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“Asiate”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Asian	Upper West Side	Break the Bank	Great

ASIATE

I lunched at Asiate this week…wait, I just want to interject here and say that I love using nouns as verbs…as in “I summered in Bora Bora,” “Darling, yesterday I lunched in Milan,” or “Of course I would only winter in Aspen.” You know, it must be so nice to be able to use nouns as verbs on a regular basis, but alas, it is so very not my life. Nonetheless, it is fun to pretend to be a noun-verber here in this virtual world of my blog. So, anyway, as I was saying, I lunched at Asiate this week. Asiate is chef Noriyuki Sugi’s elegant, white-washed restaurant at the newly opened Mandarin Oriental Hotel, just next to the Time Warner Mall. My friend Jackie was visiting from London and wanted to have lunch somewhere fabulous. Asiate was an easy pick, especially because I have been trying to get in at night and cannot seem to snag a table. (Apparently I am not as important as I’d like to think I am). Lunch was the perfect choice. We were there on a bright, crisp day, and were seated promptly at a roomy four top in the center of the dining room (next to Jerry Stiller).

Once seated (and you've had a chance to take in who is seated around you), your gaze is magnetically drawn forward to the view, and on a clear day like the one we had, it feels like the big blue sky will plop right into your lap through the wall of soaring windows. Indeed, Asiate is a beautiful place to dine. Sleek, urbane and sophisticated, it feels vast and intimate at the same time, a nice balance in design that is hard to achieve. The tables are well spaced (and set with stunning flatware and fresh flowers), and the acoustics are state-of-the-art, so you are not drowned out by the din of others’ conversations. This is place where you can relax and actually hear your dining companion speak. (Whether or not you listen, is up to you.)

Now, onto the food. It was inspired at times, slightly odd at others, but apparently all that inspiration and bit of oddness takes a good bit of time. The kitchen is slow in getting the food out of the frying pan on onto the individually signed square slabs of sea-blue glass that act as plates. We waited a good 20 minutes for our appetizers to arrive, and spent about 25 minutes holding out for our second courses. Apparently people have three hours to spend at lunch at Asiate. So take that into account when making your plans. But while the kitchen is sluggish, the waiters are attentive and knowledgeable, answering all sorts of que ... [more, click below]

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Posted: February 19, 2004

Other restaurants in Upper West Side :
+ 'Cesca   + Asiate   + Blue Hill Stone Barns   + Per Se   + The Neptune Room   + Spigolo   + Telepan   + Aix Brasserie   + 'Cesca   + Bar Boulud   + Dovetail   + BarBao   + Dinosaur Bar-be-Que   + Kefi   + Bar Luna   + Ed's Chowder House   + Red Rooster, by Rachel Barbarotta   + Loi by Dara Pollak   

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