New York - July 19, 2006

Get Wind of This

Japonais Opens

Oh, Chicago. Time and time again, New York steals its thunder and turns it into flash-flood lightning. See: skyscrapers, World’s Fairs, organized crime.

And, today, it looks like it happens with sushi, as Japonais, the mammoth Japanese joint much beloved by the Windy City, stakes its claim in a far corner of Union Square.

Designer Jeffrey Beers went for a high-gloss experience (dining room, veranda, and sushi bar filled with Lucite, red vinyl, polished woods, and hand-blown orbs).

Strangely enough, there’s not a bad seat in the house (Midwest hospitality?), so get comfortable. The menu marries French technique with simple Japanese ingredients and yields dishes like Le Quack Japonais (smoked duck with hoisin sauce and mushu wraps), artful plates of shellfish and sashimi, Kobe beef cooked on hot rocks, and filet mignon with uni butter and miso truffled potato puree.

As for New York’s continued thieving of Chicago ideas, we imagine it’ll be a breeze.

Japonais Restaurant and Lounge, 111 East 18th Street, between Park Avenue South and Irving Place (212-260-2020).

Win a Free Trip! (Well, to Virtual Survey Island — where our questions smell like coconuts and your answers feel like sunshine.) Please take DailyCandy’s Travel survey. (We’ll love you forever.)