When Virginia first mentioned getting dinner at Koi Soho, I was a bit hesitant. Not because I don't trust her judgement but I usually steer away of restaurants that are attached to hotels (this one is attached to the Trump SoHo) and chain restaurants (there are several locations of Koi around the world including LA and Vegas). But Virgina was craving their crispy rice dish and I had never been, so what the heck?
It's kind of located in their weird part of the city that is not quite Soho, Tribeca or the Village. It's pretty much right near the Holland Tunnel but it's close enough to the subway that it's not totally hard to get to. It's definitely got more of a Trump feel than a sushi feel to it - it feels more like a high end dining restaurant with little to no Japanese influence. Luckily the menu is much more Japanese but it's still not super traditional. We ordered a ton of food to split between the two of us: Koi crispy rice ($16), rock shrimp tempura ($18), glazed string beans ($9), double tuna roll ($22), spicy scallop ($11), one more roll which unfortunately is escaping my memory right now and several pieces of sashimi including tuna, salmon and we had asked for amberjack but they unfortunately ran out of it. It was a bit annoying that they told us they had it and then when our order came out, our waiter just mentioned they ran out and that was it. It would have been nice of him to have checked with the sushi bar before offering it up to us as an option and/or given us the opportunity to order something else instead of just not bringing it.
The famous crispy rice came out first and it's rice that has been flash fried on the bottom and then topped with tuna tartare (or you can get yellowtail tartare). As Virginia said, it's like crack - incredibly addictive and delicious. There's something about the crispy crunchy rice mixed with delicious raw tuna that just really hits the spot. There might have been a bit too much rice on the bottom but overall it was a tasty bite of heaven. I moved on to the rock shrimp tempura and it was wonderful. Rock shrimp tempura is one of my favorite types of tempura and this one did not disappoint. The tempura outside was nice and crispy and the shrimp was firm but sweet on the inside. I could have eaten this dish all day.
Next I moved on to the sushi and sashimi. The sashimi pieces were all spot on - fresh and clean tasting. I was also a huge fan of the spicy scallop roll since you can really see and taste whole large pieces of scallop in there. It wasn't the chopped up scallop but whole piece wrapped in the roll with a spot of spicy mayo on it. My favorite. The double tuna roll was a huge roll made with tuna sashimi on top of a spicy tuna roll - it was good but for $22 it didn't wow me very much. I would have rather stuck to the more basic standard rolls or gotten more sashimi at that price. We ordered the green beans in an attempt to have a vegetable dish and like all restaurant veggie dishes, it's really covered in oil and sauce anyways and takes away from most of the healthiness of the dish. I would have preferred my beans to be a bit more blanched and snappy - these were a bit overcooked for my liking.
Overall, I was impressed with experience since I came in with some doubts in my mind. It's still not the most authentic/traditional sushi experience and yes, because it's associated with the Trump Hotel the prices are definitely inflated but it wasn't any worse than some of your other similar high end trendy restaurants in New York. Total bill with tip and tax: $75/pp
Photo Credit: Yelp
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