Among Japanese restaurants in Manhattan, Omen is not typical. It is not the celeb-studded, salary-draining, highly publicized empire akin to Nobu or Megu. It is not a prized sushi gem like Blue Ribbon or Jewel Bako. And, god forbid, it is far from the cookie-cutter sushi joints that have popped up everywhere in the tri-state area in the past five years. In fact, Omen barely serves any sushi at all.
What it does serve is authentic Japanese cuisine in the Kyoto style. While sushi has taken the U.S. by storm, in Japan it is hardly served in restaurants. Instead, there is steamed acord squash with tofu, tuna steak with ginger, cold broiled chicken, and those all-important big fat soba noodles.
From the outside, the Soho restaurant appeared to be tiny. The interior, however, is spacious in that it stretches far back, possibly to the other side of the street. The very Zen interior is complete with high-hanging bulbous paper lamps.
We sat at the bar and were quickly given steaming hot hand towels. The menu, printed book-style with hand-written English and Japanese, includes four different tasting menus (seasonal, steak, sashmi, and deluxe sashmi) as well as a la carte choices. The tasting menus are very similar, all composing for 7 or 8 small to medium sized courses, with the difference lying in the main entree.
I opted for the regular sashimi menu and it was more than enough food. The first courses, or light appetizers, included little squres of daikon, strips of very fresh red snapper, and a small shrimp salad and seaweed salad. Next came cold broiled eggplant, melon, and chicken in a light soy sauce. The chicken, though just slightly cooked and season, was incredibly flavorful. A dish of broiled eel followed. Though described on the menu as simply "broiled eel," it turned out to be a large square eveloping steamed tofu and bits of seaweed, like a pouch. For someone who has rarely had eel without soy sauce and not accompanying rice, this was definately a real treat.
The main course consisted of the freshest tuna, yellowtail, and I have ever tasted. Three pieces of each of the fish, plus all the courses before, was very filling at this point. But there were still the noodles to go. The miso soup for the noodles were presented first, in a bowl. Next, a box of sesame seeds to add into the soup yourself. Then a box of warm noodles bathing in their own clear broth. And finally a separate box with scallions, spinach, and slivers of garlic and onion. With these ingredients you fix the noodles to your liking.
For dessert, we got the full menu to choose from. The "mango and blueberries with purple syrup from the Aso National Forest" sounded exotic and tempting, but I opted for mochi balls wrapped in a thick layer of azuki bean paste. A better dessert was the grean tea ice cream with Azuki syrup, complete with the beans. You know how most green tea ice cream served in Asian restaurants is just Americanized ice cream with tea flavoring? The dessert at Omen is made from tea leaves, rendering it almost brown in color with a very earthy taste. It was wonderful.
Omen
113 Thompson Street (btwn Prince and Spring), Soho
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