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 questions about the unusual ingredients on the menu with ease, a quality that many restaurants have failed to instill in their servers. (In my humble opinion, a well-trained and attentive staff can undue errors of a faulty kitchen any day of the week. If you need help, please visit http://www.beatricesteinconsulting.com and get yourself one of the best restaurant consultants and service professionals in the business to help clean up your mess. You will reap the benefits in numbers in no time.)

While waiting for our first courses, we were presented with a small plate of gougeres, which I thought was a bit strange in an Asian-inspired restaurant, but once I popped one in my mouth, I got the connection. These are not your average cheese-puffs; these are Japanese gougeres, and they are coated nori. And while seaweed-dusted pastry puffs are not something I plan on keeping by the couch for mindless snacking, they did wake up my palate—the precise point of an amuse bouche.

With the food nowhere in sight, we sipped our sake and chatted and then got quiet and tried to listen in on Jerry Stiller’s conversation (couldn’t here a thing) and then chatted some more. After twenty minutes or so (I was now on glass number two of sake), our appetizers arrived. The crab salad with green mango and pomelo vinaigrette was artistically plated, resembling a trio of pink Tepees. The crabmeat (sweet succulent and pulled into shreds) was piled up in three little hills, each topped with a sheer circle of shaved green mango draped over the top transforming the crab hills into miniature Teepees. The Teepees were topped with pomegranate seeds and a pomelo vinaigrette ($15) that was quite sweet, and without the acid balance that I would have expected from a pomelo. The dish, for my taste, was too monochromatic—all the flavors hit the sweet notes, and without acid, or any sort of spice, it fell flat. The dish needs a contrast to bring it to life.

But Jackie liked it, and so I pushed it over her way (I am so kind), and started in on her gorgeous arctic char—a pair of bright pink medallions of supple fish, topped with what looked like a shimmering mound of ivory caviar, but was a very fine dice of daikon, called daikon oroshi. The char was set in a vibrant puddle of green chili vinaigrette ($14). The dish was a knockout, and it demonstrated that the chef knows how to offer brilliant contrast on the plate.

Course number two was the Saikyo Taki Cod with mushroom and seaweed salad ($27), a moist and silky black cod filet, in a caramelized miso glaze that tasted like a candy coating. Again, it was a little too sweet for me, but the fish was cooked perfectly, sliding off into glossy pieces under the slightest pressure of the fork.

We also shared the grilled prawns, cooked en papillote with house made pasta in a shellfish XO sauce ($14). It arrived at the table like a giant present, a big poof of paper synched closed, with a tall paper frill extending up out of the top. A waiter came over with scissors and clipped off the paper frill top and unfurled the paper pouch, letting the aromatic steam rise up to tickle my nose, and revealing three fat prawns (heads were off, for all you squeamish eaters), in a shallow slick of delicious XO sauce (an intense bouillabaisse-like fish sauce) and a tangle of roughly cut handmade noodles. The shrimp were magnificent, the sauce was infused with the rich flavors of the sea, and soon both were all gone. I loved it.

All in all, Asiate is a stunning and exciting addition to the dining scene with a talented and imaginative chef. While some of the plates were too sweet for my taste, I am looking forward to returning for dinner to taste two dishes—the duck confit with seared foie gras in Peking duck broth and suckling pig with pig trotter croquette and pig cheek confit. Stay tuned. Lunch is $25 for two course, $35 for three, or a la carte. Asiate is at 80 Columbus Circle, at 60th Street, 35th Floor, 212-805-8881.

Andrea Strong