Cuisine: Japanese
Address: 188-190 2nd Avenue (@ 12th St), Manhattan
Phone: 212.260.6303
Average entrée price: $16
Best bets: Age tofu, spider roll, sushi, almost any appetizer
For the last seven years, I have eaten at Shima more than any other Japanese restaurant, without exactly realizing it. Whenever a dining companion suggests eating south of 23rd St. and north of Houston on the East Side, I often suggest Shima. If I’m downtown and don’t know where to go, I usually end up at Shima. Considering the dearth of very good Japanese restaurants in the East Village, it’s striking that about every third Japanese meal I have in New York is at Shima.
I have grown to love Shima for several reasons, most of all for the consistently tasty and simple food that emerges from the kitchen. Never fancy, the dishes are always fresh and meet expectations. The regular menu is full of traditional comforts – sukiyaki, lighter-than-usual tempura, flavorful soups with udon or soba noodles. If salmon is your thing, the sake oyako don (literally, “salmon mother and child”) is a simple, rich and savory dish of salmon sashimi and salmon roe over a bed of subtly vinegary and sweet sushi rice. The creamy-pink slices of fish are always clean-tasting and silky.
While I enjoy Shima’s entrees, I prefer to order several appetizers for the table so I can savor as many tastes as possible. The daily specials usually include at least a half dozen starters, both traditional and experimental.
Shima also has one of the best seaweed salads I’ve tasted. Two of the three kinds of seaweed come lightly dressed with sesame oil, sesame seeds and a little rice vinegar. The third is undressed with a gingery, not-too-sweet dressing on the side. The dish can easily be split or serve as a substantial starter for one diner.
Deep fried age tofu (pronounced “ah-geh-DO-fu”) is a staple appetizer at many Japanese restaurants; however it often disappoints outside of Japan. The outer shell’s intended lightness tends to get lost in translation, rendering a delectable fried tofu dish greasy and rubbery. Shima uses lovely smooth and firm tofu in a very light tempura webbing through which the white squares are allowed to peek. The whole delicious business rests in a rich and uncluttered soy-based broth. If you like tofu (and even if you think you don’t), Shima’s version is heaven in a bowl.
The crunchy spicy tuna tartare is presented as a small mound of freshly minced and spiced tuna with bits of fried tempura batter (panko) folded in to yield the crunch. Topped with a little soy sauce, the result is a simple yet textured mouthful of tuna that is impossible to eat slowly.
All of the sushi at Shima is above average, fresh and the right size. It is still trendy at some restaurants to carve pieces of sushi that resemble small steaks. Shima adheres to the Japanese custom of using pieces of fish that can be devoured in a single bite, eliminating awkward bites and ugly blobs of half-eaten rice and fish resting on one’s plate.
The servers at Shima are solicitous and helpful. When I inquire about the seasonal uni (sea urchin), I always get a straightforward “good” or “not so good.” The primarily Japanese staff smartly realizes that if a customer knows enough to ask how the uni is, he knows enough to know when it’s bad.
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1575 Lexington Ave. (@101st St.)
212.423.0255
Average entree cost: $14.00
Like a runway model at a Prada sample sale, gentrification is about to pounce on Spanish Harlem. Up-market apartments and galleries are slowly moving north of 96th Street on the East Side, and new restaurants are moving beyond the taqueria and lunch counter. At 101st and Lexington, Itzocan Bistro has quickly made a name for itself with its unusual French-Mexican fusion fare and looks to be a long-term resident in this transforming neighborhood.
"...A small warm place with great food, friendly ambiance, good service with affordable prices." These words appear on the back of Itzocan’s takeout menu. While one generally does not rely on menu copy to determine a restaurant’s worth, Itzocan indeed lives up to its own marketed image.
The menu here is as stimulating as the food. Who wouldn’t want to order ancho-chile crusted duck breast with arepas, steamed vegetables and rioja sauce, or the pumpkin and shrimp soup with chipotle crema fresca?
While somewhat oversized, appetizers are a treat at Itzocan, The duck confit and mushroom quesadilla seemed too over-the-top and unusual to pass up. My dining companion and I shared the two large and flaky flour tortillas stuffed with rich shredded duck and melted slices of mild Brie. The smoky duck mingled with the warm cheese to create a delightfully decadent entrance to the meal. There is nothing particularly sophisticated about the arrangement, but the result is undeniably delicious.
Steamed mussels with tequila, lime juice, serrano pepper and tomatoes are the perfect foil to the rich quesadilla. The mussel broth’s crisp and spicy tang manages to delight without detracting from the delicate flavor of the shellfish.
I like Itzocan’s attentive service and I never felt forgotten. But on the night I ate there, the waiter brought out the entrees mere seconds after the empty appetizer plates had been whisked away, making me feel as though it was all happening a bit too fast. My worries scattered when I tasted the pumpkin-seed-crusted red snapper with roasted zucchini and chipotle saffron sauce.
Occasionally, restaurants create truly memorable dishes, and Itzocan’s red snapper is one of them. Forget the word “crusted” for a moment because you’re probably imagining a dreadfully dry chicken breast smothered in crushed pistachios. The snapper was sprinkled with smoky, crispy pumpkin seeds that flavored the fish without overwhelming it. The two flavors, while distinct, worked together to mouth-pleasing effect.
Despite my fullness, I could not say no to the Ibarra chocolate pear tart with goat’s milk caramel sauce. Barely sweetened, this thin tart was the perfect expression of the French-Mexican aspirations of Itzocan – a traditional French dessert, woven with the complex cinnamon-chocolate flavors of Mexico.
There is always a doubt that such a bright and earnest spot will lose its folksiness and/or double its prices once it is established. Let’s hope that the friendly faces and extremely reasonable prices stay fixed at Itzocan.
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