Megu

62 Thomas St. (bxn Church and West Broadway)
212-964-7777

First of all, nothing makes you realize how much of New York you've never set foot in until you have to go to a restaurant on Thomas Street, which I was pretty sure was in Brooklyn before last night. But it was beyond worth the trip.

Look, I didn't love everything. The Frosted Grape, a sake cocktail, wasn't especially good. The tuna tartare was a little bland. The langostine shrimp were downright distasteful.

There, I've said it. Everything else was divine. The space is huge, airy and beautiful. You completely lose any sense of being in a rather desolate downtown area. The service was fantastic, right from the way they welcome new diners with a Japanese cry (I'm not sure what they said, but in my head it plays like a scene from Karate Kid: "Bansai!"), straight through to how knowledgeable our waiter was about the entire, extensive menu.

Our table of four opted for the tasting menu, which we customized by telling the waiter our price point and any particular items we were or were not keen to try (no sea urchin, please). I can't really remember everything we tasted over the course of a two hour dinner. The (very) high points: clam chowder, different from the American version with no potatoes and a thinner broth, but tremendously tasty; kobe steak tartare, which was so insanely delicious it will live in my memory forever; the most velvety sashimi with sweet soy; shrimp tempura roll, crunchy and spicy; wonderful red snapper and noodle salad. For dessert, we had a sampling of banana cream pie, chocolate ganache cake, and two kinds of crepe layer cake—one with green tea and one with chesnut cream. I'm not a fan of red bean ice cream, but it was fantastic here, smooth and delicate.

The best part, of course, was that I didn't pay for it, and should such a opportunity ever present itself again, I would be more grateful.

Grade: A+