The Lobster Club Does Japanese, From Raw to Half-Baked

A menu with no prices. Sounds very welcoming.

Yes, it's trendy, expensive, obnoxious and pretentious but who cares if your dinner is covered by your client's expense credit card.

Is it possible, dear Times, that I saw a vapidly smiling woman in a real fur coat at the bar in one of the photos? Hello. It is 2018. Real fur is so viciously '50's.

Tell me that this review originally appeared in The Onion.

What's with the name? I know. They must serve lobster. However this pseudo erotic circus sounds like the farthest thing from something one might call "The Lobster Club." Wouldn't that be more picnic tables and Nantucket in the summer? Pretention knows no limits.

Memo to NYT Editors: Please send Mr. Wells out to Yankee Stadium when baseball season starts. I'm dying to read his review of the food and everything else, especially the club uniforms and background music.

Interesting that a NYT Critic would generalize all Japanese restaurants to have noodles and tofu......

Sounds positively ghastly. And anyone who eats the uncooked/raw flesh of anything, anywhere, has to be out of their mind! After all the screaming from aficionados settles, I suggest everyone do an internet search under "flukes and parasites found in raw fish or meat" and look at the images of what come up. Then read about the diseases they induce.

From the people who brought you $83 lasagna and a $23 veal parmigiana hero. No thanks.

So utterly ridiculous. I mean what can be said about an over-the-top expensive JAPANESE restaurant owned by "chefs" (are they cooking in the kitchen?) named Torrisi and Carbone serving FRENCH Onion Soup. None of this makes one bit of sense according to the admittedly antiquated outlook I have on such things. See, I believe a chef is supposed to actually COOK in his restaurant, not spend all day looking at balance sheets and payroll.

An absolute burial. Well done.

The critic has failed to mention the last version of the Brasserie, before it closed, with its slightly pitched dining room floor (peas rolled off one’s plate), a men’s room with a communal urinal that resembled a horse trough for display or viewing of equipment, a cam that projected huge images of customers entering the restaurant to the whole place, and in general design that seemed designed to make everyone uncomfortable. The food was never remarkable, even in the original French Moderne decor. In its original version, it was at least comfortable and convenient, especially late at night when there weren’t that many places serving short-order French food—certainly at affordable prices. At least the new place sounds like fun ... at a price.

It must be a popular place. I was walking by one night as a taxi pulled up and a gaggle of 20 or 30 something girlies started to emerge. As they did, the doorman walked over and said "good evening, ladies, do you have a reservation?" They said yes and he went and held the front door open for them. I guess if they'd said no he would have suggested they get back in that cab before it took off.

Thank you for an entertaining read. It sounds ghastly, except perhaps for the salmon teriyaki. But I guess I’d have to eat that with my eyes closed and while wearing earplugs. Sexual healing indeed. On a more serious note, I’m alarmed that a restaurant would incorporate foie gras into a chicken meatball and not note that ngredient on the menu. Customers have a right to know what they are eating. One might object to the cruelty behind the production of that fatty organ, and not want to be part of that abuse.

One look at the decor and the food, and I immediately flashed on Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I did not mean that in a good way. 'Relax, don't do it...'

Lobster Club a ridiculous restaurant that deserves to exist only in Las Vegas. Torrisi never had any good food and it was yet another joke. High prices for camp, not quality. There are far superior options for eating than any of their places. Good luck to them and their Disneyesque adult clientelle and millennials who haven't yet learned better.

I will probably never go to the Lobster Club, but I nevertheless enjoyed the review tremendously. For the earlier commentators who excoriated Mr Wells because he has an opinion (horrors) that does not align with theirs, I would like to point out that on the whole, the reviewer LIKED virtually everything he tried.

Sounds like what a trendy and obnoxious NY restaurant should be. Kinda good but better bling and you’re happy when it’s over.

Too bad. My dad loved The Brasserie -- his style of casual dining in Mies' architectural masterpiece. And, yes, the onion soup. So '50's, but so wonderful.

Thank you, Mr. Wells for vividly chronicling Aby Rosen and Peter Marino's attempt to create a Bunga Bunga Room of their very own. The oil-oozing food, reference to Ruby Foo's and unfinished desserts tell us all we need to know about the Lobster Club. I look forward to the next iteration of the former Brasserie.

Kakigori-shaved ice- go to any coffee shop in Korea Town (32nd St) and you can have this shaved ice any day with far more toppings. My son has a passion for shaved ice and we love going there.

Sounds like a place more interested in itself than the food it serves. Remind me to miss it (and yes I miss The Seasons).

" The booths are upholstered in a chartreuse camouflage pattern, a useful fabric if the Army ever needs to hide in a green neon jungle." Another Wellsian classic. There is no accounting for taste (or lack thereof).

Sorry. Nothing can take the place of the original Brasserie - and I don't mean the redesigned version. 24 hours, a counter if you so chose, booths with Picasso ceramics, traditional dishes, reliable service, and affordable prices. It was always there when you needed it.

The restaurant decor is very inviting. As a whole, I do not trust the mixing of meat and fish, and the seemingly raw sea bass (slide 3) and scallops (slide 5) call for caution. But the meat dish with nine sauces (slide 6) is something that I would try unhesitatingly. A surprising absence of more than one kind of lobster serving, mentioned by Mr. Wells. The bartenders' attire of "leather daddies" lacks only elegant pistol leather holsters, and forks on the tables might have been replaced by tridents, for the atmosphere.

Restaurant looks like a lot of fun. Will be adding it to my "To Try" list, which I can't usually say for most of Wells' reviews. (Hungry City...that's another story...)

I suspect this is the first time the term Leather Daddies has appeared in a NYT restaurant review.

"A man with silver hair, a double-breasted blazer and a pocket square is circling the perimeter, swiveling his head, an eager expression in his eyes, as if he had been told there would be a limbo pole." Another indelible image, Mr. Wells!! The whole restaurant sounds (and looks) a bit fevered, as though the owners threw all their ideas into a blender, turned it on "high," then spread the resulting hodgepodge on a tarp to dry before bringing in an Greenwich Village graffiti artist to add the final upscale touches. Perhaps they've gone off their Ritalin or something.

This review sounds like someone who woudnt have liked the restaraunt no matter how anything was presented. I expected the review to start talking bout the experience of the Lobster Club and not some petty condescending paragraphs about "fake italian restaurant" and people in costume. What a poor introduction whihch clearly colored how you felt before you even stepped foot in the Lobster Club. When my mother and I went there, she loved the atmosphere and how fun it was compared to the other locations. The atmosphere did not overlook the food, I thought it complimented it. The cocktails were absolutely delicious and the grilled branzino with accompanying 9 sauces was divine. The wagyu sushi was amongst my favorites along with the cocunut rock shrimp. I loved the decor and the music was one of my favorite parts. Clearly there was an expectation of listening to water falls and chirping bird akin to a spa outing based on his stringent distaste of the music. I plan on going there for Valentines Day and many other times after.

Pete you rascal, making us read between the lines! Message received, decoded, and authenticated sir. What, no Polynesian floor show for that kind of pricing? No delicious cocktails served in a pineapple, with an umbrella? All of that fun, surgically removed, in favor of the strange and unusual, and somewhat unsuccessful mashup. Yet another example of more money, than brains. Perhaps too many brains, like the old adage of too many chefs making a broth. And an architect who modifies a work of art, speaks volumes of integrity to me. Current Seagrams score 2/1 - W/L Bigger question: Who doesn’t love a consistently good, and pleasing brassiere?

Yet another review that is more about the aura (the owners, the designers, the art, the furniture) and less about the food. Thanks Peter.

I totally have to disagree with you on this review. I thoroughly enjoyed this restaurant. It is one of my favorites. The food was mouthwatering. Maybe there is something wrong with your taste buds. The music was great. To let you know I had the kakigori and I completed it and it definitely was delicious. It is the manager job to walk around and observe. Your review seems like you have some animosity towards the restaurant. I give this restaurant a 4 star.