megu; a restaurant week pick to skip

There are certain restaurants I would never go during Restaurant Week for many reasons.  I don’t like to fight with the twenty bajillion more people who are trying to get a cheaper meal, and certain big restaurants are always skimping out with the RW menu.  I already planned on going to Megu to try one of their tasting menus, but Jess convinced me to come for dinner with her for RW here.  We went to the Downtown/Tribeca location.  The upstairs is a bar and the dining room is downstairs with an iced buddha sculpture situated in the middle.  The atmosphere is low key and very chic with high back leather chairs and spacious booths.

the japanese flag/ inside the downstairs dining room/ the bar

I got the appetizer with… guess what?  FOIE GRAS!  Not only did it have foie gras, it had KOBE!!  haha  How can a combo of the two possibly taste bad??  I got a crispy green asparagus with “okaki batter fry” and a crispy croquette of foie gras and kobe beef.  I found the asparagus batter to be too oily and the actual aparagus was dry and lacked flavor.  I didn’t taste any foie gras in the croquette and the tast of the beef is just too overwhelming.  It didn’t even taste like kobe, I was quite disappointed.  I did like the presentation and concept of the croquette though.  I love when there are foods inside stuff, it’s like finding a food treasure.

 

 For my entree, I ate my possibly favorite Japanese entree, the silver cod grilled with yuan” miso.  The accompanying palate cleanser in the teac up is a mint soaked cherry.  This was the tiniest piece of fish an the texture of the silver code is definitely not as silky smooth as the black cod [duh].  I’m always trying the miso cod at various Japanese restaurants and to my tastes, many has come up short.  This is one of them.  I would’ve liked for there to be more of a miso glaze; this one was more basted in miso then grilled which made it a bit drier.  Also, this was the tiniest portion- probably 5 small bites at most. 

I wanted to try some of their sushi so Jess and I split their signature spicy tuna roll.  It came in a marble slab and each portion is much heartier in proportion to anything on the RW menu.  The tuna was fresh and abundant an mixed with their own medley of spices and scallions and such.  It costs $15, which is the most I have ever paid for a spicy tuna roll anywhere, but it was good- I don’t know about $15 good, but it was good.  I’d order it again if I was here. 

The dessert was the highlight of the RW menu, it was a green tea crepe in cake form.  There were about 20 layers an each layer is filled with creamy green tea paste.  I personally had fun eating this layer by layer, savoring each bite as I went.  Thus, I’ve come to the conclusion that Megu is possibly worth it a la carte.  I would give them one more try before writing them off my book.  I want to believe that the Restaurant Week menu does not reflect they serve on a daily basis.