Sen Sakana — Restaurant in New York

Last week, I had the pleasure of dining out at Sen Sakana in the city. I don’t get to Manhattan often, however, this Japanese and Peruvian fusion restaurant has long been on my radar. I was really impressed with the openness and size of the room with the modern feel and all the lighting. As soon as we were seated by our server, we were presented with a tablet menu featuring beautiful pictures of each dish as well has a hot towel to clean your hands with. For my drink I went with the Rising Sun which had Japanese roku gin and grapefruit juice topped with egg whites. It was delicious. We started off with some fish dishes. The first was an authentic Peruvian dish called Ceviche Nikkei which consisted of some torched salmon, Peruvian crispy corn, shiso and Yuzu Leche d’Tigre. This dish was so fresh and vibrant. We loved the crunchiness of the Peruvian crispy corn and the fish was so fresh and light. We also tried the highly popular Crispy Rice Onigiri which is three “triangles of crispy rice topped with Spicy Tuna and a side of spicy tuna dip and ponzu sauce.” Each bite was like an explosion in our mouths of warm crispy rice and fresh tuna and ponzu goodness. We highly recommend both of these dishes. If that wasn’t enough, we still wanted to try two rolls of sushi from their amazing sushi chefs working right next to us. We ordered the Crazy Sen Sakana roll and the Maguro Tartare. The first was sweet while the second was spicy. Besides having cucumbers, scallions, tuna, salmon and yellowtail, the Crazy Sen Sakana roll was topped with Kanikama, believe it or not cornflakes, spicy mayo and sweet sauce. This roll had cornflakes on it!!! And it was delicious and sweet. The Maguro Tartare on the other hand, consisted of tuna, avocado and something called Yamagobo and topped with tomato salsa. When you visit, definitely try these two rolls. Now it was time for some hot apps and mains. We started with the Beef Dumplings which I try everywhere. The Peruvians excel in dumplings and these were extremely soft and delicate. They were filled with brisket, chive, ginger and gyoza, served with a delicious Aji Limo Ponzu dip. The next dish highly recommended by our server was the Crispy Stir-fry Steak Cigars, crunchy on the outside and meaty goodness on the inside. I could easily see why these were so popular. The cigars were filled with juicy beef, scallions, tomatoes, onions, ginger in pastry with Peruvian Aji Verde Sauce. The sauce was almost like an avocado sauce, green in color, with cooling elements and a unique flavor profile. Lastly, we went with something unique called the Quinoa Crusted Chicken Breast. I know, doesn’t sound adventures at all, but the flavors! Wow! The quinoa had such a good crunch to it, while the chicken breast was still so juicy and soft. The Japanese balsamic sweet and sour sauce under the cutlet elevated this simple chicken dish and makes it one of their popular dishes. This main came with a side of Aji Amarillo Tarter Sauce and purple potato salad. One of the most popular and well known dishes is the Japanese Cucumber. I know, a Cucumber? Seriously? Yes. Something so simple could pack such a punch of flavor. It’s literally three ingredients but sometimes it is best to let the main star, in this case the cucumber, speak for itself. It’s a Japanese cucumber with crispy quinoa and Aji Amarillo sesame oil. Juicy, crunchy and delicious. You must try this dish. What a meal. Naturally we wanted to try more, but we were so full. However… there is always room for dessert. I went with the Chocolate Six Layers Cake. Soft, moist and full of chocolate goodness. I can’t wait for my next visit to Sen Sakana to try even more or their wonderful food and meet more of their amazingly friendly and...

I just want to start out by saying that I was so excited to try a fusion restaurant of 2 of my favorite cuisines (Japanese & Peruvian). Prior to me coming in, I googled this place and saw that the lunch time was Mon-Thu: 11:30am-4pm and Happy Hour was Mon-Thu: 3pm-7pm, but no where on their website does it say "Happy Hour is only bar side", frustrating. I had my reservation at 3pm and I was told that the lunch time finished which was even more disappointing. Heads up the menus aren't updated on the website so if you are going into this place because of a certain dish, prepare to be disappointed. On the plus side, the restaurant is immaculate, love the ambiance and décor. Now the service, the host was very sweet and welcoming and sat me right away. I sat a good 5 minutes maybe before a busser asked me what kind of water I wanted and took another 10 minutes to serve simple tap water, keeping in mind I was the second table in an empty restaurant, the conversation by the bar seemed more important. The server approached next and asked me if I was ready for my drink order and I asked for a recommendation which I ordered. Then I noticed that the table we were sat in did not have the tray with the expandable hand towels, so me and my boy friend had to snatch it from the table next to us. Once I looked at the menu and realized that the menu on the website was completely different, I ordered something completely different than what I came in for. I ordered the Tuna Tiradito and honestly I've had this dish before in other restaurants, and this felt like it was just thawed making it taste so bland. I wouldn't mind it have it not been for the price point of $27, it isn't an inexpensive dish for it to be so underwhelming. Once the tuna app was served I had to ask the server to pour hot water on the expanding hand towel because she failed to do that upon entry. The drinks... oh the drinks. I ordered one cocktail and one mocktail. The cocktail was 85% ice and 15% tequila and basil, for the price point of $20 ish dollars it was so not worth it. The mocktail was chicha morada, and honestly it was so watered down honestly tasted like dirty purple corn water, it had no fruit which is how its usually supposed to be served, so disappointing AGAIN. I can get higher quality chicha morada for $5 , when this "mocktail" was $12. I was so upset with the experience so far that I just prayed that the Sushi I ordered would save the meal and thank goodness it did. I ordered the "Tropical Sen Sakana" and honestly it was great, it definitely needed some soy sauce but it was good, tasted high quality and actually worth the price. Side note, the server was completely clueless about the food menu when I asked about some dishes, and steps of service. I am a server myself so I know what to expect and I was disappointed at that also. In conclusion, Service 3/10, Food 2/10, Ambiance 9/10. I definitely would not recommend this place to anyone, the price point is way to high for the service and quality of its food and taste. I surely won't be coming back either, but it was a learning experience. This place has so much potential and its so unfortunate that such a beautiful restaurant with a great location is...

Very interesting concept, and it's a very special ambiance for kosher food. Apparently the owner is Jewish and converted it to Kosher back in August 2021. They have a very professional staff and a nice cocktail menu.

In terms of drinks, I had the gingersnap, which is bourbon, dark rum, gingerbread syrup and amaretto. I also had the Negroni San, which is kinobi gin, fog liquor, sake, honey bitters. They were strong and balanced. Ideally they would stock themselves with some additional craft beer like IPAs or sours considering the location in midtown. Honestly we probably should have tried the sake because I'm sure it was great.

For starters, we had the dumplings, miso eggplant (really good texture and flavor), and a bunch of random sushi rolls. I'm pretty picky about sushi and honestly for $27 I didn't find anything that special about these rolls. Each one seemingly had a random ingredient that felt like it threw the roll off. The bagel roll had something crunchy (asparagus?), and the Hamachi roll tasted like it had olives in it, and there was no integrated sauce or tempura. Also, the crunchy rice wasn't done right, wish it was split into 6 pieces with fish on top so people could share it - this one was two massive crunchy rice balls and the fish and sauce on the side, so it was awkward trying to split. After recently going to Lure fishbar and Catch, these rolls didn't impress me. However, everything was very fresh, and service was fast. In terms of apps, I'd take a look at Wall Street Grill's crunchy saucy chicken appetizers.

For the mains, I tried the "cheese" burger which had some great sauces, but the burger itself felt dense. Same thing with the steak, but that was probably because it was ordered medium well. The other mains were pretty good.

For dessert we got the carrot cake and the churros and both were excellent and came with some really good non dairy ice cream.

All in all, there is tremendous potential here. The location is far better than Reserve and Wall St Grill downtown. However, stacked up against them, I wouldn't say the food is as good. I'd say it's comparable and potentially less expensive (we paid $150 per person versus $200 per person there), and note gratuity...