Rock-N-Sake

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There are a group of businessmen that I’m very friendly with that happen to also be investors in my fund. For the past two years we’ve spent a considerable amount of time together, because we served on the board of a small company. Unfortunately, with everything turning sour earlier this year, we all recently resigned from the board and I don’t get to see them as often as I would like.

For the past two years, one of them has been raving to me about a restaurant in Port Washington, NY (Long Island) called Rock-N-Sake. It was opened by a chef who had a successful restaurant in New Orleans, that was wiped out by hurricane Katrina.

My friend was so impressed with the food and the atmosphere at the Port Washington restaurant, that he worked with the chef to open one in Manhattan, backed by the group of investors mentioned above.

The restaurant opened recently, and is already getting rave reviews.

After one aborted attempt, I finally had the opportunity to eat there for lunch yesterday, with four of the five members of this investment group.

First, the bottom line: Wow!

Here’s a little more detail, but the Wow should suffice to get you into this place if you are remotely in the vicinity. Basically, it’s a very hip-looking place (beautifully appointed and laid out), with a very up-tempo sound and feel (including flat-panel TVs at the bar).

The food is Cajun-inspired (recall, the original was started in New Orleans) Japanese, not just sushi, but they do sushi to perfection.

I like practically everything in a good sushi place, so I decided to place my order in the hands of the guy who originally discovered this restaurant in Port Washington. He basically doubled his order to accommodate me.

First, the chef sent out a complimentary appetizer (I was, after all, with the partial owners of the place). It was noodles in a peanut and mango sauce. I won’t be able to do it justice, but I was secretly glad that two of the guys didn’t bother to taste it, so there was more for me. It was incredible.

Then another guy forced me to eat a tempura shrimp that was drizzled all over with a tangy wasabe sauce. Sometimes, you just gotta do what you gotta do, and I obliged. Superb.

The next delicacy was two skewers of cooked Tuna steak. Not little shish-kebab pieces, but reasonable-sized tuna steaks on a skewer. It was completely delectable, essentially melting in my mouth. The was followed by two square pieces of Chilean Sea Bass on skewers as well. They looked like large, square scallops. They too melted in my mouth. Fantastic.

Then came a large bowl of fish soup, another fantastic dish. That was followed by a very large crab-cake-like mixture of cooked salmon and crab. We split that. It had a hint of crispiness at the edges, but was also super delicate. The salmon and crab mixed together was another phenomenal combination.

We topped it off with a Hawaiian Roll. This is shrimp tempura, with avocado, cream cheese, mango, and one or two other goodies. Yummy.

Two of the other guys had more traiditional sushi platters. Traditional isn’t necessarily the right word, as they were varied and looked really good, but they had raw fish on them, which wasn’t the case for my meal yesterday.

Every single bite that went into my mouth was heavenly. Even though the location isn’t the most convenient for me, and even though I’m crazy about the sushi restaurant right across the street from our apartment, I will definitely do whatever I can to make it over to Rock-N-Sake whenever I possibly can.

Well done!

P.S. On the way out the door, they told me that I had to go to the restroom, if I didn’t have to go. I opened the door, and saw that there is a projection TV in the ceiling, projecting the image on the floor, oriented for the benefit of people that have to sit. A little wacky, but apparently, when a big game is on the tube at night, it’s a pretty popular feature. 😉