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Another journal-esque story.
First off, I've been in Manhattan for almost a month now, if you bothered reading any of my other posts, I love this place. Been working for nearly three weeks. Hours are pretty long by Canadian standards, nearly 9-10 hours everyday. Work is interesting, they seem to trust me (so not just shitty grunt work); learning A LOT of new stuff, both technical skills and general financial knowledge. It's definitely a very positive experience.
Here comes the main course.
So, it's Restaurant Week in NYC. What's restaurant week? A little googling will tell you that it's fancy restaurants putting out special prefixed menus for a very competitive price. Lunch costs 24$ and dinner costs 35$. We are talking about really high end restaurants, so it's really a steal (or so you would think).
If you live in Toronto (or around Toronto), it's exactly like summerlicious and winterliscious. In fact, I'm almost certain that they stole it from Restaurant week. There are really famous restaurants, such as Mesa Grill (owned by Bobby Flay) and Morimoto's (owned by Morimoto), if you don't know who they are, watch more food channel. Speaking of Food Channel, it's basically all we watch (roomies and I), it's one of the few watchable channels in this house.
There was about 200 restaurants to choose from (I think...) and we chose the most expensive one (based on their normal menu) called Megu. It's registered as a Japanese restaurant. I think it's in Soho or Tribeca, w/e, not important.
So we got in, and the place was packed. We waited in the bar for a little bit, and the bar did not have any resemblance of a Japanese restaurant. It was dimly lit, with loud hip-hop music blasting in the background and base cranked as high as its menu prices. The waitresses were really hot and they were all wearing black dresses.
Waited for about 15 minutes, got drinks and finally sat down (we had reservations ahead of time, otherwise, you'd be in line for a much longer time) inside the restaurant. Just like the bar, there was absolutely nothing Japanese about it, but hell was it elegantly decorated.
We proceed to order the special menu. The appetizers came rather swiftly, but the serving portion is noticeably smaller than what you would expect, but it was definitely very tasty.
Fuck it, the entree should be good, we all thought. Then the entree came. It was literally the smallest serving possible. I ordered Kobe steak, and I got five thin slices (albeit very well cooked) of meat. By my rough estimation, it was about 1.5 inches wide, 2 inches long and 1 inch in height. That's it. What the fuck is that? Then came dessert. We were given minuscule forks, and immediately, we all knew what was coming. A fucking slice of cake not enough to feed a one-year-old.
Going by Zagat's rating system (out of 30 basically)
Taste: 22
Decor: 27
Service: 25
By far, this Megu place is the most pretentious restaurant I have ever been to. A piece of sashimi costs 15$ ...
So we paid our bills, with drinks, it came to roughly 210$ for the four of us (without tips and without the drinks we ordered at the bar), and we weren't close to being not hungry. Pretty expensive for such a small portion of food. I guess you really pay for the experience and not for the food. On our way out, which was around 9, 9:30, the place was still packed, and ppl were still trying to get it. "Not THAT good", we said out loud as we left the building.
On our way back, we grabbed some fried chicken near our house from Popeyes's, and a ton of beer from a grocery store for about 35$ (one person's meal) and ate hungrily in front of the TV. Then we thought of this commercial that we always see on TV by citibank, about a couple going out to a fancy restaurant and getting really little food, and running to a grocery store for chips and shit (you must have seen in if you live in the states?), and we laughed at ourselves for our close resemblance.
Anyway, eating at the most pretentious restaurant, check.
Good experience!
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It's funny you referenced that commercial at the end of your story because before I even got to that part I already had thought of that same commercial in my head when you said you got some chicken at Popeyes.
Thats some powerful advertising....
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Never realized how true it was until today.
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Hey, great to see you're enjoying restaurant week, although you had to resort to Popeye's hahahaha
Last time I went to a fancy restaurant I think I spent $105 on filet mignon. It was so worth it thought I think 
How long are you staying in the city, by the way?
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Until beginning of April and Popeye's was AWESOME!
I think I'm getting a lot out of it (at a decent price).
The food is definitely good, but you really can't get much out of four slices of steak...
One of my friends got fish, it's even a smaller portion than the steak. You can't even extract its flavour before it's done.
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I thought of that commercial too. Mastercard or something?
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intrigue
Washington, D.C9935 Posts
popeyes is awesome dude
great biscuits, check
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Sounds like a cool experience.
SO this Moto whatever guy is famous there no?
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United States22883 Posts
On January 26 2008 17:37 JensOfSweden wrote:
Sounds like a cool experience.
SO this Moto whatever guy is famous there no?
Morimoto owned the place called Nobu but I think he left. Nobu is your typical overpriced, American filled, fusion Japanese restaurant with a 6 month wait list.
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pffttt, let's talk about expensive dining in Las Vegas now....
Last time I went, I ate at Picasso @ Bellagio. There's a dress code to get in, reservations are required, and did I mention that it got the 5 diamond award 6 consecutive years in a row? Me and 3 other friends ended up paying 150$ each for 5-course meals. The food was pretty good, of course, small portions, and the service, excellent. I mean, as soon as your glass of water goes half empty, they refill it for you (and btw, they use imported bottled sparkling water from italy, but all higher class restaurants in vegas do).
was it worth it for me? kind of... i think everyone ought to experience what it's like to eat at outrageously-priced/high-class restaurants at least once, to experience exactly how much you're getting for what you're paying.
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United States22883 Posts
I gotta say Ruth's Chris is completely overrated. The steak is superb, but not exceptional and obviously the prices suck. Furthermore, the atmosphere completely blows and the ultra subservient waiters make you pity them.
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I think the problem was mostly that it seemed like the money was an actual issue for you while eating. If you're thinking about the bill in the back of your head and then comparing it to the size of your portions, you're really going to mess up your meal. There's also that american mentality sometimes where it's like bigger portions = better (think burgers).
Funny I had this conversation yesterday night when I went out. Ate with two of my friends at a meh/decent Japanese restaurant (avg 20$ a head). One of my friends who is really poor (he's me and the other guy's new poker student) kept complaining when we got some toro (fatty tuna, about $10 a piece at this place), and was also elated when his entree came and it was huge portions. It doesn't apply to all restaurants, but my point is that the restaurant ended up being sub-par. The sashimi that came with the entrees was cut into pieces too big (usually a bad sign) and wasn't all that great - obviously, since the sashimi was probably just some relatively cheap stuff and they don't really care about portion sizing since it's just whatever. Contrast to places that get their fish fresh imported from Japan, cut to specific portions, etc.
Ok I think I rambled too much but I think my point is that there's a certain mentality that's necessary in order to just enjoy an upper scale meal. Call it pretentious, it probably is  but eating is one of the few pleasures I take srsly so this is my 2 cents from personal observation. Needless to say, my meal last night was trashy and also ruined by the busto mentality of my student, but whatever.
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On January 26 2008 14:47 Cambium wrote:
Until beginning of April and Popeye's was AWESOME!
I think I'm getting a lot out of it (at a decent price).
The food is definitely good, but you really can't get much out of four slices of steak...
One of my friends got fish, it's even a smaller portion than the steak. You can't even extract its flavour before it's done.
Oh while we're on the topic of food do NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GO TO THE KFC AT PENN STATION.
I had no idea food could taste like trash until I went there -_____-
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EPT
