One good thing that has come out of the economic crises is the extended Restaurant Week for the entire month of February. I am a big fan of this event. In an attempt to make the most of it, ML and I have decided to try and take advantage of this extended period to try a few restaurants we’d probably never go to usually.

A few weeks ago we tried out Megu for dinner, a popular Japanese restaurant in TriBeCa. Having had to wait an extra 25 minutes before being seated despite having reservations was the first thing that went wrong. The restaurant has a pretty cool layout, the upstairs part is a bar with a clash of japanese pop culture and traditional culture (bright graffiti contrasting with a wall covered with silk tapestries). The downstairs is the dining room with a more traditional Japanese vibe to it. In the center sits a giant glass Buddha (over 20ft all) statue. Our meal started with a couple pieces of sushi, compliments of the chef. This was by far the best part of the meal. The sushi was extremely fresh and just melted in your mouth. We both ordered the Kobe beef for entrees which albeit tasting great was disappointingly small in its portion. We also tried out a flight of sake pairings with our food which was neat. The sakes went from dry to sweet as the meals progressed. All in all, we were a bit dissapointed by the portions and there was nothing to write home about.

A couple weeks later, on receiving great reviews from ML’s mom, we ventured out to try Aquavit (of celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson). The first thing that hits you about the place when you walk in is how quiet it is. We could literally hear our footsteps as we were shown to our table by the host. To start, I decided to try out a flight of Aquavits. The menu had a long list of various flavors you could order ranging from mango lime chillis to coconut espresso that made it too tempting to pass up. Coconut espresso was surpsingly good. The appetizer ordered was a herring sampler (not my flickr set) that was quite good. An assoortment of herrings cooked in 4 different ways. As entrees ML ordered the salmon and I got the meatballs – both extremely well cooked at satisfying. I was pleasantly surprised to taste how good the meatballs were (half-joking expecting them to taste just like the ones you get at the IKEA cafe… I mean, how much could you improve on meatballs?). For dessert, we ordered the goat cheese which was literally a block of goat cheese in a sweet sauce… absolutely delicious. I never thought goat cheese to be dessert in and of itself. Great meal and fantastic restaurant. Would recommend giving it a shot if you are still looking for a place to try during restaurant week.