Domo Arigato Mr. Robata

A new restaurant recently opened across the street from my office, right next to the strip club.  The fact that you could easily walk into Flashdancers by mistake should not discourage you from trying Mr. Robata.  The sushi is supposed to be wonderful since the restaurant is the work of a Sushi Yasuda protege; however, I decided to go with the robata.  I figured it was worth trying since it's part of the restaurant name.

We started with edamame for the table that I would highly recommend for edamame lovers.  Edamame is always good to munch on if other people want to order it, but this was better than normal - it was grilled after it had been boiled, so it had a nice smokey char and a cajun-type spice.  For my entree, I had the seafood set, which included salmon, yellowtail, shrimp, onion, and asparagus - all prepared on the robata charcoal grill.  Everything was grilled perfectly and came with five different dipping sauces (my favorite!). I can't remember all the dips, but I recall there was a wasabi cream, a very tasty passionfruit ponzu, and a teriyaki ginger.  At first I thought $26 was rather expensive, but it came with a particularly good salad (the fennel made it stand out) and miso soup.  If I had gone out for sushi, I would have easily spent that much.  It may be a lot for lunch, but a great place to keep in mind for dinner since it's slim pickins in the Theater District...unless you still want to hit up Flashdancers.  Hey, I heard they make some mean chicken fingers.