Natsumi Tapas — Restaurant in New York

My wife and I visited Natsumi with our 4 year old daughter at the beginning of March. Overall we were pleased with the restaurant with a few caveats.

The restaurant itself is very nice looking - we had a booth which was a little cozy, but not cramped. It wasn't too dark, and while it was relatively noisy, you could still have a conversation without yelling, or repeating yourself constantly.

Our visit didn't start out too well - when we were considering what to order - the waiter kept coming back every 30 seconds, which was a bit annoying. If we're still looking at the menu and talking about the menu, we're probably not ready to order. If we've put the menu down and we're looking around, we're probably ready...

We started by ordering miso soup, a seafood soup and crab meat dumplings. The miso soup was good, but nothing out of the ordinary. The seafood soup was acceptable, but not great. The crab meat dumplings were not very good. My daughter and I had just had dumplings at Auntie Guan's kitchen, where the dumplings were less expensive and fantastic. We also got a glass of sake, which was part of the Chef Moriawase, so we didn't have too high expectations - my wife loves sake and will usually drink it even if it isn't great. She declined to finish this glass...

So... Thirty minutes or so in, we're not so impressed. Then, before the main courses arrived, the waiter came by to inform us that he'd made a mistake in describing the sushi that we had ordered (the Chef Moriawase) and it did not come with sashimi, just sushi. So, whatever - it wasn't quite what we were expecting but we didn't really want to wait for them to redo the order either. As a show of appreciation for our understanding, he did give us an oyster (it would have been nice to have two, since we were clearly sharing) which was a nice gesture.

Anyway, the sushi made everything else worthwhile. If we ever go back there, we'll skip everything but the sushi. Really, for a not super-high-end sushi place, the sushi was absolutely amazing. In total we got the Chef Mirawase, a Doppio Toro Roll, a Tuna Roll, a Tako, a Hotate, a Rockshrimp Roll and two Ika Sushi. All of it was fantastic. We have had better sushi, but not anywhere near this price range. The Chef Moriawase, even without the sashimi, was well worth the price and included a selection of toro cuts.

We arrived at 7:30pm and the restaurant was pretty empty when we arrived. By the time our main course arrived, around 8pm, it had gotten a little more crowded, although it was still not full. However, in a change from our prior experience, it was suddenly difficult to flag our waiter down.. I think part of this is due to the slightly weird layout of the restaurant where the waiter had to go multiple places to accomplish tasks.

All in all, if we are in the area again, we would go back - the sushi is really amazing, but we'd pass on the appetizers and tapas. (To be fair we only tried the dumplings from the...

Walked in with my wife and two daughters after seeing a show at 5PM on a Sunday. The place was practically empty (one table taken). The hostess tried to sit us in the corner away from the much nicer main dining area. When my wife politely asked if we could change our table, the hostess told us they were reserved. We explained we also reserved a table using Open Table. One of the waitresses made a gesture that we could have another table, pointing to a much nicer spot, but she dismissed her and turned her back on us, pretending to be busy. When we asked again she was rude, so we left and went a few doors down to The...

A loyal customer since opening day, i might have noticed the lack of sincerity a while back. However, i loved their special rolls and attractive ambiance. Truly a shame when you realize your loyalty goes one way and one way only. In this case, fown to two minutes beyond the unusually short Happy Hour which ends at 6:30....NOT 6:31, CERTAINLY NOT 6:32! When I calmly suggested that my long term loyalty (and that of many friends) might set the precedent for mutual respect, the retorte was "we are nice"! Perhaps so, but disingenously nice I'd say. ...