so this is a tale of two dinners; one, at the venerable
Grand Central Oyster Bar, and the second at
Kasadela, an isakaya in the East East East Village. I guess the only things that the two dinners shared was an order of fried oysters and a similar bill in the end (food and drinks for two, $100+); otherwise, a tale of opposites.
So Grand Central Oyster Bar (GCOB) is the New York City institution that folks have been going to for almost a century and I had a wonderful meal there last year: fried oysters, oyster pan roast, oyster rockefeller, a dozen raw oysters, etc. GCOB has 4 different dining sections, a saloon-type area, an actual oyster bar where you can sit right in front of the shuckers and the namesake oyster pan roasts (an arcane cooking device that GCOB still uses), a retro formica sectional area, a regular dining room. We ate in the formica section, which is like 3 large horseshoes that you sit around, and the servers go inside the U; the seats are swivelly and the experience is fun.
This time, we ate in the main dining room and basically had the worst meal ever. Fried oysters, served room temp this time, were encased in the heaviest of batters and could've fit right at home in a typical chinese buffet. The fried clams (at least they were bellies) suffered the same fate but it might've also been the tartar sauce that they shared, a slightly off taste. We asked for a selection of oysters and were given 3 each of 4 varieties; Kumamotos from California, Rocky Passes from Alaska, Malpeques from Prince Edward Island, and Bluepoints from Lond Island; we didn't even make it to tasting all 4 because both the Kumamotos and the Rocky Passes were horrible; covered in a slick, no brine at all, incredibly greasy and fatty tasting and just overall seemed like a potential health risk so we had stop after sampling 2 each. The manager was kind enough to take them off the bill, but basically, NOT a good look for the first two courses. We had decided to share a lobster roll (hey, why not?) and ended up with an interestingly chalky jicama slaw (but it was good), kinda bad sweet potato chips, and a really boring lobster roll: toasty bun sure, but the lobster was chopped too fine and if you can believe, overpowered by the celery. All the dishes neede salt, of which large blue canisters of
sel de mer were on each table. The choice to go GCOB was because my friend and I needed a change of pace from our usual OB (
Pearl's) and figured that we should change it up. I'd say that Pearl's pretty much destroys GCOB in every category so the moral of the story is: just go to Pearl's. And, I'll take the blame, sorry R. And the worst part? I had just recommended some dishes at GCOB a few weeks ago to a colleague, when he mentioned that his girlfriend was headed there with out-of-towners; the girlfriend's report the next day was thumbs-down so that should have been the first warning, in particular since said colleague and said girlfriend have excellent palates. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
But the other meal, at Kasadela's? Completely different story. Way too east for its own good, the room was almost empty when we arrived, and absolutely packed and raucous by the time we finished with a cream caramel and green-tea-ice-cream-filled mochi. I happened upon this place while searching for the perfect non-buffalo chicken wing; not dry but wet, salty AND sweet, vaguely asian, etc. Research on
Chowhound pointed me towards this place so eastward ho. A double order of the
tebaseki (the star of the night) was followed by kobachi squash croquettes (dope), burdock chips (not dope), salmon tartare (meh), fried oysters (extra dope), eel donburi with burdock again (dope),
goma "tofu" (strange), grilled squid (meh), all downed with
nigori sake (unfiltered and yummy) and asahi dry. So the fried oysters here were done with panko crumbs and just really delicious; fresh seafood, light batter, crisp and hot from the fryer. The chicken wings did not disappoint; chicken wings fried with no batter, glazed in a very thick and deeply flavoured reduction of salt and sweet. They didn't look exactly promising when they arrived (five to an order, we ordered two so five each) since they were a bit scrawny, but really delicious flavor. Apparently these are Nagoya-style chicken wings and can also be found at
Tebaya, a takeout place in Chelsea, the next stop on our chicken wing tour (maybe next week).
So I urge you all to check out Kasadela; the servers were very attentive and sweet and the space is really nice. The meal was perfect and despite the crowded room, we felt no pressure to rush our 2-1/2 hour meal. I'll be back again, but maybe we'll just get 4 orders of
tebasaki and a few rounds of Asahi and call it a night.
