Restaurant Review: Koi NYC

[rating:5]

Koi Restaurant on Foodio54

So I was on my way home from my mom’s early birthday celebration. As I rode the train I felt hungry and I had a craving for sushi, I wanted it right then! So I jumped off the train at 42nd street, took out my Urbanspoon app and began my search for Japanese food in the area. I found a few places in the area, tried calling them up and no one answered, then Koi caught my attention. Before walking over I phoned up the place and was greeted by a nice, friendly voice. I inquired about walk ins, she said she could accommodate me by myself at the sushi bar. So I walked over.

From the outside you can see its part of the same location as a hotel, if you go to the bathroom you’ll also see that it connects the Cellar Bar which looks pretty cool! The exterior and interior of this spot looks very fancy and I felt slightly intimidated just walking in off the street in sneakers, an untucked shirt, and with an overall appearance of just chilling. The young lady from the phone greeted me and told me not to worry, that my attire was perfectly fine.

She led me to the sushi bar and I thanked her while handing her my NYCTalking card for “whoever was in charge”. LOL. Shortly after I sat a gentleman came over to take my drink order, water and ginger ale my good man. We then discussed the dishes that interested me, he was helpful and even suggested I try an alternate dish because he felt I was ordering too much for one person. That’s nice of him.

As I sat waiting on my food, I saw a man with a walkie talkie providing direction to the bus boys and wait staff. He was like an air traffic controller for the restaurant, “ok, table 15 is ready, go. Table 15. Table 42 finishing apps, 10 minutes, 10 minutes.” Pretty cool.

I ordered a calamari salad, the crispy rice signature dish, a king crab roll, and the Chilean Sea bass. I can never pass up on Chilean sea bass, it’s a favorite of mine.

So I started with the calamari salad. This dish was delish, it was a little spicy but in a good way. The salad tasted fresh and the calamari was not oily or greasy, it was all very flavorful and delicious.

Next came the Crunchy rice with tuna. The spicy tuna was soft and tasty, it was sort of like a ground up tuna. The rice was crispy and salty, a little too salty towards the edges for someone with high blood pressure like me, but not enough to cause a migraine headache or otherwise make me sick. I think the levels are just right for a normal person. This is one of their signature dishes and it was very good.

I had the king crab roll, the biggest thing that comes to mind here is freshness. This crab tasted fresh, as if it just came out of the water, in fact, who know? Maybe it did! If you like crab, give this a go, it’s a great roll!

The Chilean Sea bass as expected was very buttery and yummy. It comes in a broth with tomatoes and mushrooms, if you are not proficient with the chopsticks, I recommend you use a fork or spoon for this one as the items in here are a bit hard to fish out. This was also a very good dish, the sea bass portion was decent, the accompanying items seemed like enough, but bare in mind I had eaten quite a bit before this.

The service here, the decor, the ambiance, everything about this place was excellent. Definitely a good place to hit up if you are in the 42nd street, Bryant Park area. Let me tell you this though, it’s not cheap at all. I spent a hell of a lot more than I set out to spend. So if you are coming to eat here with someone, and you are shelling out the dough, bare in mind that you will be spending a pretty penny. By the way, one of the servers offered me a spoon. “Hey, you need a spoon or a fork”, ugh.. The nerve of the guy! I’m a master of the chopsticks! LOL.

Koi on Urbanspoon

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