So the other day I tried to meet my friend Suzanne at a new restaurant I had heard about but that apparently was already out of business (that was fast) so we were scrambling to figure out somewhere else to go quickly on 96th Street and decided to try Miyagi’s. I had been a little jaded about the last time I went there when we could not get waited on, and hadn’t been back since. But I have always enjoyed the food, so it seemed like a good time to give it another chance.
We started with a couple of rolls—the caterpillar roll ($12) and the samba crab roll ($14). First of all, I think they were beautifully presented—and taste-wise I liked them too. The caterpillar roll was spicy tuna inside and was topped with avocado and masago. It was pretty simple, but had nice taste and texture. The spicy tuna mix here is better quality than a lot and I liked the ample avocado (one of my favorite foods). The masago (fish eggs) gave it just a tiny amount of crunch.
The samba crab roll had a bit more going on. It had fried soft shell crab and avocado inside and then salmon and a shallot sauce on top. There was a lot of texture variation with this one. The crab was crunchy and warm inside with the smooth avocado and then there were a lot of sliced shallots in the sauce on top. This one was more complicated flavors and I enjoyed them. It bordered on being a little big as far as individual pieces go, so I can’t say I preferred one strongly over the other. I would eat either one again.
When we placed our order, we also ordered a lunch special of spicy ramen to split. I have been reading about a bunch of noodle places for an upcoming trip to New York, and was tempted. I think our server forgot about them though, because we had to remind her to bring them after we had pretty much finished the sushi. The noodles were very tasty and yes, even spicy. And I was excited to find an egg down underneath them after we had eaten some of the noodles. Sadly, by this time (and I have a feeling after the time it spent waiting to be delivered), the egg was cooked pretty hard, but I enjoyed having some protein in the dish. It would be even better if it had been a bit runnier. There were some veggies in there too—mainly onions and carrots. I liked it and it would be a nice lunch dish to get by itself as well, although I was glad to have the variety with the sushi.
It was a very enjoyable lunch—all of the food was done well. I like that Miyagi’s has a fair amount of non-sushi dishes besides the typical teriyaki (which they also have). There are a lot of intriguing things on the menu. The rolls were very fresh and totally worth ordering as well. Sometimes I worry about a place doing so much, but based on the experiences I have had on this visit and in the past, they do it all fairly successfully and generally fairly consistently. I like the modern décor (my one pet peeve though is the chairs don't fit under the table so you're left to sitting far away from the table unless you're on the booth side), and other than the delay with the noodles, our service was very friendly. I am glad I got over my grudge—it’s worth going to.
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