| rev:text
| - How does a new restaurant with a young, talented former sous-chef and so much potential, become so remarkably irrelevant in such a short time?
The answer is simple, actually.
When an owner/chef begins to believe that he is a rockstar, deserving of accolades and unconditional affection, but hasn't earned it, doesn't appreciate it, and worst of all- shows disdain for the very people lining his pockets every day, the writing is on the wall.
The decor- Bauhaus chic- but we've seen this before.
The waitstaff and hostess- pleasant, but fearful of their leader, barely out of diapers with a napoleonic complex
The food- good. But typical Tokyo style, nothing evolutionary or revolutionary.
The value- don't get me started. Our Chef/Owner clearly doesn't know his neighborhood or clientele. Over priced.
But how do I possibly explain our overall experience?
Jackie Lin, who was just a gleam in his parents eye when I started eating sushi, picked the wrong brother when he began his 7PM seating by teaching me a condescending lesson about how to eat my sashimi. I requested No Rice in order to respect my wife's gluten free diet. The restaurant was happy to oblige. Chef Lin must of been the last to know because he began a nervous attack on both of us, saying how he never does this, and we should have been told so, building his tiny sashimi morsels angrily and serving the full selection of omakase bites on a singular dish, unabashedly throwing it in our faces like a dog getting his morning water bowl.
My wife wanted to yell at him. I quietly asked her to allow Mr. Lin to think about his actions and make up for the poor display. But he didn't.
I actually think he believed we had never been to an omakase experience or visited a tasting menu before. The passive insults kept coming. I held it together. "Would you order pasta without the pasta?" "I carefully selected this fish to pair with my rice!" "You should have ordered the a'la carte". Lin was completely thrown off his game by our simple request. He couldn't concentrate. His final dish to us was a tuna hand roll put together in haste, devoid of flavor, garnish or effort. We had to take it out of his hand because he refused to plate it.
I think I know what Lin's problem is. He's young. Merely 31, with very little experience catering to a demographic of experienced and discerning taste. He lacks the customer skills that compatriots Mitsuhiro Kaji, Yasuhisa Ouchi and several others (we are lucky in this great city) have to handle the ferociously different and eclectic palates and array of customers that will inevitably step into his establishment.
Here's some advise, Jackie: Drop the bourgeois attitude (you're not Rob Gentile or Grant Van Gameron yet).
Learn how to smile and appreciate the $250 we just dropped for 9 pieces of sushi and a couple of vodka sodas.
Stop assuming you're the smartest guy in the room- you're just not. You haven't been on this planet long enough.
Lastly, take my word on this- and I know what I'm talking about, having seen restaurants come and go weekly in this fickle, unadulterated foody town: If you are trying to cater to the young-only, interweb generation and jetset crowd of new money and limited epicurean tastes- you are doing a great job of feeding them your kool-aid. But sooner rather than later, these same kids will be discovering sushi mastery worldwide, coming back to this fair city and realizing how one-dimensional this restaurant really is.
Either change the attitude, or lower your prices. One of these measures should help you weather the storm that is this business.
Sorry about the review- but somebody had to.
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