[nihonde]

OP here. It’s funny that you mentioned Morimoto. I’ve been to two of his restaurants in NYC—Morimoto and the ramen one. They were both just OK in terms of food by Japanese standards, and the service was atrocious by Japanese standards. Our waiter at Morimoto complained to us that he had to leave so we should close out our bill. If something like this happened in any restaurant in Japan, it would be eye-popping, jaw-dropping embarrassing. It kind of proves my point that what New Yorkers fawn over as their best restaurants are, by Japanese standards, maybe a begrudging C+.

I’ve eaten in so many “Emperor has no clothes” michelin-starred restaurants at this point that I would pass for something truly brilliant but not hyped at all. For example, udon at Kendon in Fushimi Inari, or tanmen at New Tamaya in Nagoya, hanbagu from Tsumugi Kitchen in Nagoya, gyuniku from Kuroushi in Handa, or even Italian from Pepe Rosso in Sancha, Tokyo. These places will melt your brain and I doubt any of them rates above 4 on Tabelog.

In Japan, you have to go out of your way to eat bad food and get bad service. In New York, it’s an effort to find both good food and passing service, even in the Michelin ranks.

I’ll throw a bone to NYC: Marc Forgione has a damn good restaurant in Tribeca, and Sole di Capri (also Tribeca) is amazing and under the radar.