So the other night I sitting on my
couch with absolutely nothing to do. I was clicking through websites
and came across an article on Gothamist. It said Blue Ribbon Sushi
Izakaya was doing a brunch buffet. I'd never heard of this
particular iteration of Blue Ribbon, but everything else I know of
from those folks has been excellent. No reason to expect anything
less. And a brunch buffet...that's the dream right there.
Especially with chopsticks, we've already seen how much I enjoyed
having brunch with chopsticks from my review on Talde a couple of
weeks ago.
Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya is tucked
away on Orchard Street off of Houston, around the corner from Katz
Deli. (Doreen and I gave some real thought on the way to brunch to
stopping in Katz to get sandwiches to go. We were so thoroughly
defeated by the brunch buffet that it just wasn't possible to look at
any more food.) Dor and I came strolling up Orchard chatting when
Blake snuck up on us like a giant Kurgan shaped ninja and scared the
crap out of us. He and Paula were waiting in a bar next door to our
destination. Now that our party was all together, it was time to
experience our Asian brunch adventure.
The hostess greeted us very pleasantly
and seated us right away. The table they sat the four of us at was
just slightly small. Blake and I are large folk (hence
Kurgan-shaped) and need a wee bit more room. I guess they're used
to more normal sized people there. They did take a lil while to get
around to taking our orders and they could've been a bit quicker
about clearing plates. Outside of that they were excellent. Quick
to bring more water. The food from the kitchen came out quickly.
Our hostess and the waiters were very nice.
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We started out with Bloody Marys all
around. But these weren't any Bloody Marys. The Blue Ribbon Sushi
Izakaya version of Bloody Marys come in separate components. The
Mary mix comes in little carafes. A chili pepper spice mix and extra
horseradish come on little plates. Giant olives come for garnish.
And the vodka comes in a big clay pot with a spigot. After the
hostess makes the initial pour, you can make more for yourself as you
go. Which we did. The menu says this is service for 2-6. There's
absolutely no way 2 people can do this. There were 4 of us and we
left vodka in the pot. I loved that clay pot. I wanted that clay
pot. When a busboy walked by bringing some of those clay pots into
the kitchen I very nearly tackled the poor bastard, grabbed one of
those pots and ran down the steps and out the door. Blake, Paula,
Dor...you might not have known I had that thought, hell I even
flinched in that direction, but it definitely ran through my mind.
There are 2 choices for brunch. You
can get just the buffet or you can get the buffet along with kitchen
food. As you can already guess, we went with both. And you'd best
believe we took full advantage of the “order until you bust”
clause in our culinary contract. When we ordered our food from the
kitchen and the hostess told us “not to worry, we can always order
more” you could have seen Blake and my eyes from Midtown they got
so big. Putting people like us in an all-you-can-eat setting is much
like setting 6-year-olds loose in Toys R Us with an unlimited budget.
The buffet had mini bagels and cream cheese (although none of us
tried them), sliced charcuterie, cheeses, 4 different kinds of sushi
rolls, granola and fruits (we didn't try this either, WAY too healthy
for us today), roast turkey breast, HUGE peel and eat shrimp with
cocktail sauce, a nice assortment of danish and croissant and
fantastic tiny brownies. The spicy crab roll was excellent. I
easily put down 8 or 10 pieces. The shrimp were monstrous and good
but the cocktail sauce needed some help, thankfully our Bloody Mary
kit came with extra horseradish. Making tiny ham and Brie sandwiches
with grainy mustard was fun. The turkey was pretty good. The
chocolate danish was fantastic and I would kill for one of them right
now. The little brownie bites were amazing. I didn't make a trip to
that brunch spread that didn't end with at least 2 of those little
brownies on my plate.
From the kitchen we ordered oxtail and
bone marrow hash with a perfectly poached egg on top. It was the
best thing I ate there, and that's saying something because
everything we ate was pretty damn good. Just excellent...I really
want more. There was a cheesy rice and crabmeat scramble. That was
an interesting dish. Richer than it sounds. I love the combination
of crabmeat and eggs. We also had some fried chicken wings with
wasabi honey. I think wasabi honey could become my new favorite
breakfasty condiment. The wings were crispy and the chicken tender.
The chicken and pancake was really good too. I was really surprised
at just how good the pancake was. Very light but solid. Tasted
amazing dipped in the wasabi honey. After another round of buffet
fare we ordered some more stuff from the kitchen. This time we tried
the French toast which was good but not spectacular. It was kind of
generic Challah French toast. In retrospect, I wish we'd have had
some more of that honey left for that too. Lastly we tried chicken
sausage, biscuits and gravy. The sausage and gravy were really tasty
and not nearly as rich as it normally would be. The biscuits were
dense but not in a bad way. It was an original and familiar dish at
the same time. Quite a feat actually.
Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya
187 Orchard Street
New York, NY, 10002
212-466-0404
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