Restaurant Week/Summer Promotion: 6 course tasting ($38)
As I was paying the check last night, I mentioned to Sabrina how in our two+ years of knowing each other, our dinners and brunches have progressed- from $20 meals, to $60 meals, to now $100+ meals. In other words, we’ve now been able to complement our meals with alcoholic beverages. This is how we stimulate the economy.
That being said, we’re always wary of Restaurant Week menus, so we do our research before we go. The standard restaurant week menu is a mediocre three-course meal that doesn’t necessarily showcase the restaurant’s best food. In fact, the point of restaurant week is to sell by volume. If you can attract enough people into your restaurant while guaranteeing that they have to spend $50 (including tax & tip), then you can be quite profitable.
I chose Matusugen for Sabrina’s long overdue birthday dinner for two reasons. First, it’s a Jean-Georges restaurant (well, we’ll get more into that later) and second, their restaurant week menu offers a 6 course tasting menu.
Matsugen is located in the triangle below canal (Tribeca!) and while Tribeca can be lively, some streets are desolate. This is exactly the case with Matsugen. I think we passed by one other person on the street walking into the restaurant, and walked out without seeing a soul until we crossed to the next block. It’s almost a trek just to make it out to Matusgen.
We used that logic to attempt to reason why Matsugen was nearly 75% empty on a Saturday night around 7pm. Our dinner reservations were for 6:30pm, and when we arrived, only three tables were occupied. But what’s strikingly different about Matsugen is the layout of the dining room. Almost everyone has commented on this whether it be on Yelp, NYMAG, or other blogs. Instead of a large, single flowing dining room, the room is partitioned into three sections. Mesh-wire fence like barricades are planted on top of the benches (which is very, very odd if you ask me). There’s a large fish tank that wraps around the corner above the benches in the back right of the dining room. Overall, instead of creating an intimate feeling, the emptiness made the restaurant feel cold, almost isolating, and this was multiplied by the partitions. Halfway through our dinner, a couple got seated right next to the wall even though a two-top was clearly empty near the prime spot next to the window. A terrible choice by the hostess if you ask us.
Raspberry-Lychee Bellini ($11) & Cucumber Martini ($12)
We started off the night with cocktails. Originally, I was going to order a Riesling, but the Raspberry-Lychee Bellini sounded really delicious. It’s a really fruity, sweet drink and you can taste the raspberry more than anything else. This is definitely one of my top favorite cocktails. Sabrina asked for recommendations and the server recommended the Cucumber Martini. He promised her it would be light, but we both felt it was a bit on the strong side. I’m not a big fan of cucumbers, but even though the martini obviously had hints of cucumber, it was oddly refreshing. I’d get the Bellini over the Martini, though.
Fried Soba & Edamame
It seemed as if the other two tables next to us also got the restaurant week menu because we saw these rolling out one after another. The edamame (which sells for like $2 at any other Japanese joint) is lightly salted and spiced. Nothing special there. The fried soba, though, was interesting. Definitely a very low cost and high margin “first course,” but I’ve never though about frying soba. I think I might do that at home and then lightly salt them as a snack. They tasted like potato chips.
Edamame
I’d reckon this is their most profitable plate margin wise…
Appetizer Sampler
Within moments, the appetizer sampler came out. I love it whenever tapas sized plates are grouped together on a square dish. It justifies the measly amount of each portion.
Crispy Shrimp, Spinach Gomae, Homemade Soft Tofu, Uni with Yuzu Gelee
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