It's been years since I have been to Bond St. so when Richelle mentioned it for Kristin's birthday I was excited to go back. It's a perennial favorite fancy pants sushi place in the city that has a quiet and respected reputation. One quick shout out - I'm not someone who gets starstruck often, but it was kind of fun to see Cuba Gooding Jr. and Maxwell at the bar while we were waiting for our table. Despite being super busy and slightly high brow, the hostesses were remarkable flexible with our table as we were not all at the restaurant until 20 minutes after our reservation, so it was nice that they didn't give us crap for being late.
The menu here is more modern high end sushi - I don't really want to use the word "fusion" here because it's not but it's also not super traditional either. It's very much in line with a place like Koi in terms of ambience and menu. When ever my B-school friends and I meet for sushi we just go to town and order a bunch of food for all of us to share: big eye tuna tart ($24), red snapper tacos ($18), yellowtail sashimi ($18), spicy crispy shrimp ($18), braised short ribs ($18), chilean sea bass ($36), jalapeño scallop roll ($15), tuna crispy rice ($18) and the sesame crusted shrimp roll ($15). Everything was fantastic although my favorites were the spicy crispy shrimp and the chilean sea bass. The shrimp had a great tempura crunch on the outside and a delicious chipotle aioli to go with it. Deliciously addictive. It's also hard to not all in love with sea bass - this was a fairly large piece that was flaky, moist and nicely paired with the miso glaze on the side. As for the dishes I wasn't too impressed with: the red snapper tacos - it was a bit underseasoned as red snapper is generally a more mild fish and I felt like it could have used more garnishes with it. The braised short ribs were tasty but given all the focus on fish and seafood at our table, it felt a bit out of place and overly heavy.
Overall, dinner here reminded me of what's it's like to have a fun girls night out in NYC. The restaurant is sleek, sexy but not overwhelming or over the top. It's a great place to order a bunch of stuff, enjoy some cocktails and people watch. The one caveat is that it is a bit pricey, so it's not someplace that I would necessarily go to on a regular basis but it's definitely on the list for a fun night out. Total bill: $137/pp with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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