, weather, the mood the chef wants to generate in her guest. A stalk of popped barley on for a July noon meal.
NYC kaiseki is no more kaiseki than California rolls are sushi.
8
Wow! Finally! An obscure Manhattan restaurant that charges a minimum of $200 (per person) without this, that, or the other thing. Whew!
16
Is anyone else tired of the fetishisation of food and hagiography of chefs?
When the definitive book about the fall of the United States is written, I suspect one of the chapters will be titled: The Decadence Of Food Worship
20
I’m confident that the decline of western civilization will be attributed— at least foodwise— to our utter distain as a culture for anything other than the cheap, disposable and wasteful way we treat the earth that feed us. Although care and time in food can be costly financially, the savings in our banks of going to McDonald’s are far more damaging to our souls.
7
@Luciano
Amen, Luciano, with bells and cherry leaves and sparkles on top. Decadent the food scene is; more risible it also becomes by the day.
So. You walk through a raucous bar where “initial entry can be bumpy.” I’ll bet. Then, for $200+, “on the far side of the hidden door, all is polished courtesy and helpfulness.” What an adventurer (not to mention one-percenter) you must be, just like a Prohibition-era speakeasy hopper, and the clichés you seek are all awaiting you.
Farm-to-Mouth? The “lamb used to gambol in the Hudson Valley,” and the clams partied in Long Island Sound. Chef as Zen Master? Odo “follows the vegetarian cooking tradition known as shojin ryori, born centuries ago in Zen Buddhist temples.”
Not to mention, of course, end-stage capitalism: each of three particular dishes “could, if Mr. Odo wanted, be leveraged into separate specialized restaurants, or food-hall stands.”
I’m offering odds that they will be.
2
@Luciano
Another chapter will be on TVs in cars and trucks. followed by one on oversized rims and tires that degrade the handling characteristics of the vehicle.
is it normal to have menu on their website w/o prices?
I guess if you must ask you can't afford it.
thanks anyway, my little ramen shop is just dandy for me!!
4
If one has thdisposable income it sounds like a wonderful dining experience. But by the time the bill arrives it is probably closer to 300 than the mentioned 200. And when you double that for a couple...
6
@Stanford
Can I put it on my Costco card?
6
@ Stanford NYC
For a couple, $600 in today's money is about 1/2 ounce of gold. At the historical, pre-1930s FDR price, it would have been $10. How much would a not prohibitively extravagant dinner cost in those days?