Matsugen NY

Had lunch at Jean-Georges' Matsugen the other day. Such a huge modern space - it's a shame hardly anyone was there, which makes me wonder how long this place will last. They offer a $24 prix-fixe menu, but I didn't want to fill my stomach with miso soup and seaweed salad. So we ordered a la carte. Started with the homemade tofu and yuba (tofu skin) appetizers, both were pretty good, though you probably could get the same quality tofu for half the price in a tofu shop in Chinatown. For entrees, we had the Matsugen soba (pic above) (a soba salad mixed with yam, egg, bonito, myoga, cucumber, wasabi, okra, sesame, scallion and seaweed) and the cold soba with kamoseiro (duck soup) and a side of goma dare (sesame dipping sauce). Both dishes were pretty good. I liked the goma dare sauce - not a common soba dipping sauce. I'd like to think that I'm a soba connoisseur as I ate soba almost everyday when I lived in Japan and I've eaten at many of the soba restaurants in NYC. So when I say the soba here was pretty good, you should trust that it was. Was it so great that it's worth the $$? Well, there are plenty of other soba places in NYC that serve the same quality soba, if not better, for slightly less. Check out Soba Koh, Soba-ya, Sakagura (serving soba at lunch only), and Soba Nippon. If you're in Tribeca and are craving soba, then you won't be disappointed in Matsugen. To reserve a table: http://www.jean-georges.com/