Sushi Mitani NYC

IT’S 2:18AM EASTERN STANDARD TIME

My fingers type slowly.

They’ve seen better days. Blame the 4,821 basketballs that folded my fingers like a Borsini. It’s all taken a toll.

10 years ago, I might have been in a 42 person line for the bathroom/coffin at L’Esquina, hopping from leg-to-leg to avoid a premature leak. But I’m older now. I know what’s important (and hopping no longer works).

New York’s newest, priciest and buzziest sushi import is also its most mysterious. There is just one review on Google, and it is deep.

 

So the sushi signal went out. Sushi Batman was needed.

MITANI NEW YORK IS NOW AT THE LOTTE PALACE

It’s ironic- shoutout Alanis, one of the great living Canadians – that the World Cup (TM, copyright, ESQ, DONT SUE ME FIFA) is also landing in New York at the same time.

Leveraging a renowned brand to milk their customers like a Holstein? All to suck whatever juice made the brand so special in the first place?

The parallels are striking.

At least FIFA brings its top talent.

LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT TOP TALENT

Yasuhiko Mitani runs his eponymous counter in Shinjuku. Mitani is not to be confused with Kioicho Mitani, the offshoot more accessible to plebs like yours truly. If someone claims they’ve been to Mitani, odds are it’s that one. Stolen valor.

Mitani is a sushiya with a purported four-year wait. My previews here cover what makes it special; spoiler: it’s a mixture of the sushi and the wine pairings. As Mitani-san described in Sushi Shokunin, wine-picking responsibilities lie with the sushi chef, not a sommelier.

THREE MENUS ON OFFER

Hope you didn’t tie up all your money in monkey gifs.

• Sushi Mitani: $700 per guest, 12 courses of sushi plus 6-7 otsumami and four teas
• Sushi Mitani Mariage: $1500 per guest, the sushi plus standard alcohol pairings
• Premium Mitani Mariage: From $2,000 per guest, the sushi plus elevated alcohol pairings.

Mitani-san is a venerable sushi legend, and the pricing reflects that.

ONE SMALL PROBLEM

Mitani isn’t here. His apprentices from Kioicho Mitani are. And yet, on sticker price alone, Mitani is 30% more expensive than Sushi Sho, whose legend is actually in New York.

The team says that Mitani-san will come a few times a year for special nights to serve VIPs of the Lotte Palace, which is little like being in the chairman’s club on Allegiant.

Charging ultra-premium prices for apprentices from the B team – good as they may be – is nasty work.

No surprise that I was the only person at the counter.

AN AREA I ABHOR

Mitani is located in the Lotte Palace, and so you might figure it’s easy to find. You’d figure wrong. Google Maps will direct you to an door on 51st that’s closed nights and weekends. That’s a problem for a restaurant mostly open on nights and weekends.

So instead, pass the two security guards on Madison, walk down the opulent staircase, and make a left. Look for this small marquee.

MAKE SURE YOU GO TO THE BATHROOM FIRST

I briefly worried that my preview articles were too mean to the Lotte Palace. I called it the hotel lobby for cruise ship afficianados. After visiting, I now realize I wasn’t mean enough. The exterior is beautiful; the interior is more tired than me.

I know this because I traversed the entire hotel to find the nearest bathroom. The Oregon Trail was shorter. Given the boozy push, I’m legitimately curious how the omakase can stay on schedule if customers spend half the meal walking back and forth from the loo?

THE OTSUMAMI

We start with Uni in a Konbu Jelly. This is a dish that has started meals at the honten. It’s undoubtedly a crowd pleaser, but the temperature – warm, bordering on hot – makes it difficult to enjoy the texture and creamy taste that I usually enjoy so much.

THE TEMPURA

One of you legends had given me advance warning, but still; 50% of the otsumami are fried. Apparently, the Mitani crew believes – for some strange, misguided reason – that this is what people here want.

Kuruma ebi tempura.

I’m no expert, but I’d suggest that any sushi addicts willing to spend $700++ for a tribute band aren’t jumping for joy at popcorn shrimp.

AN OASIS

The meal perked up with Anago (conger eel), a summer delicacy that makes the first of its two appearances in course number 3.

What made it special?

Let’s start with the sourcing. Mitani gets their anago from Tsushima, an island between Kyushu and South Korea. I believe – so no angry emails if I’m wrong – that the supplier is Tsushima Suisan, renowned for its so-called “Golden Anago” and for using ikejime, a method that preserves the catch without killing it, ostensibly in a humane manner.

While typically served with nitsume (the thick, traditional sauce), some Itamae will keep Anago naked – save for some salt – during June, the rainy, peak season. So it was here, kept perfectly warm to retain the flavour.

This was one of my favourite non-sushi dishes I can recall from a New York sushiya.

The tempura returns for course 4. This Kinmedai was deliciously raw, and the plate is undoubtedly beautiful, but it was yet another fried course. Who is this for? Surely not sushi addicts spending four figures looking for sushi?

I also did not care for course 5, another that is served at the honten – perhaps without the Uni – and considered a signature. It is a pseudo stew of Kegani in an Uni ‘sauce’, too warm to do the Uni justice, too Uni-filled to taste the Kegani.

THE MEAL REALLY TURNS ON SUSHI

We started with what’s presented as Yari-ika (Spear Squid), typically a spring neta. It’s best served aged, when it morphs from translucent to white.

Prepared well, but what you (should) immediately notice is the shari (sushi rice).

This was among the best shari I’ve had in New York

Seeing my reaction, Apprentice A proudly explains the strain is the same as the main shop’s,

So to is the seasoning; four kinds of rice vinegar, some akazu (red sushi vinegar), some kurozu (black rice vinegar).

But you could give me that rice, those ingredients, a magic wand and Harry Potter himself, and I wouldn’t come close. The apprentices clearly learned something. Is it good as Mitani? No fucking clue, and while it matters a little – don’t put the Mitani name on the door if you don’t want that as the bar – it doesn’t matter a lot.

I loved it.

MASU NO HIKARIMONO

Still though, the selection of Neta is curious. Masu makes an appearance next, for similar reasons to the proliferation of TEmpura and antiliferation of hikarimono is not. It’s very wrong, but I’m also the person that dropped their car keys down a grate. I’m a moron.

WORD OF WARNING ON THE MAKI

For those that eat with their eyes, the thick cuts of tuna in the honten’s makizushi might be interesting. My evening, Nakaochi – scraped tuna from the rib bone, delicious, but no shape – was used. You can see the difference below.

A WORD IF I MAY ON SHAKO

While the variety of neta may be lacking – there wasn’t a single hikarimono(silver-skinned fish) – Mitani is still very focused on seasonality. Shako (mantis shrimp) is a great example. June is the tail-end (pun very much intended) of its first season, when it spawns and the tail teems with roe.

I ALSO CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THE KANPYO INARIZUSHI

For a sushiya to be truly memorable, I need something new. New doesn’t mean untraditional; last year, a sushiya served me salmon with melted mozzarella. Grazie mille for the mozz, but I buried the review, called an exorcist and haven’t spoken about it since.

This kanpyomaki inarizushi though…

Kanpyomaki defines Edomae sushi. But inarizushi is a period delicacy as well. It’s a tofu pocket wrapped around rice like treasure inside a pouch. While Kanpyo sometimes is included, the full maki isn’t – until now. Mitani serves them together here and in Japan, a jointly delicious reminder that sushi isn’t just fish.

THE VERDICT

A funny thing happened with the World Cup. Once it started, I cared less about the pricing, the location, the blatant consumerism of it all.

I’m glued to every game.

I watched thousands of  Chattanoogites – or perhaps Chattanoogians – welcome the Spanish National Team to the Aman Chattanooga, aka the Embassy Suites.

I found 31 different angles of an orange mass shuffle left and right in perfect unison. It is, after all, still the fucking World Cup.

And this was, after all, a special meal, right on the cusp of my Sushi Seven.

WHICH LEADS ME TO A PLEA FOR MITANI NYC

Let’s get smarter. You’re the second most expensive sushiya in New York, twice the price of any non-legended sushiya. That doesn’t include wine pairings, which you encourage, despite the bathroom expeditions and operational slowdowns it will inevitably cause.

The only people coming to your sushiya are sushi addicts and narcissistic bloggers. Despite that, your tempura-heavy otsumami and common neta are tailored to neophytes. It makes no sense.

And yet.

The sushi you serve is fantastic. Truly fantastic. That anago. That Kanpyo Inarizushi! 

That shari.

They’re all worth a visit.

So please, change the otsumami. Bring the prices down. Especially at lunch, but especially at dinner. If you’re worried people will get confused, (a) it’s still early and (b) not enough people are coming to notice.

Recommended.