Tenzan - Upper West Side

Jason and I had a movie to catch and didn't have much time to grab lunch. I thought Japanese might be a good, fast option if we stuck with things that didn't involve any cooking. We walked into Tenzan. It looked empty, but little did we know there was an upstairs. We checked with the waitress if it was possible to be in and out in a half hour and she assured us that was possible. So we plopped ourselves down at the sushi bar.

We ordered miso soups, a Double Taste Roll, Dragon Roll and Yellow Roll. The Double Taste Roll had white tuna, scallions and crunch on the inside wrapped with tuna and salmon and topped with ikura. The Dragon Roll was an eel and cucumber roll topped with avocado and smelt roe. And the Yellow Roll was a spicy, crunchy albacore and scallions roll topped with yellowtail and jalapeno. It seemed like a pretty good variety.


We sat there with our soups wondering if it was ever communicated to the sushi chefs that we were in a hurry. While we were wondering, one of the sushi chefs accidentally dropped his sushi mat, hitting Jason's soup and spilling it on him and on the floor. He apologized, but you would think they'd offer him another soup since half of it was spilled. But, they just took the bowls away.

The sushi chefs were working non-stop since we sat down, but all the rolls that went out were for other people. I even noticed them making rolls for a take out order that was placed after ours. I heard the waitress tell them fifteen minutes into it that we were in a hurry. Was that the first time she mentioned it? Did she just remember we were in a hurry when she saw us sitting there looking restless? When we had ten minutes left, Jason asked the sushi chefs if they had started on our rolls, because if they hadn't, we were going to leave. But, they were just finishing our first roll. We scarfed down the rolls in the little time we had. They hit the spot because we were hungry, but they sounded better than they tasted. The Dragon Roll was probably the best out of the three solely because the crunch that was in the other two rolls were stale. It was probably best that we didn't have much time to think about how bad the rolls really were.


We made it out in a little over half an hour only because we ate fast. For a place that's so mediocre, I'm surprised they have three locations open in the city.

The Modern, Grayz and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay

Jason and I are fans of Ramsay's TV shows, Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares. So I thought it'd be neat to make reservations to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay for Jason's birthday. Reservations are taken exactly two months in advance and a credit card is needed to hold the reservation. If you cancel without giving 24 hour notice, your credit card will be charged $150 per person. There was no way in hell we were going to miss this one!

Our reservations were at 8:30 and we had a couple of hours to kill. So we started the night off with drinks at the Modern followed by more drinks at Grayz. The bar area at the Modern wasn't what I expected. I'm not sure what it is I was expecting, but I thought I'd be more impressed with it. Jason wasn't much impressed either so we decided to head over to drink spot #2. Grayz, I thought, was beautiful. It was a huge contrast from the bar at the Modern. Grayz is warm and charming while the Modern felt a bit cold and stark. I preferred the selection of drinks at Grayz and the bar snack we had intrigued us enough that we plan on going back for dinner.

We walked over to the London, entered the hotel lobby and eventually found our way to the restaurant even though there was no signage. We were standing inside Maze when I spotted a couple walking through two big doors and figured the more formal dining area was probably through those doors. But when we approached the doors, we had to turn back because we didn't stop with the maitre d standing by the entrance to Maze. It was a little confusing and Jason was a little annoyed. A little sign wouldn't hurt.

I already knew going in that we were going to do the Menu Prestige. Jason did the wine pairing with dinner, but after hitting the two bars, there was no way I'd last through another five glasses of wine. The sommelier was helpful and recommended a nice glass of pinot noir that went will with a lot of the courses.

Here's what we feasted on that night..

Canapes. Two fried balls. One was a crispy cod fish with salmon roe and the other a mushroom.



Amuse Bouche. If my memory serves me correctly, this was an artichoke soup.



Confit foie gras with slow cooked free range chicken, truffled quail's egg, pear chutney



Sauteed Maine diver scallops with mixed spices, cauliflower puree and sherry caramel



Pan seared black cod with pig's tails, Caraquet oysters, celeriac and Perigord truffle



Loin of venison with cocoa butter, braised red cabbage, quark dumplings



Fillet of Brandt beef with braised Kobe shortrib cipollini onions, baby beets



Passion fruit cream with coconut and mint granite



Cinnamon sable with raspberry cremeux and Kilchurn Estate honeycomb



And, a selection of goodies from the bon bon cart.


The food was amazing and we enjoyed each course immensely. But even though we thoroughly enjoyed the food, we have no desire to go back. The tab came out to about $500 after tax and tip. It's a fair price to pay at a 3 Michelin star restaurant, but something about the atmosphere of the place didn't jive well with me. Some of the servers seemed a bit awkward. The room isn't all that big and there wasn't much to the decor. Across from the big entrance doors is the entrance to the kitchen with a huge exit sign glaring above it. I might have noticed it more because I was facing it. And 80% of the restaurant is covered in vertical blinds. Vertical blinds?!? Need I say more?

I don't want to take away from how great the food was. Ramsay is a talented chef, but he needs to hire another designer and do something about the space.

Smoked Salmon Benedict

I was looking for something quick, easy and some what impressive to make Jason for breakfast on his birthday and came up with smoked salmon eggs benedict. I searched online for a recipe that looked simple and came across this recipe. I skipped the last step and used parsley instead of sorrel because that's what I had on hand. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly.


This is an extremely simple recipe and I would definitely make it again. The poached eggs came out perfect. I love poking them and watching the yolk ooze all over the place. The sauce didn't come out as creamy as I had expected, but it still tasted great. I loved the shallots in the sauce. It went really well with the smoked salmon.

Breakfast was a hit. Now for the rest of his birthday...