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Masa Restaurant Review - Food - Nairaland

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Masa Restaurant Review by PatrickBateman(m): 9:12am On Jun 20, 2015
To make a long story short, my experience last night at Masa caused me to question the integrity of both the Michelin rating system AND the New York Times (which gave Masa one of only five 'four star' restaurant reviews it awarded last year), along with my own sanity.

As for Masa's ambiance (first impressions are important, after all)- well, there isn't any. Masa is a austerely appointed and beautifully decorated with, for example, woods flown in from Japan, but the restaurant feels 'sterile,' and genuine conversation - even at a low level, even about the food, appears to be frowned upon by the staff.

The service at Masa is much like its ambiance: utterly disengaged. The staff absolutely refuses to interact with those dining in the restaurant. Every action any member of the staff takes seems to have been very carefully scripted and rehearsed, night after night. There is no room for improvisation here.

So what about the food at Masa? Well, it was very good. The fish was as fresh as it could possibly have been. The dishes were well executed, and the skill of the chef who worked with us (Chef Masa wasn't in that evening, despite his promise 'always to be in the restaurant') was obvious.

But truthfully, with the exception of the black truffle additions to two of the dishes we were served, I didn't have a single dish at Masa that I hadn't had in some equally good variation at any one of dozens of very high-quality sushi restaurants in the US that I've enjoyed and could name here, but won't.

So what separates Masa from these other establishments? So far as I can tell, only this: the cost of the meal.

At other similarly excellent sushi restaurants, including GREAT wine / sake AND friendly, excellent service, I have never paid more than $600.00 per person for dinner, including tip. That's not cheap, but for as much as I enjoyed those experiences, in my opinion, it was worth it.

Masa, on the other hand, charges $525.00 per person to enter the restaurant (they advertise $400.00, but to have all of the available dishes, it's really $525.00). Then, to your (already pricey) $1050.00 dinner for two, Masa adds a 20% 'house charge,' which you are told is NOT a tip and is NOT distributed among the workers.

Rather, it 'covers the cost of administration of the restaurant.' What's more, that 20% is calculated, not on the cost of the prix-fixe, but on the cost of the whole meal, INCLUDING cocktails and other beverages.

It doesn't take a genius to know that Masa is not selling its food, wine and other beverages 'at cost.' So what is the point of this obligatory 'house charge'? I have no idea. No one else seems to know either. All I know is this:

Because the two of us who were dining had one $25 cocktail each and a VERY nice bottle of wine to go with our meal (the wine was the best part of the meal, actually), the 'house charge' at Masa alone came to $770.00. And this is to say nothing of the gratuity.

Lest you think this review was sparked by 'buyer's remorse,' I will confess that my dinner at Masa is NOT the most expensive meal I've ever had. But there was a very significant difference between my experience at Masa and my experience at its similarly-starred colleagues:

In those establishments, I felt as if every person was working in tandem to provide me with an experience I would never forget. To much, such experiences are priceless.

At Masa, by contrast, the staff went out of its way to remind me - from the moment I made my reservation to the moment that I paid the check surrounded by persons waiting to see what kind of gratuity that I would leave - that as far as they were concerned, *I* existed to serve the establishment, and the establishment itself was working remorselessly to 'squeeze' me for every penny it could get out of me.

And what, in the end, did I get for all of this that I couldn't hadn't already had elsewhere? Only this: the dubious privilege of saying that, yes, I had dined at Masa.

No matter what you've read or heard, I can tell you definitvely that Masa is about one thing, and one thing only: exclusivity. It's about creating a space that seems conspicuously designed not to welcome persons in, but to keep 'the rabble' out. And all so that the people who CAN afford to go to Masa can feel as if they have somehow been admitted to a very special, members-only club.

I can now say that I belong to this very special 'club.' But I wish I didn't. And each time I must say I've been to Masa (I will not do so again unless specifically asked), it will be with my head hung low, in a quiet voice, as if, in saying that I have dined at Masa, I am confessing to having committed a grievous sin against all that I think the experience of fine dining can - and should - entail.
Re: Masa Restaurant Review by ironbody03(m): 10:56am On Jun 20, 2015
am here to read comment

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