Uzuki — Restaurant in New York

TLDR: Tasty, no doubt about it. Unique soba-centric dishes from a soba master. Very interesting techniques and dish preparations, definitely on the pricier side. Decor is nice but the service needs a lot of work to match the price tag.

Got one bottle of sake, the main chef's favorite as per the recommendation and one gluten-free soba beer. Sake was good, very floral - typically drink Junmai Daiginjo so this was Junmai, different. I have no issue processing gluten but was curious. Tasted like an IPA, maybe not quite as hoppy but yeah mostly IPA.

Food. Three apps.

Honkuzu Soba Neri Tofu. Very interesting. Very sweet, almost a mochi-like texture. Stringy, cheese pullish texture. Wasabi and scallions were nice to help cut through it but still found the flavors a bit odd.

Red Tosaka Yuzu Salad. Basically a daikon seaweed salad with Yuzu, buckwheat sprouts to keep it on brand. Not particularly original but I enjoyed this the most out of all the apps.

Grilled Soba Miso with Rich Dashi. Very rich, a lot of different flavors. The miso was quite pungent especially after being caramelized out. Think almost doenjang or Korean fermented bean paste. Crunchy soba seeds, nutty, a bit sweet. I feel like this would pair quite well with ice cream actually.

So here's my issue with the service.

The mains were fired up earlier than I expected and while eating the appetizers. They arrived.

I had to basically pick up the seaweed salad and hold the bowl as I tried scarf it down quickly. Then my grilled miso (which was not finished yet) was already cleared and thrown into another discarded plate. I was asked if I was finished after the deed was already done. The awkardness clearly indicated I was not but alas, can't really squirt the milk back in the utters at this point. No apology, no offer to replace, etc.

The tray holding our mains then basically began to make way on the table by effectively bulldozing the drink ware along with my mobile phone across the table.

Literally just came back from Japan a week ago. I don't expect this to be a 1:1 experience to Tokyo but cwe can do better than this.

At this time, the tone of the meal is already ruined. Let's dig into the main dishes while still processing this service SNAFU.

Duck Shio Soba. Duck prepared three ways, two slices of each. Confit, Japanese style and Peking. Great, all three flavors were quite tender maybe not as distinctive as I'd have liked but enjoyable. The yuzu helped brighten up the rich overnight broth. Noodles were good but not nearly as springy or chewy as I'd hoped for. Tasty but at $42 this dish better be. This is not a particularly large portion either. I wouldn't say it's much larger than an Ichiran bowl although I'm curious to the know the gram weight.

Uni Ikura Tororo Soba. Cold dish, noodles were more pronounced on this one, these are also matcha noodles too. Uni was nice and sweet, some good larger size pieces. Soy sauce and wasabi on the side, nice salty salmon roe bubbles for pops of saltiness. The tororo (Japanese Mountain Yam) was strangely just rough chopped. As Peter C. indicated, this is typically whipped into this gooey texture that you can mix along with the dish or over rice. This was just rough-chopped (think fried rice dice), didn't taste seasoned and basically provided this starchy crunch to the dish, somewhere in between a yam and a daikon. Perhaps that's the point but I feel like there are probably other ingredients you could have accomplished this with. Enjoyable but again for $57 it damn well should be.

By this point, kind of just wanted to get out. Bottom line, would I come back? Yes, I would - the flavors and the preparation is unique enough that it warrants a revisit. That revisit though won't be any time soon, I think they need to find their footing first especially on the service. This is Michelin-quality food, at Michelin-level prices but that designation typically comes with a standard of service that I feel Uzuki...

Normally I wouldn't slam a new place, but Uzuki has hyped itself to high heavens with prices to match. For these prices, you had better deliver. This wasn't just one of those mid, expensive New York dining experiences that you leave feeling dissatisfied - this place is a train wreck.

I get the feeling they were forced to open before they were ready. They bill themselves as an omakase soba restaurant, but there is no omakase option on the menu. The bar area is unfinished and so is the area behind the main dining room.

The service is pitiful and amateurish. Not only was it obvious that some of the servers didn't know the most basic tenets of hospitality, none of them knew anything about soba, the menu or Japanese food in general. They didn't know which soba dishes were hot or cold - we got different answers from two different servers. They pronounced common Japanese menu items incorrectly. Goma ae was Goma A. When they brought my ume shio soba to the table, they pronounced it umi (which means ocean, haha), but we all thought they were saying uni. Very confusing and disappointing.

The lauded ceramics are amateurish at best, lumpy, badly finished, poorly glazed, and just plain ugly for the most part. The drink list is terrible. One terrible gluten free beer called Glutenberg and just a few sake choices - that's it. The cheapest sake is awful.

The menu is odd, for a high end soba restaurant. Arguably the best way to both highlight and enjoy high quality soba is zarusoba, where you dip chilled soba into sauce. They didn't have any zarusoba on the menu. And one of the dishes was sashimi soba, which just isn't a thing. My Japanese friend was horrified that this was on the menu.

We ordered every appetizer. Nearly all were mushy and overcooked, strangely sweet, and except for the sweetness, generally lacking any flavor including that of the primary ingredient - save for the tolerable gomaae and kinpira. We ate most of them regardless but no one touched the listless seaweed daikon salad after one bite. The soba crackers were like prison food - hard dry tasteless triskets - but these qualities made it useful for scooping up the cloying soba yakimiso. The homemade tofu also didn't get finished - everyone took a little bit and then left this sweet thing on the table. Any passable St Marks izakaya would be better for appetizers than this place.

You'd think a high end soba restaurant would take the utmost care with their extremely expensive Towari 100% buckwheat soba, but nope, all 3 of the hot sobas we ordered were mushy, with no springiness at all - possibly the worst I've had - and beyond unforgivable at the price point.

The cold matcha soba tororo actually had some texture, but the $57 (!) dish was delivered to the table without its dashi (!), and it took 3 successive humans to even understand that there was a problem. They didn't remove the dish or remake it - they brought dashi to the table and poured it in. And tororo is the name that is given to yamaimo (mountain yam) when it is whipped into a mucilaginous paste - it's a very common soba dish. But the tororo at Uzuki was served roughly chopped, completely changing the nature of the dish. It's hard to fathom the thought process behind this choice.

The room is gorgeous though. The designer did an...

Continuing on with my tradition of reviewing only places I love, Uzuki was quick to make the list and for good reason. Lets start with just walking into the space. Beautiful small pottery, a small salt pillar, and beautifully arranged objects greet you at the door, asking you to please shed whatever negativity we may knowingly or unknowingly bring with us...and for New Yorkers, that is a lot. I saw the owner at the bar making cocktails...although I have had the obsessive pleasure of watching his meditative soba making process. The space is cavernous and huge, and yet somehow still feels small and intimate. Collected objects, damaged couches, beautifully broken things decorated shelves, walls, and tables. This place felt more like an art studio and library than a restaurant...

The owner graciously walked me through his process of food making, pottery, art...it is nothing short of spiritual and it sets the tone for the meal. Every bite like every plate is intentional, surprising, and deeply thoughtful.

The service staff was so helpful and kind. They seated us a little earlier, which I know can be a hassle for restaurants (as a restaurant owner myself). They served us with a smile...courteous and kind.

Let's talk about the food for a moment. We ordered a few small plates and 3 of the soba...a dizzying array of duck arrangements that I couldn't get enough of. Their handmade tofu...OH MY GOD. I will wake up at nigh thinking of that dish. The tofu had the texture more of mochi...chewy and tender in the absolute best of ways. Bathed in a broth that I couldn't help but to try and lick out of the beautifully handmade bowl...not demure...but hey.

The uni and duck "sauce" or "curry" on top of the cucumbers was divine. Layers and layers of flavour. Savoury, decadent, refreshing, all at the same time. It was a symphony.

This didn't stop at the soba. We had a refreshing salmon and ikura cold with matcha soba and the truffle and duck curried soba...It was explosive. Subtle yet demanding. Beautiful and brut all at the same time.

This was a truly memorable experience and I highly recommend just giving into the experience. Close your eyes and take notice of the energy in the room. Take a moment to let your cares go. Slurp on some noodles and eat to your hearts content. Worth every cent and worth every bite. I couldn't have picked a better place to celebrate my friend's birthday. Thanks to Uzuki, I get to retain the title of the "guy who knows the best places"...