Matsugen
The other night while walking past the old Restaurant 66 building I noticed it had been transformed into a new Japanese place called Matsugen. Google revealed it to be yet another Jean George establishment…a hit or miss history for me…..I called to make a reservation….3 people at 830?….oh no sorry…we can do two people at that time….fine I will take it.
We arrived about 15 min before our reservation and were seated right away…..kinda amazing, since most places that tell you on the phone they are to busy to seat three…are busy!…..but what ever…..We were seated in almost the exact same table we had sat at when it was in its Chinese phase…..in fact looking around the space..and the empty tables…it looked exactly the same…..hmmm…close one place, change the menu….magic, its a new restaurant!….unfortunately the magic stopped there.
First…the wait staff wasn’t Japanese, which is odd but ok…..we ordered a bottle of cold Sake….we got a bottle of room temperature Sake…I had to ask for a rocks glass with ice. No biggie, but if you are offering COLD anything it should be cold. First up..homemade Tofu..(it was good).. Next we ordered a 16 piece sashimi plate with NO TUNA.. and a plate of cod fish and pork bellies. The sashimi plate arrived but on the way from the kitchen to the table it transformed into an 8 piece sushi plate with two eel rolls….AND…..TUNA! We questioned the waiter who apologized and said there was a mix up, and also said the two eel rolls were INCLUDED in the dish…?….anyway…..the second half of our 16 piece sashimi plate arrived….AND….it had TUNA on it!…wow…what a stupid place…..thankgod we were drinking our room temperature sake and could at least laugh while saying we would never come here again. The next course arrived and my Cod Fish was good, but my friends Pork Belly, to him, was cooked wrong, and not in the Japanese Style he is used to..(he is from Japan)…he felt it should just fall apart on the plate and his was mussy….he didn’t finish his. We said no to desert after hearing the table next to ours complain to themselves about it. The waiter brought the check…..which was WRONG!…OMG…..funny……they had a 90 dollar charge for two Sushi plates..(remember we ordered one 16 piece sashimi) …and the Two Eel Rolls…….the ones we didnt order were on the bill. ….so an extra 40 dollar charge on the bill…..which of course they took off and gave us the Cod Fish on the house.
All in all a terrible dining experience. The neighboorhood is full of great Japanese places and I can see this place going the way of “66″ unless they somehow get it together. Everydish we had you can get better else where. I give it no LIPS.
Rita
