This one?
Had it also but in my mind this is a johnny come lately and not yet a classic. Very good though.
No, but did have lobster with ponzu.
There are some very good vegetarian dishes. I particularly like the eggplant but no picture of it. I find the salads too salty and skip them.
Nah, they’ve had it since the beginning, just used to be off-menu.
Indeed. I had just never bothered to try any till I was there with a vegetarian 
Then showed up my friend with her list of favorites longer than mine 
(I do miss the old space. Which is a weird thing to say, but there it is. Did you ever go to Matsuhisa in LA? There vs nyc Nobu felt like east side Gari vs. west side.)
Thanks for the report. I intend to check this place out next time I’m forced to be in midtown.
I miss it too. When we were there last week, the lovely wife and I talked about how much we missed the old restaurant. It was just so funky with the tree like forms made from 2x4s and the river rocks embedded in the walls. It was cozy though. I also liked the bar at Next Door as I had a number of meals there when all you needed to do was wait for a seat to open up. Had lots of interesting conversations with random people I sat next to. The new downtown space feels too large, cold and blingy.
one of my clients loved sushi and after every deal he signed, wanted to try a different sushi restaurant. I’d spent three years in the derivatives salt mines consulting for a Japanese bank, so knew of a bunch of great places which flew under the radar. But at some point, he wanted nobu.
I spoke to my partners and we agreed I’d take him and our sales guy. The next day he asked if he could bring his manager, his chief of staff and a couple more people, before one could say omakase, we had 8 people.
I did what I could to control the bar bill, looked like spend was going to be in the right zip code when my client said “who wants another round of sushi?” so more sushi, more saki, and then my client said “Let’s go one more round!”. And then again. And then again. the waiter brought the bill and I felt sick. My partners weren’t happy with me, with my client but the money was spent.
The next morning, my client asked me to swing by and apologized for his behavior, he’d had a little too much to drink and realized he’d taken advantage of the situation so to make up for it, he brought on another consultant for six months, and in a week, we’d made back the dinner bill
but the real kicker was that two weeks later I went to a meeting in their nj office and took him and five of his staff to a $40 all you can eat sushi restaurant. As we were leaving, my client said "you know, I don’t know what the fuss is about nobu, this place was just as good.
More Moon Kee:
I don’t think of Nobu as a sushi place. Yes they have it but it’s certainly not the reason to go. The prepared and cooked dishes are the point. Having sushi is like ordering the fish at a steakhouse.
I have done my fair share of client entertaining there. As the client and taking the client. It’s certainly not a cheap place. I would never suggest going there if you had a budget to be mindful of since the ordering format makes it so easy to spend. The dinner for my son was obviously on my nickel and the cost would likely make many HOs question my sanity.
Yep. This.
But the out-of-town client who doesn’t know that is still, at the end of the day, the client
The low key izakayas and other japanese spots in midtown used to be fabulous. The crazy priced hidden sushi places, not as much my jam.
My favorite had-to-know japanese place was a Tokyo italian by day, underground sushi by night. Many a delicious lunch.
(Regulation made sure we couldn’t have client dinners at any expensive places, including Nobu.)
the japanese bank culture where I consulted was work until 7pm, go out for dinner/drinks, back to the office for a couple of hours of “productive” work, and then a car home. Every night.
I probably joined them a night a week, it was always the low-key, midtown izakayas you mentioned, never sushi, but many of the spots had interesting specialties. However, lunches were almost always sushi, none all too expensive.
they offered me a job, I thought long and hard what it might mean for my employer to cover our mortgage, but then the bit about gifting my vacation back to the bank led me to consider other opportunities 
did you get to chibo for okonomiyaki?
oh, we started with a bunch of their well-known dishes, but my client loved sushi. I’m sure you know, when someone is spending a healthy seven figures a year and wants to go to nobu, you take him to nobu. Still, it was a crazy expensive dinner and honestly, I had a hard time enjoying the food because the bill was getting so crazy.
In the end, when we had to visit their singapore office, he flew us first, not business, class on Singapore airlines, which at least for me, made up for the cost and stress of the nobu meal.
That used to be a decent amount of revenue for a client but these days everyone is focused on the whales. We have been firing the 7s to focus on 8s. We are all chasing the same large accounts. I think it’s a mistake but we have basically been told to focus on the top 100-150 global accounts. You got 500mm AUM and I will be your #1 dealer? Sorry I have to close you out. Sad.
Yeah, that was exactly why we were so successful, we were happy to take deals for $150k-$300k that flew under the radar of our competitors looking for whales. But we were very strong on delivery and those little deals established a beachfront that allowed to grow our presence.
We had one of the kebabs, Merg Kesar I believe, samosa tasting, Kerala Shrimp, Pepper Chicken which I normally get, and prob the butter chicken. If I recall it was mainly the curries being off this time. But the most memorable thing was Hemant pacing back and forth in the hallway leading to the kitchen for what seemed like the entire time we were there.
Sorry for the delayed response – and thanks. Yes, the food is the most important thing, but if a chef owns their business (and more importantly owns the building it’s in) they have so much more creative control.
The kebabs in my experience are still good. I’ve never hugely liked their mains, except that they do make a tasty (even if insufficiently smoky) baingan bharta. Lately I’ve often been getting to Manhattan (when I do get there) tennish. NY is still no longer as late-night a city as it was pre-2020, so I have had to find late-dinner solutions. One of them is to place a takeout order of kebabs, bharta (or okra), and a tandoori roti at Saar once my Amtrak train is close to the tunnel. If I’m lucky with the C/E it takes me 7 minutes from getting off Amtrak to Saar’s door. If I’m unlucky it can take as long as 15. Either way, I get a decent, light supper, with leftovers for lunch. (The lateness of my pickups means it’s past Hemant-pacing-time, so I was not sure if he was still around.)
We were running around today in the pouring rain. Buckets coming down. Around lunchtime we found ourselves in the West Village and I realized Via Carota was just around the corner. We headed over and fortune smiled on us. We walked in and there was no line. I asked the hostess how long for a table for 3. She pointed to the three open seats at the end of the bar and said we could sit right now if the bar was okay. Sold!
I forgot to take pictures of our apps. We had a carpaccio special, bagna cauda, and artichoke salad.
I had the grilled orata. Perfect. Moist flesh with garlicky escarole.
The lovely wife ordered a special. Chicken livers on grilled bread with scrambled eggs and bacon. I snatched some of the livers. Rosy pink in the middle.
Son had coniglio fritto. Fried rabbit. He was not in the mood to share.
The perfect refuge on a dreary wet Saturday. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a dish that wasn’t great.
By the time we finished the line was practically out the door. It was time to retrieve our umbrellas and head back out into rain.
need to get back to this place - they have great food and really good wait staff but maybe its a little too funky for michelin. Didnt check whether the bathrooms were special either. That seems to be a thing for star aspirants.
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I went to Via Carota on Friday night and enjoyed the food & wine, but a bit too much salt for my palate. Still lovely food
We had the Finocchio salad, grilled Funghi, Octopus w/ olive pesto & Tonnarelli cacio pepe. Nice Nebbiolo by the glass as well.
Last night we went to their sister restaurant I’Sodi and loved that as well!
